Class
)) Test LB31 (q. 2,3a,b)
GLOSSARY
1. shapes: forms
2. crouched: with their
bodies lowered near the
ground and their legs
and arms drawn
together
3. leaning against the
trunks: supporting
themselves against the
trees
4. clinging: holding
tightly
5. dim: weak
6. mine: explosive device
7. went off: exploded
8. shudder: tremor
9. The work: the building
of the railway
l0.withdrawn: retired
ll.gloom: darkness
l2.ctawl:. move slowly
usually on hands and
knees
13.gleam: brightness
l4.glancing: looking
quickly
15.flicker: dying light
16.Swede's ship: the pilot
of Marlowe's ship is a
Swede
l7.wonted: woollen cloth
L8. propitiatory act: an
action done to stop
someone being angry
l9.bundles: heaps
20.stared: looked with
wide open eyes
21. appalling: horrific
22. weariness: tiredness
23.all about others were
scattered: others were
sitting or lying here and
there
24.lapped: drank
25. shins: part of the leg
between the ankle and
the knee
What did Marlow discover in the shade beneath the trees?
2 Where did these people originally come from? Why had they been brought to the station?
Heart of Darkness bylosephconrad
Unseen Text Anolysis
Marlow ioumEs deeper into the iungle and witnesses how the native people are treated like
slaves.
Black shapesl crouchedz, lay, sat between the trees, leaning against the
trunks3, clinginga to the earth, half coming out, half effaced within the dims
light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair. Another mine6
on the cliff went off7, followed by a slight shudder8 of the soil under my
feet. The worke was going on. The work! And this was the place where some 5
of the helpers had withdrawnlO to die.
They were dying slowly - it was very clear. They were not enemies, they
were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now - nothing but black
shadows of disease and starvation, lylng confusedly in the greenish gloom11.
Brought from all the recesses of the coast in all the legality of time contracts, 10
lost in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food, they sickened,
became inefficient, and were then allowed to crawll2 away and rest. These
moribund shapes were free as air - and nearly as thin. I began to distinguish
the gleaml3 of eyes under the trees. Then, glancingla down, I saw a face near
my hand. The black bones reclined at full length with one shoulder against ls
the tree, and slowly the eyelids rose and the sunken eyes looked up at me,
enormous and vacant, a kind of blind, white flickerls in the depths of the
orbs, which died out slowly. The man seemed young - almost a boy - but
you know with them it's hard to tell. I found nothing else to do but to offer
him one of my good Swede's ship16's biscuits I had in my pocket. The fingers zo
closed slowly on it and held - there was no other movement and no other
glance. He had tied a bit of white worstedlT round his neck - Why? Where
did he get it? Was it a badge - an ornament - charm - a propitiatory act18?
Was there any idea at all connected with it? It looked startling round his
black neck, this bit of white thread from beyond the seas. 2s
Near the same tree two more bundlesle of acute angles sat with their legs
drawn up. One with his chin propped on his knees, stared2o at nothing, in
an intolerable and appalling2l manner: his brother phantom rested its
forehead, as if overcome with a great wearinesszz; and all about others were
scattered23 in every pose of contorted collapse, as in some picture of a 30
massacre or a pestilence. \tVhile I stood horror-struck, one of these creatures
rose to his hands and knees, and went off on all fours towards the river to
drink. He lappedza out of his hand, then sat up in the sunlight, crossing his
shinszs in fiont of him, and after a time let his woolly head fall on his
breastbone. 35
3 Why were they no longer working?

4 What did Marlow give to one of the men under the trees?

5 What was tied around the man's neck?............

6 One of the men moved as Marlow was watching. How did he move? Where did he go? What
did he do?
2+1+''

7 Find references to death and disease in the description of the native people.
5

8 Make a list of five expressions which describe the posture or movement of the blacks. Do any
of the people Marlow observes stand up straight? What do their postures and movements
suggest about their condition? 2+1+2

9 Find references in the text where Marlow refers to the black people as if they were not human.

I O One of the men Marlow observes has a woollen cloth from beyond the seos tied around his
neck. What symbolic significance may this detail have?

1 1 Does Marlow openly denounce imperialism in the passage? In your opinion does he agree
or disagree with the colonial exploitation of native people? lustify your answer by referring
to the text.

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