Chapter 1
Okonkwo was tall and huge, and his bushy eyebrows and wide nose gave him a very severe look. Okonkwo was known for his various achievements, especially in wrestling. He hated the fact that his father was a failure and so tried to do everything the opposite of his father so that nobody would see a resemblance. He had slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get his words out quickly enough, he used his fists, and he had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had no patience with his father. The kola nut is only mentioned to be served on a disk and has to be broken by the guest as an honor. It is probably not explained in detail because Achebe wants the readers to discover the customs themselves. The titles in the village signified success because the more titles a man had, the more successful and wealthy they were likely to be, just like Okonkwo.
Chapter 2
Darkness held a vague terror for these people, even the bravest among them. Children were warned not to whistle at night for fear of evil spirits. A snake was never called by its name at night, because it would hear. It was called a string. The conflict with Mbaino was started because they had murdered a daughter of Umuofia. They decided that Okonkwo should go and receive the young lad of fifteen (Ikemefuna) and a virgin as a peaceful settlement to avoid war. The purpose was to sacrifice a man of the opposing village. Okonkwo overcompensates his father’s weaknesses by being very tough and trying to be the opposite of him. He is unusual according to his culture because he would rather work on his farm rather than celebrate in the festivals. He also broke a law in the week of peace. Okonkwo feels that men have to be very dominant over women. He dislikes Nwoye because he believes he is too weak.
Chapter 3
The priestess of Agbala symbolizes the power of women. Awareness of rank is observed in the drinking of the palm wine as the men with the most titles drink it first. Share-cropping is when someone gives seeds or land to someone else to plant and part of the profit is then given the that person. Women are the ones who truly celebrated the festival of the yams.
Chapter 4
Okonkwo’s virtue was that he had risen so suddenly from great poverty and misfortune to be one of the lords of the clan. Most people were struck by Okonkwo’s brusqueness in dealing with less successful men. At early age he had achieved fame s the greatest wrestler in all the land. It is said it was not luck but that his chi or personal god was good. But the Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says his chi says yes also. Okonkwo said yes very strongly’ so his chi agreed. Okonkwo was in charge of Ikemefuna and the boy feared him. But he later became popular in Okonkwo’s household, especially with the children. Even Okonkwo himself became very fond of the boy but only inwardly. Okonkwo broke the peace in the Week of Peace and so was punished, as was the custom, by Ezeani, the priest of the earth goddess. This shows that no matter how successful or powerful a man is, the laws are still directed to him as well. Some of the customs changed of over time because Ogbuefi Ezeudu said that the punishment for breaking the Peace of Ani had become very mild in their clan. Also that people who died during this time was not buried but cast into the Evil Forest.
Chapter 5
Okonkwo felt that the feasts were for women because of fertility. Somehow Okonkwo could never become as enthusiastic over feasts as most people. It is ironic that in a female fest, Okonkwo beats his second wife and nearly shot her when she tried to escape. Ekwefy was Okonkwo’s second wife and was married with someone else until she decided to run away to Okonkwo. She likes wrestling because that was what attracted her to Okonkwo. But she is often beaten by her husband too. She is considered a rebel because she tried to run away from Okonkwo when he pointed his gun at her.
Chapter 6
Chielo was the priestess of Agbala, the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves. In ordinary life Chielo was a widow with two children. Anyone seeing Chielo in ordinary life would hardly believe she was the same person who prophesized when the spirit of Agbala was upon her. She plays a pivotal role in their culture because it is ironic how she is the priestess of Agbala in a man-ruled culture. In this culture, man is believed to be superior and Chielo is the prophet of a goddess.
Chapter 7
Nwoye was pleased when he was sent by his mother or another of his father’s wives to do difficult and masculine tasks in the home, like splitting wood, or pounding food. Okonkwo was inwardly pleased at his son’s development, and he knew it was due to Ikemefuna. Okonkwo wanted Nwoye to grow tough and capable of ruling his household when he was dead and gone to join the ancestors. He wanted his son to be a prosperous man, having enough in his barn to feed the ancestors with regular sacrifices. Also wanted him to be able to control his women-folk. Also wanted him to hear his “masculine stories of violence and bloodshed” instead of the stories he heard from his mother. When the locusts were descending on the village, everyone got very excited and joyful. Many people went out with baskets trying to catch them, but they had to wait until nightfall. Everyone filled his bags and pots with locusts and the next morning; they were roasted in clay pots and then spread in the sun until they became dry and brittle. And for maydays this rare food was eaten with solid palm-oil. Okonkwo is asked not to take part in the killing of Ikemefuna because he was like a dad to him. The y had to kill him because the Oracle of the Hills and Caves had pronounced it. Odondwo probably finished killing Ikemefuna because he wanted to get over with it quickly. He also probably did not want to appear weak to the other men.
Chapter 8
Okonkwo’s attitude toward Enzinma was that he wished she was a boy since he thought she could have been a better son than Nwoye. It may depend on how it is viewed to judge if the custom of the bridegroom’s family paying the substantial wealth in cash or goods for the privileged of marrying a young woman. It may tend to make women more valuable since the man’s family has to do everything for her, but it can also mean that women are inferior to men and so the man’s family has to do everything. Young women may have started to marry on their teens because at that time they are capable of getting pregnant. The white man was introduced by comparing him to a chalk since it is also white. They also said that they heard white men had not toes, since a white man named Amadi was a leper.
Chapter 9
Enzinma was an only child and the center of Ekwefi’s world. Very often it was Enzinma who decided what food her mother should prepare. Ekwefi even gave her such delicacies as eggs, which children were rarely allowed to eat because such food tempts them to steal. The treatment of the obanje signifies a superstition toward children, believing some are born with an evil spirit. This can mean that children are viewed as little devils.
Chapter 10
The egwugwu ceremony was one in which the spirits of the ancestors would arise. There was nine and each represented a village of the clan. Women fled as soon as the egwugwu cam in sight. The women have some suspicions that it might even be their husbands that pretend to be the spirits but don’t say anything because they are prohibited from doing so. The main function of the ceremony was to keep order in the villages. It was some sort of court. Evil Forest refutes the argument of Uzowulu by stating the fact his wife couldn’t of been unfaithful because no kind of man would sleep with a pregnant woman. In this problem, it was the brothers of Mgbafo (the wife) beat Uzowulu up and took their sister back home with them. Family involvement in marriage man be good to check on the couple and try to fix any problems. But it could also become bad because some families force their siblings to marry someone by force just because of some interest.
Chapter 11
The moral of the fable of the tortoise may be to teach the kids that in their culture cheating and lying or taking advantage of people by outsmarting them are not permitted. It may be a foreshadow that the missionaries are going to attempt to take everything in the village just as the tortoise but everyone will unite to take them out like the birds. The incident with the priestess of Agbala taking Enzinma with her shows how sometimes the people do not wish to obey the laws, even if it comes from a god. Ekwefi was warned by the priestess that she should not follow or she would experience the wrath of Agbala but Enzinma overcomes the fear of divine and decides to follow her anyway.
Chapter 12
Everybody was invited to the uri of a daughter of Obierika, who was Okonkwo’s friend. The bride’s mother was o do her difficult but happy task of cooking for a whole village with the help of Obierika’s compound. A lot of relatives arrived and expected to have a good time. Especially the men, who were anxious to drink the palm wine. All the relatives were in charge that the celebration would not go wrong – the y counted the pots of palm wine as they were brought in. When the women retired, Obierika presented kola nuts to his in-laws. His elder brother broke the first one. “Life to all of us,” he said as he broke it. “And let there be friendship between your family and ours.”
Chapter 13
The one-handed egwugwu carrying a basket full of water appeared as the people were performing the ritual. H calls on the dead Ezeudu and tells him “If you had been poor in your last life I would have asked you to be rich when you come again. But you were rich. If you had been a coward, I would have asked you to bring courage. But you were a fearless warrior. If you had died young, I would have asked you to get life. But you lived long. So I shall ask you to come again the way you came before. If you death was the death of nature, go in peace. But if a man cause it, do not allow him a moment’s rest” This seems to portray an act of revenge. When Okonkwo accidentally shot the boy in the heart everyone was shocked. Violent deaths were frequent, but nothing like that had ever happened. The only course open to Okonkwo was to flee form the clan because it was a crime against the earth goddess to kill a clansman, and a man who committed it must flee from he land and was allowed to return in seven years because it had been accidental. After he left, his houses were set on fire, his red walls were demolished, and his animals were killed and barn was destroyed. It was to clean the land, which Okonkwo had polluted with the blood of a clansman.
Chapter 14
Part 1 introduces us to the intact and functioning culture in Umuofia. It may have had its faults, and it accommodated deviants like Okonkwo with some difficulty, but it still worked as an organic whole. It is in Part 2 that things begin to fall apart (title of book). Okonkwo’s exile in Mbanta is not only a personal disaster, but it removes him from his home village at a crucial time so that he returns to a changed world which can no longer adapt to him. Okonkwo’s life had been ruled by a great passion –to become one of the lords of the can. That had been his life-spring. And he all but achieved it. Then everything had been broken. He had been cast out of his clan like a “fish onto a dry, sandy beach, panting”. The significance of Okonkwo being compared to a fish out of water may mean that Okonkwo’s possibilities of accomplishing his dream had just ran out of gasp of air and so will die. Note the value placed on premarital chastity in the engagement ceremony. In many African cultures virginity is not an absolute requirement for marriage but it is highly desirable and normally greatly enhances the value of the bride-price that may be paid. Thus families are prone to assert a good deal of authority over their unmarried daughters to prevent early love affairs. The fact that Okonkwo couldn’t answer the questions about women and especially mothers that his uncles Ucnendu asked him probably means that Okonkwo didn’t really consider women as reasonable human beings. His uncle then tells him “A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried there. And that is why we say that mother is supreme.” Pg. 134
Chapter 15
Tree white men and a great army of men surrounded the market of Abame. They must have used a powerful “medicine” to make themselves invisible until the market was full. And they began to shoot. Everybody was killed, except the old and the sick who were at home and a handful of men and women whose chi were wide awake and brought them out of that market. Their clan was then completely empty. Event he sacred fish in their mysterious lake had fled and the lake turned the color of blood. A great evil had come upon their land as the Oracle had warned. The villagers referred to the bikes the white men were using as “iron horse”. Although the people of Abame acted rashly, they had a good deal of insight into the significance of the arrival of the whites. Note how the Africans treat the white man’s language as mere noise; a mirror of how white colonizers treated African languages. Okonkwo had heard stories about white men who made the powerful guns and the strong drinks and took slaves away across the seas, but no one had thought the stories were true. In the final exchange with Okonkwo Obierika is good-naturedly refusing to accept Okonkwo’s thanks by joking with him (told him to kill one of his sons for the favor).
Chapter 16
The British followed a policy in their colonizing efforts of designation local “leaders” to administer the lower levels of their empire. In Africa these were known as “warrant chiefs.” But the man they chose wee often not the real leaders, and the British often assumed the existence of a centralized chieftainship where none existed. Thus the new power structures meshed badly with the old. Similarly the missionaries had designated as their contact man an individual who lacked the status to make his respected by his people. Nwoye probably became a Christian because his father made him feel like an outcast. As a Christian, he felt fore like himself. Note how Achibe inverts the traditional dialect humor of Europeans, which satirizes the inability of natives to speak proper English by having the missionary mangle Ibo. The first act of the missionaries which evokes a positive response in some of the Ibo was when they were fascinated when the missionaries burst into song. It was a story of brothers who lived in darkness and in fear, ignorant of the love of God. It told of now sheep out on the hills, away from the gates of God and from the tender shepherd’s care. Achebe focuses on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the notoriously least logical and most paradoxical basic belief in Christianity. The belief undermines the missionaries’ attempt to discredit the traditional religion because it claims that all religions are false except for Christianity. This new religion appeals to Nwoye because the hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his soul _ the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemifuna who was killed. He felt a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched soul.
Chapter 17
The granting of the missionaries of a plot in the Evil Forest backfires because they thought that the missionaries would not accept it and they actually did make use of it to build the church. Every clan and village had its “evil forest.” In it wee buried all those who died of the really evil deseases, like leprosy and small pox. It was also the dumping ground for the potent fetishes of great medicine men when they died. An “evil forest” was, therefore, alive with sinister forces and powers of darkness. The inhabitants of Mbanta expected them to be all dead within four days. They were puzzled when many days and not one had died. Not long, they even got their first conversts. The metaphor in the second to last sentence (Living fire begets cold, impotent ash.) means that imperialism causes the village to become impotent in a sense that they lose they identity and customs. They are also under the mercy of the white men.
Chapter 18
The outcaste osu are introduced in this chapter. Achebe had probably not mentioned them earlier to demonstrate how imperialism and the changing of customs gave great power to the church since they gained support from them. It starts with the outcastes being converted first and from then the church just keeps gaining power until it is in control of the whole village. In India the lowest outcastes were among the first to convert to faiths which challenged traditional Hinduism; and something similar happens in the story.
Chapter 19
Traditional Umuofian custom can welcome back a mistaking member (Okonkwo) once he has paid for his crime. In may cultures Okonkwo would be treated as a pariah, but this culture has ways of accommodating such a person without destroying him, and in fact encouraging him to give of his best. The final speaker says that Christianity is a threat in that it turns people from their family. “An abominable religion has settled among you. A man can now leave his father and his brothers. He can curse the gods of his fathers and his ancestors, like a hunter’s dog that suddenly goes mad and turns on his master. I fear for you; I fear for the clan.” Pg. 167
Chapter 20
Okonkwo’s relationship to the newcomers is intensified by the fact that he has a very great deal at stake in maintaining the old ways. All his hopes and dreams are rooted in the continuance of the traditional of the traditional culture. The fact that he has not bee able gradually to accustom himself to the new ways helps to explain his extreme reaction. The missionaries have brought British colonial government with them. The missionaries were often viewed as agents of imperialism. There is a common saying common to Native Americans and Africans alike which goes like this: “Before the white man came, we had the land and they had the Bible. Now we have the Bible and they have the land.” The British courts crashed some of the values of the village because people who had thrown away their twins were imprisoned and also those who had molested the Christians. They were beaten in the prison by the kotma (court messengers) and made to work every morning clearing the government compound and fetching wood for the white Commissioner and the court messengers. Some of the men that were even held as prisoners were even those who had titles, who should be above such mean occupation. They were grieved by the indignity and mourned for their neglected farms.
Chapter 21
Some of the villagers, even those who are not converts to Christianity welcome the British because although they had brought a lunatic religion, the had also built a trading store and for the first time palm-oil and kernel became things of great price, and much money flowed into Umuofia. And even in the matter of religion there was a growing feeling that there might be something in it after all, something vaguely akin to method I the overwhelming madness. It was in part of Mr. Brown convincing people that the religion got more power. After many people came to learn in his school, the people of the village began to change their mind about it since Brown’s school produced quick results. A few months in it were enough to make one a court messenger or even a court clerk. Those who stayed linger became teachers; and from Umuofia laborers went forth into the Lord’s vineyard. The missionaries try to refute what they consider worship with the simplistic argument that the animist gods are only wooden idols; however the villagers are perfectly aware that the idol is no the god in a literal sense, any more that eh sculpture of Christ on the cross in a Christian church is God. This sort of oversimplification was a constant theme of Christian arguments against traditional faiths throughout the world as the British assumed that the natives were fools pursuing childish beliefs who needed only a little enlightenment to be converted. Mr. Brown here learns better. It is worth noting that Achebe, like his fellow writer Wole Soyinka, was raised a Christian; but both rejected the faith and have preferred to affirm certain aspects of traditional beliefs in their own lives. Akunna shrewdly senses that the head of the Church is in England rather than in heaven. Note how the phrase “falling apart” is in the last sentence of the chapter.
Chapter 22
Reverend James Smith condemned openly Mr. Brown’s policy of compromise and accommodation. He saw things as black and white. And black was evil. He saw the world as a battlefield in which the children of light were locked in mortal conflict with the sons of darkness. Caused some controversy because he saw many of the of the traditional things that the people did as being very bad, like mutilating children that are thought to be possessed by the obanje. At the end of the chapter, the egwugwu spirits burn down the church that Mr. Brown had built.
Chapter 23
The commissioner claims that they wanted the clan of the village to cooperate because they had brought a peaceful administration to all of them so that they would be happy. If any man mistreated another, they would help. He says that the actions of molesting the messengers must not happen in the dominion of his queen, the most powerful ruler in the world. It can be inferred that the commissioner says that the motive of the British to colonize the Africans was to “civilize” them.
Chapter 24
Once again Okonkwo uses his machete rashly, bringing disaster to his head, killing a missionary by cutting his head off. But he could be viewed as a deviant hero defending his people’s way of life. Okonkwo used his machete once the white missionary said “The white man whose power you know too well has ordered this meeting to stop”. This could be viewed as heroic in the sense that he would not give in to the missionaries’ dominance. But it was not seen like that in his clan. Okonkwo knew right away that Umuofia would not go to war against the missionaries because they had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action. He heard voices asking: “Why did he do it?” so he then just went away.
Chapter 25
Okonkwo probably killed himself because he knew that Umuofia would not have war with the imperialists. He saw everyone as being turned to cowards compared to the time in which there were great warriors like him. He could not take the fact that his clan had refused to save themselves from the domination of the imperialists by engaging battle. He had lost hope in life and knew that he would never be able to become a successful man in a new world in which titles do not mean much anymore.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Heart of Darkness
10/17/2007
A: "Besides holding our hearts together through long periods of separation, it has the effect of making us tolerant of each other's yarns - and even convictions." Pg. 3-4
I: The narrator feels a bond with the sea. There is a connection with nature. There is a sense of peace with the sea. Can infer that the speaker went through some rough things because he says that only the sea made them tolerant of each other's yarn, can mean that they have been involved in something that may of been wrong.
A: "The day was ending in a serenity of still and exquisite brilliance. The water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light; the very mist of the Essex marsh was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooden rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds." Pg. 4
I: There is more signs of closeness and peace with nature. The way that the author uses imagery to describe a scene has much emphasis on the natural surroundings. The closeness with the sea is also being emphasized, since the men are sailing a boat.
A: "Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him - all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men." Pg.8
I: The first mentioning of savage nature. The jungle is considered savage according to the men because of the wilderness and because there is no "civilization". Marlow is telling the narrator of the story and other men about his experience when he wanted to discover places around the world and travel around. Marlow's understanding of the jungle and the people is of being savage because he sees the Africans as animals in the wild.
A: "The fascination, too, that goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination - you know, imagine growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate." Pg.8
I: Marlow recounts the story of how the Roman people were the first to settle in the regions of the wilderness in Africa. He talks about the men's concern, since at this time there was a wild and savage world in which civilized men could not find food and were stricken by disease and death. There is some sort of rising hate toward the wilderness because of its mystery and man's inferiority to it for survival.
A: "The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much." Pg. 9
I: Marlow starts to realize how the European people have discriminated and abused the people that originally live in the wilderness. Their land had been taken away from them and forced labor as a slave was enforced cruelly.
A: "Therefore he whacked the old nigger mercilessly,. . . . Pg. 13
I: Marlow tells the story of how a captain of the company he wanted to work with was killed by black villagers. The quarrel arose from a misunderstanding about some hens. Fresleven, the captain thought himself wronged in the bargain, so he went ashore and started to hammer the chief of the village with a stick. He was supposedly the gentlest, quietest creature that ever walked on two legs but Marlow was not surprised by his action. Fresleven had been engaged in a noble cause for a couple of years and probably felt the need at last of asserting his self-respect in some way. Therefore he whacked the chief while a big crowd of his people watched him thunderstruck, till some man made a tentative jab with a spear at the white man and it went quite easy between the shoulder-blades. This happening may show that no matter how noble a white person may be in this time period, they still felt superior to the black people and so thought they could do what they want.
10/18/07
A: "She talked about 'weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways,' till upon my word, she made me quite uncomfortable. I ventured to hint that the Company was run for profit." Pg. 18-19
I: Marlow was talking to the wife of dignitary of the company that was going to hire him. She explained that the labourer is worthy of his hire. The fact that this woman is in the high class gives the clue that she believes in racial and social standards in this time period. Marlow is ignorant of the situation and so says how this company only runs to make profit, no matter what had to be done, in this instance, 'weaning' the natives from their 'horrid' ways.
A: "There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives - he called them enemies! - hidden out of sight somewhere." Pg. 21
I: Marlow tells of when he was sailing and came close to a place where natives live. His ignorance is shown by the way he does not know how racist the other white men are to the natives. He does not really understand the situation. Marlow may be brainwashed to think that he is superior to the natives as well.
10/19/07
A: "A lot of people, mostly black and naked, moved about like ants." Pg. 23
I: Marlow describes the natives as looking like ants. It demonstrates how he himself, although he may not be racist describes what he sees and views the natives as animals instead of human beings.
A: "They passed me within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages." Pg. 24
I: Marlow is so ignorant about the natives' feelings that he does not understand that the natives are being abused by people that look like him. It is not that the natives would want to be dis respective, it is that they have been oppresses and abused by the white colonists. Marlow's ignorance about the situation is still apparent.
10/20/07
A: "They were dying slowly - it was clear. they were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthy now - nothing by black shadows of decease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom." Pg. 26
I: Marlow is finally presented to the conditions in which the natives are forced to live. He is greatly impacted, saying that they are almost not even human beings any more. He shows a sense of confusion as to why this is happening. Marlow's ignorance is evident.
A: "He had tied a bit of a white worsted round his neck - Why? Where did he get it? Was it a badge - an ornament - a charm - a propitiatory act? Was there any idea at all connected with it? It looked startling round his black neck, this bit of white tread from beyond the seas." Pg. 27
I: Marlow does not understand the tradition of the natives. Since he is new to this place and was used to the way that the people surrounding him dressed, he was not used to the way that the natives dressed. In this case, he did not know why a native was wearing a white necklace.
A: "When near the buildings I met a white man, in such an unexpected elegance of getup that in the first moment I took him for a sort of vision. I saw a high starched collar, white cuffs, a light alpaca jacket, snowy trousers, a clean necktie, and varnished boots. No hat. Hair parted, brushed, oiled, under a green-lined parasol held in a big white hand. H was amazing, and had a penholder in his ear."
I: After Marlow had observed all the natives suffering of weakness, when he saw this white man, he even thought he was an illusion because of the way he dressed. This shows that Marlow was so used to his society's ways that after seeing a distinct way of dressing, the white man looked like some sort of king. Marlow observed him with great admiration in comparison with the natives. Marlow shook hands with him and learned that he was the Company's chief accountant.
A: "Moreover, I respected the fellow. Yes; I respected his collars, his vast cuffs, his brushed hair. His appearance was certainly that of a hairdresser's dummy; but in the great demoralization of the land he dept up his appearance. That's backbone. His starched collars and got-up shirt-fronts were achievements of character. He had been out nearly three years; and later, I could not help asking him how he managed to sport such linen."
I: Marlow states that the way in which the accountant dresses does not make sense in the place in which he was, the jungle. He was dressed with luxurious clothes but was in the jungle where all the natives lived, where luxurious clothes may not even be valued. But Marlow still states that he respects the man. Marlow made his description to the accountant a little similar to that of the native he gave some bread. He restated how both men had been wearing some sort of collar.
10/21/07
A: "When one has to make correct entries, one comes to hate those savages - hate them to death." Pg. 30
I: Here the accountant of Mr. Kurtz is talking to Marlow. There is a native moaning near by because he had been badly beaten. The accountant complains that the native distracted him and so hated him because it could make him write wrong entries. The native was beaten so badly that it would seem he was almost dead.
A: "Well, if a lot of mysterious niggers armed with all kinds of fearful weapons suddenly took to travelling on the road between Deal and Gravesend, catching the yokels right and left to carry heavy loads for them, I fancy every farm and cottage thereabouts would get empty very soon." Pg. 31
I: Marlow has seen some villages that were abandoned. He predicts that if the natives had their own sevants to carry things for them, everyone would flee. Marlow is kind of explaining the effects of imperialism against the natives.
A: "The word 'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it." Pg. 37
I: Here Marlow realizes that the whole purpose of travelling to Africa is for profit. Everyone just wants to get as much ivory or anything else of value as they can to earn large amounts of income. The way Marlow uses hyperbole to describe this kind of obsession with ivory shows how the imperialists did not care of anything but money.
A: "And outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion." Pg. 37
I: Marlow thinks that the imperialist have abused nature and the wilderness and so nature would soon act on the invading imperialist. It gives the sensation of suspense in the novel.
10/22/07
A: "It was as unreal as everything else - as the philanthropic pretence of the whole concern, as their talk, as their government, as their show of work. the only real feeling was a desire to get appointed to a trading-post where ivory was to be had, so that they could earn percentages. they intrigued and slandered and hated each other only on that account - but as to effectually lifting a finger - oh, no." Pg. 39
I: Marlow keeps describing the imperialist's obsession with gaining money. He tells that some os them even hated themselves for doing it because they would need to compete for the most gains. Marlow seemed like he had no idea what had been taking place in Africa until he worked there.
A: "Serve him right. Transgression - punishment - bang! Pitiless, pitiless. That's the only way. This will prevent all conflagrations for the future." Pg. 42
I: This was a man that appeared while Marlow was talking to someone else. There was a beaten native that was moaning. It is evident that the imperialist did not even think the natives were human beings because they would teat them with violence and abuse so that they would not make a rebellion against them.
A: "You know I hate, detest, and can't bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appalls me. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies - which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world - what I want to forget. It makes me miserable and sick, like biting something rotten would do." Pg. 44
I: Marlow feel himself so loyal to Kurtz that he would even lie for him even though he had not met him in person yet. It is a large commitment for Marlow because he explains how much he detests lies and liers.
A: Change of narration from Marlow to the real Narrator of the story Pg. 44
I: The effect is that the narrator can explain what Marlow's feelings are. Although Marlow tells the majority of the story in the novel he is not the novel's narrator. It makes the reader get confused if he or she is not paying close attention to who is talking.
10/23/07
A: "I don't like work - no man does - but I like what is in the work - the chance to find yourself. Your own reality - for yourself, no for the others - what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means." Pg. 47
I: Here Marlow talks about how he feels his steamer boat can be a better friend than the other men around. He said 'she' (the boat) had given him a chance to come out a bit - to find out what he is capable of doing. He says that only the he himself can know what he is capable of doing, other men do not have to tell him, and that is what he likes about work.
10/24/07
A: "'We will not be free from unfair competition till one of these fellows is hanged for an example," he said. 'Certainly,' grunted the other; 'get him hanged! Why not? Anything - anything can be done in this country. That's what I say; nobody here, you understand, here, can endanger you position. And why? You stand the climate - you outlast them all. The danger is in Europe; but there before I left I took care to -'" Pg. 53
I: Here Marlow overhears his manager and the uncle's conversation. Apparently there was someone who was winning all the competition. The manager suggests hanging someone for examle, which means that he would use violence if it would be necessary.
A: "'he bothered me enough when he was here. "Each station should be like a beacon on the road toward better things, a centre for trading of course, but also for humanizing, improving, instructing." Conceive you - that ass! And he wants to be manager. No it's -"' Pg. 54
I: Here, the manager and his uncle still talk about the man that had been winning the competition. It can be infered that he was a man that believed in progress because he talked about humanizing and improving. It is evident that the manager strongly opposed that idea. It is probably because he is too racist.
10/25/07
A: "And after all, they did not eat each other before my face: they had brought a long provision of hippo-meat which went rotten, and made the mystery of the wilderness stink in my nostrils. Phoo!" Pg. 57
I: Marlow has his stereotyipical view of the natives as cannibals. He said that the only reason why they had not eaten themselves was because they some rotten hippo meat. Here he may realize how terrible conditions were for them that they are even forced to eat unedible food.
A: "We penetrated deeper and deeper to the heart of darkness." Pg. 58
I: The title of the book is used in this sentence. It is a reference to the jungle and the wilderness. The heart of darkness is probably also the revenge that the wilderness can get on the men. It is also possible to be a heart of darkness because it has not been civilezed to according to western ideology.
A: "They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity - like yours - the thought of you remote kinship with this wild passionate uproar. Ugly." Pg. 59
I: Marlow explains how he is surprised to know that the natives are actual human beings because from his stand point, they did not act like it. Marlow's resistance to view things differently and not as how they appear to him is evident here.
10/26/07
A: "Very well; I hear; I admit, but I have a voice too, and for good or evil mine is the speech that cannot be silenced." Pg. 60
I: Here Marlow explains how people like him who are new to this new world do not know the reality of what is happening. He explains how they would act like they are focused on their work. He would like to have the courage to stand up to his voice even if it would mean for him to be in serious conflict.
A: "Not a very enthralling book; but at first glance you could see there a singleness of intention, an honest concern for the right way of going to work, which made these humble pages, thought out so many years ago, luminous with another than a professional light." Pg. 63
I:
A: "I slipped the book into my pocket. I assure you to leave a reading was like tearing myself away from the shelter of an old and solid friendship." Pg. 63
I:
A: "Why in the name of all gnawing devils of hunger they didn't go for us - they were thirty to five - and have a good tuck-in for once, amazes me now when I think of it. They were big powerful men, with not much capacity to weigh the consequences, with courage, with strength, even yet, though their skins were no longer glossy and their muscles no longer hard." Pg. 69
I:
A: "It takes a man all his inborn strength to fight hunger properly. It's really easier to face bereavement, dishonour, and the perdition of one's soul than this kind of prolonged hunger."
Pg. 70
I:
10/27/07
A: "The food nigger had dropped everything, to throw the shutter open and let off that Martini-Henry. He stood before the wide opening, glaring, and I yelled at him to come back, while I straightened the sudden twist out of that steamboat." Pg. 76
I:
A: "It was the shaft of a spear that, either thrown or longed through the opening, had caught him in the side just below the ribs; the blade had gone out of sight, after making a frightful gash, my shoes were full; a pool of blood lay very still, gleaming dark-red under the wheel; his eyes shown with an amazing lustre." Pg. 77
I:
A: "He looked at me anxiously, gripping the spear like something precious, with an air of being afraid I would try to take it away from him." Pg. 77
I:
10/29/07
A: "I declare it looked as though he would presently put us some question in an understandable language; but he died without uttering a sound, without moving a limb, without twitching a muscle. Only in the very last moment, as though in a response to some sign we could not see, to some whisper we could not hear, he frowned heavily, and that frown gave to his black death-mask an inconceivably sombre, brooding, and menacing expression." Pg. 78
I:
A: "To tell you the truth, I was morbidly anxious to change my shoes and socks. 'He is dead,' murmured the fellow, immensely impressed. 'No doubt about it,' said I, tuggling like mad at the shoe-laces. 'And by the way, I suppose Mr. Kurtz is dead as well by this time."' Pg. 78
I:
A: "The point was in his being a gifted creature, and that of all his gifts the one that stood out preeminently, that carried with it a sense of real presence, was his ability to talk, his words - the gift of expression, the bewildering, the illuminating, the most exalted and the most contemptible, the pulsating stream of light, or deceitful flow from the heart of an impenetrable darkness." Pg. 79
I:
A: "I couldn't have felt more of lonely desolation somehow, I had been robbed of belief or had mossed my destiny in life. . ." Pg. 79
I:
10/30/07
A: Shift from Marlow to the Narrator in the story.
I:
A: "My ideal boys, what can you expect from a man who out of sheer herrousness had just flung overboard a pair of new shoes! Now I think of it, it is amazing I did not shed in tears." Pg. 80
I:
A: "They - the women I mean - are out of it - should be out of it. We must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own, let our gets worse." Pg. 81
I:
A: "The wilderness had patted him on the head and behold, it was like a ball - an ivory ball; it had caressed him, and - lol- he had withered; it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its won by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation." Pg. 81
I:
A: "He had been a very second-rate helmsman while alive but now dead he might become a first-class temptation, and possibly cause some startling trouble." Pg. 86
I:
A: "One good screech will do more for you that all your rifles, they are simple people." Pg. 89
I:
A: "For months - for years - his life hadn't been worth a day's purchase; and there he was gallantly, thoughtlessly alive, to all appearance indestructible solely by the virtue of his many years and of his unreflecting audacity. I was seduced into something like admiration - like envy. Glamour urged him on, glamour kept him unscathed. He surely wanted nothing from the wilderness but space to breathe in and to push on through." Pg. 92
I:
A: "His need was to exist, and to move onwards at the greatest possible risk, and with a maximum of privation. If the absolutely pure, inculcating, unpractical spirit of adventure had ever ruled a human being, it ruled this bespathced youth." Pg. 92
I:
A: "I looked around and I don't know why, but I assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arc of this blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness. 'And, ever since, you have been with him of course?" I said." Pg. 93
I:
10/31/07
A: "'What can you expect?' he burst out; 'he came to them with thunder and lightning, you know - and they had never seen anything like it - and very terrible. He could be very terrible. You can't judge Mr. Kurtz as you would an ordinary man. No, no, no! Now to just give you an idea - I don't mind telling you, he wanted to shoot me too, one day - but I don't judge him.'"
Pg. 94-95
I:
A: "Well he wanted it, and wouldn't hear reason. He declared he would shoot me unless I gave him the ivory and then cleared cut the country, because he could do so, and had a fancy for it, and there was nothing on earth to prevent him killing whom jolly well pleased." Pg. 95
I:
A: "'This man suffered too much. He hated all this, and somehow he couldn't get away." Pg. 95
I:
A: "Evidently the appetite for more ivory had got the better of what - shall I say? - less material aspirations. However he had got much worse suddenly." Pg. 96
I:
A: "I returned deliberately to the first I had seen - and there it was, black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids - ahead that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and, with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of teeth, was smiling too, smiling continuously at some jocose dream of that eternal slumber." Pg. 97
I:
A: "I want you clearly to understand that there was nothing exactly profitable in these heads being there. They only showed that Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts, that there was something wanting in him - some small matter which, when the pressing need arose, could not be found under his magnificent eloquence." Pg. 97
I:
A: "Rebels! What would be the next definition I was to hear? There had been enemies, criminals, workers - and these were rebels. Those rebellious heads looked very subdued to me on their sticks." Pg. 99
I:
11/01/07
A: "She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. Amd in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterioud life seemed to look at her, pensive, and shough it had veen looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul." Pg. 103
I:
A: "'Nevertheless I think Mr. Kurtz is a remarkable man,' I said with emphasis. He started, dropped onl me a cold heavy glance, said very quietly, 'he was,' and turned his back on me."
Pg. 105
I:
A: "'But quiet - eh? he urged anxiously. 'It would be axful for his reputation if anybody here - ' I promised a complete iscretion with great gravity." Pg. 107
I:
11/02/07
A: "I tried to break the spell - the heavy, mute spell of the wilderness - that seemed to drew him to its pitiless breast by the awakening of forgotten and brutal instincts, by the memory of gratified and monstrous passions." Pg. 112
I:
A: "I had, even like the niggers, to invoke him - himself - his own exalted and incredible degradation. There was nothing either above or below him, and I knew it." Pg. 112
I:
A: "He stuggled woth himlelf, too. I saw it - I heard it. I saw the inconceivable mystery of a sould that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself." Pg. 113
I:
A: "The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of oup upward progress; and Kurtz's life was running swirtly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time." Pg. 115
A: "'One evening comming in with a candle I was startled to hear him say a little tremendously, 'I am lying here in the dark waiting for death.'" Pg. 117
I:
11/03/07
A: "There was a lamp in there - light, don't you know - and outside it was so beastly, beastly dark. I went no more near the remarkable man who had pronounced a judgment upon the adventures of his soul on this earth. The voice was gore. What else had been there?" Pg. 118
I:
A: "It takes place in an impalpable greyness, with nothing underfoot, without clamour, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of death, in a sickly atmosphere of tepid scepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in htat of your adversary." Pg. 119
I:
A: "I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in restraining myself form laughing in their faces so full of stupid importance. I daresay I was not very well at that time." Pg. 121
I:
11/04/07
A: "But with every word spocken the room was growing darker, and only her forehead, smooth adn withe remained illumined by the unextinguishable light of belief and love." Pg. 127
I:
A: "He had given me some reason to infer that it was his impatience of comparative poverty that drove him out there." Pg. 128
I:
A: Swith from Marlow to Narrator of story Pg. 131
I:
A: "Besides holding our hearts together through long periods of separation, it has the effect of making us tolerant of each other's yarns - and even convictions." Pg. 3-4
I: The narrator feels a bond with the sea. There is a connection with nature. There is a sense of peace with the sea. Can infer that the speaker went through some rough things because he says that only the sea made them tolerant of each other's yarn, can mean that they have been involved in something that may of been wrong.
A: "The day was ending in a serenity of still and exquisite brilliance. The water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light; the very mist of the Essex marsh was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooden rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds." Pg. 4
I: There is more signs of closeness and peace with nature. The way that the author uses imagery to describe a scene has much emphasis on the natural surroundings. The closeness with the sea is also being emphasized, since the men are sailing a boat.
A: "Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him - all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men." Pg.8
I: The first mentioning of savage nature. The jungle is considered savage according to the men because of the wilderness and because there is no "civilization". Marlow is telling the narrator of the story and other men about his experience when he wanted to discover places around the world and travel around. Marlow's understanding of the jungle and the people is of being savage because he sees the Africans as animals in the wild.
A: "The fascination, too, that goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination - you know, imagine growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate." Pg.8
I: Marlow recounts the story of how the Roman people were the first to settle in the regions of the wilderness in Africa. He talks about the men's concern, since at this time there was a wild and savage world in which civilized men could not find food and were stricken by disease and death. There is some sort of rising hate toward the wilderness because of its mystery and man's inferiority to it for survival.
A: "The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much." Pg. 9
I: Marlow starts to realize how the European people have discriminated and abused the people that originally live in the wilderness. Their land had been taken away from them and forced labor as a slave was enforced cruelly.
A: "Therefore he whacked the old nigger mercilessly,. . . . Pg. 13
I: Marlow tells the story of how a captain of the company he wanted to work with was killed by black villagers. The quarrel arose from a misunderstanding about some hens. Fresleven, the captain thought himself wronged in the bargain, so he went ashore and started to hammer the chief of the village with a stick. He was supposedly the gentlest, quietest creature that ever walked on two legs but Marlow was not surprised by his action. Fresleven had been engaged in a noble cause for a couple of years and probably felt the need at last of asserting his self-respect in some way. Therefore he whacked the chief while a big crowd of his people watched him thunderstruck, till some man made a tentative jab with a spear at the white man and it went quite easy between the shoulder-blades. This happening may show that no matter how noble a white person may be in this time period, they still felt superior to the black people and so thought they could do what they want.
10/18/07
A: "She talked about 'weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways,' till upon my word, she made me quite uncomfortable. I ventured to hint that the Company was run for profit." Pg. 18-19
I: Marlow was talking to the wife of dignitary of the company that was going to hire him. She explained that the labourer is worthy of his hire. The fact that this woman is in the high class gives the clue that she believes in racial and social standards in this time period. Marlow is ignorant of the situation and so says how this company only runs to make profit, no matter what had to be done, in this instance, 'weaning' the natives from their 'horrid' ways.
A: "There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives - he called them enemies! - hidden out of sight somewhere." Pg. 21
I: Marlow tells of when he was sailing and came close to a place where natives live. His ignorance is shown by the way he does not know how racist the other white men are to the natives. He does not really understand the situation. Marlow may be brainwashed to think that he is superior to the natives as well.
10/19/07
A: "A lot of people, mostly black and naked, moved about like ants." Pg. 23
I: Marlow describes the natives as looking like ants. It demonstrates how he himself, although he may not be racist describes what he sees and views the natives as animals instead of human beings.
A: "They passed me within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages." Pg. 24
I: Marlow is so ignorant about the natives' feelings that he does not understand that the natives are being abused by people that look like him. It is not that the natives would want to be dis respective, it is that they have been oppresses and abused by the white colonists. Marlow's ignorance about the situation is still apparent.
10/20/07
A: "They were dying slowly - it was clear. they were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthy now - nothing by black shadows of decease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom." Pg. 26
I: Marlow is finally presented to the conditions in which the natives are forced to live. He is greatly impacted, saying that they are almost not even human beings any more. He shows a sense of confusion as to why this is happening. Marlow's ignorance is evident.
A: "He had tied a bit of a white worsted round his neck - Why? Where did he get it? Was it a badge - an ornament - a charm - a propitiatory act? Was there any idea at all connected with it? It looked startling round his black neck, this bit of white tread from beyond the seas." Pg. 27
I: Marlow does not understand the tradition of the natives. Since he is new to this place and was used to the way that the people surrounding him dressed, he was not used to the way that the natives dressed. In this case, he did not know why a native was wearing a white necklace.
A: "When near the buildings I met a white man, in such an unexpected elegance of getup that in the first moment I took him for a sort of vision. I saw a high starched collar, white cuffs, a light alpaca jacket, snowy trousers, a clean necktie, and varnished boots. No hat. Hair parted, brushed, oiled, under a green-lined parasol held in a big white hand. H was amazing, and had a penholder in his ear."
I: After Marlow had observed all the natives suffering of weakness, when he saw this white man, he even thought he was an illusion because of the way he dressed. This shows that Marlow was so used to his society's ways that after seeing a distinct way of dressing, the white man looked like some sort of king. Marlow observed him with great admiration in comparison with the natives. Marlow shook hands with him and learned that he was the Company's chief accountant.
A: "Moreover, I respected the fellow. Yes; I respected his collars, his vast cuffs, his brushed hair. His appearance was certainly that of a hairdresser's dummy; but in the great demoralization of the land he dept up his appearance. That's backbone. His starched collars and got-up shirt-fronts were achievements of character. He had been out nearly three years; and later, I could not help asking him how he managed to sport such linen."
I: Marlow states that the way in which the accountant dresses does not make sense in the place in which he was, the jungle. He was dressed with luxurious clothes but was in the jungle where all the natives lived, where luxurious clothes may not even be valued. But Marlow still states that he respects the man. Marlow made his description to the accountant a little similar to that of the native he gave some bread. He restated how both men had been wearing some sort of collar.
10/21/07
A: "When one has to make correct entries, one comes to hate those savages - hate them to death." Pg. 30
I: Here the accountant of Mr. Kurtz is talking to Marlow. There is a native moaning near by because he had been badly beaten. The accountant complains that the native distracted him and so hated him because it could make him write wrong entries. The native was beaten so badly that it would seem he was almost dead.
A: "Well, if a lot of mysterious niggers armed with all kinds of fearful weapons suddenly took to travelling on the road between Deal and Gravesend, catching the yokels right and left to carry heavy loads for them, I fancy every farm and cottage thereabouts would get empty very soon." Pg. 31
I: Marlow has seen some villages that were abandoned. He predicts that if the natives had their own sevants to carry things for them, everyone would flee. Marlow is kind of explaining the effects of imperialism against the natives.
A: "The word 'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it." Pg. 37
I: Here Marlow realizes that the whole purpose of travelling to Africa is for profit. Everyone just wants to get as much ivory or anything else of value as they can to earn large amounts of income. The way Marlow uses hyperbole to describe this kind of obsession with ivory shows how the imperialists did not care of anything but money.
A: "And outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion." Pg. 37
I: Marlow thinks that the imperialist have abused nature and the wilderness and so nature would soon act on the invading imperialist. It gives the sensation of suspense in the novel.
10/22/07
A: "It was as unreal as everything else - as the philanthropic pretence of the whole concern, as their talk, as their government, as their show of work. the only real feeling was a desire to get appointed to a trading-post where ivory was to be had, so that they could earn percentages. they intrigued and slandered and hated each other only on that account - but as to effectually lifting a finger - oh, no." Pg. 39
I: Marlow keeps describing the imperialist's obsession with gaining money. He tells that some os them even hated themselves for doing it because they would need to compete for the most gains. Marlow seemed like he had no idea what had been taking place in Africa until he worked there.
A: "Serve him right. Transgression - punishment - bang! Pitiless, pitiless. That's the only way. This will prevent all conflagrations for the future." Pg. 42
I: This was a man that appeared while Marlow was talking to someone else. There was a beaten native that was moaning. It is evident that the imperialist did not even think the natives were human beings because they would teat them with violence and abuse so that they would not make a rebellion against them.
A: "You know I hate, detest, and can't bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appalls me. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies - which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world - what I want to forget. It makes me miserable and sick, like biting something rotten would do." Pg. 44
I: Marlow feel himself so loyal to Kurtz that he would even lie for him even though he had not met him in person yet. It is a large commitment for Marlow because he explains how much he detests lies and liers.
A: Change of narration from Marlow to the real Narrator of the story Pg. 44
I: The effect is that the narrator can explain what Marlow's feelings are. Although Marlow tells the majority of the story in the novel he is not the novel's narrator. It makes the reader get confused if he or she is not paying close attention to who is talking.
10/23/07
A: "I don't like work - no man does - but I like what is in the work - the chance to find yourself. Your own reality - for yourself, no for the others - what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means." Pg. 47
I: Here Marlow talks about how he feels his steamer boat can be a better friend than the other men around. He said 'she' (the boat) had given him a chance to come out a bit - to find out what he is capable of doing. He says that only the he himself can know what he is capable of doing, other men do not have to tell him, and that is what he likes about work.
10/24/07
A: "'We will not be free from unfair competition till one of these fellows is hanged for an example," he said. 'Certainly,' grunted the other; 'get him hanged! Why not? Anything - anything can be done in this country. That's what I say; nobody here, you understand, here, can endanger you position. And why? You stand the climate - you outlast them all. The danger is in Europe; but there before I left I took care to -'" Pg. 53
I: Here Marlow overhears his manager and the uncle's conversation. Apparently there was someone who was winning all the competition. The manager suggests hanging someone for examle, which means that he would use violence if it would be necessary.
A: "'he bothered me enough when he was here. "Each station should be like a beacon on the road toward better things, a centre for trading of course, but also for humanizing, improving, instructing." Conceive you - that ass! And he wants to be manager. No it's -"' Pg. 54
I: Here, the manager and his uncle still talk about the man that had been winning the competition. It can be infered that he was a man that believed in progress because he talked about humanizing and improving. It is evident that the manager strongly opposed that idea. It is probably because he is too racist.
10/25/07
A: "And after all, they did not eat each other before my face: they had brought a long provision of hippo-meat which went rotten, and made the mystery of the wilderness stink in my nostrils. Phoo!" Pg. 57
I: Marlow has his stereotyipical view of the natives as cannibals. He said that the only reason why they had not eaten themselves was because they some rotten hippo meat. Here he may realize how terrible conditions were for them that they are even forced to eat unedible food.
A: "We penetrated deeper and deeper to the heart of darkness." Pg. 58
I: The title of the book is used in this sentence. It is a reference to the jungle and the wilderness. The heart of darkness is probably also the revenge that the wilderness can get on the men. It is also possible to be a heart of darkness because it has not been civilezed to according to western ideology.
A: "They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity - like yours - the thought of you remote kinship with this wild passionate uproar. Ugly." Pg. 59
I: Marlow explains how he is surprised to know that the natives are actual human beings because from his stand point, they did not act like it. Marlow's resistance to view things differently and not as how they appear to him is evident here.
10/26/07
A: "Very well; I hear; I admit, but I have a voice too, and for good or evil mine is the speech that cannot be silenced." Pg. 60
I: Here Marlow explains how people like him who are new to this new world do not know the reality of what is happening. He explains how they would act like they are focused on their work. He would like to have the courage to stand up to his voice even if it would mean for him to be in serious conflict.
A: "Not a very enthralling book; but at first glance you could see there a singleness of intention, an honest concern for the right way of going to work, which made these humble pages, thought out so many years ago, luminous with another than a professional light." Pg. 63
I:
A: "I slipped the book into my pocket. I assure you to leave a reading was like tearing myself away from the shelter of an old and solid friendship." Pg. 63
I:
A: "Why in the name of all gnawing devils of hunger they didn't go for us - they were thirty to five - and have a good tuck-in for once, amazes me now when I think of it. They were big powerful men, with not much capacity to weigh the consequences, with courage, with strength, even yet, though their skins were no longer glossy and their muscles no longer hard." Pg. 69
I:
A: "It takes a man all his inborn strength to fight hunger properly. It's really easier to face bereavement, dishonour, and the perdition of one's soul than this kind of prolonged hunger."
Pg. 70
I:
10/27/07
A: "The food nigger had dropped everything, to throw the shutter open and let off that Martini-Henry. He stood before the wide opening, glaring, and I yelled at him to come back, while I straightened the sudden twist out of that steamboat." Pg. 76
I:
A: "It was the shaft of a spear that, either thrown or longed through the opening, had caught him in the side just below the ribs; the blade had gone out of sight, after making a frightful gash, my shoes were full; a pool of blood lay very still, gleaming dark-red under the wheel; his eyes shown with an amazing lustre." Pg. 77
I:
A: "He looked at me anxiously, gripping the spear like something precious, with an air of being afraid I would try to take it away from him." Pg. 77
I:
10/29/07
A: "I declare it looked as though he would presently put us some question in an understandable language; but he died without uttering a sound, without moving a limb, without twitching a muscle. Only in the very last moment, as though in a response to some sign we could not see, to some whisper we could not hear, he frowned heavily, and that frown gave to his black death-mask an inconceivably sombre, brooding, and menacing expression." Pg. 78
I:
A: "To tell you the truth, I was morbidly anxious to change my shoes and socks. 'He is dead,' murmured the fellow, immensely impressed. 'No doubt about it,' said I, tuggling like mad at the shoe-laces. 'And by the way, I suppose Mr. Kurtz is dead as well by this time."' Pg. 78
I:
A: "The point was in his being a gifted creature, and that of all his gifts the one that stood out preeminently, that carried with it a sense of real presence, was his ability to talk, his words - the gift of expression, the bewildering, the illuminating, the most exalted and the most contemptible, the pulsating stream of light, or deceitful flow from the heart of an impenetrable darkness." Pg. 79
I:
A: "I couldn't have felt more of lonely desolation somehow, I had been robbed of belief or had mossed my destiny in life. . ." Pg. 79
I:
10/30/07
A: Shift from Marlow to the Narrator in the story.
I:
A: "My ideal boys, what can you expect from a man who out of sheer herrousness had just flung overboard a pair of new shoes! Now I think of it, it is amazing I did not shed in tears." Pg. 80
I:
A: "They - the women I mean - are out of it - should be out of it. We must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own, let our gets worse." Pg. 81
I:
A: "The wilderness had patted him on the head and behold, it was like a ball - an ivory ball; it had caressed him, and - lol- he had withered; it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its won by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation." Pg. 81
I:
A: "He had been a very second-rate helmsman while alive but now dead he might become a first-class temptation, and possibly cause some startling trouble." Pg. 86
I:
A: "One good screech will do more for you that all your rifles, they are simple people." Pg. 89
I:
A: "For months - for years - his life hadn't been worth a day's purchase; and there he was gallantly, thoughtlessly alive, to all appearance indestructible solely by the virtue of his many years and of his unreflecting audacity. I was seduced into something like admiration - like envy. Glamour urged him on, glamour kept him unscathed. He surely wanted nothing from the wilderness but space to breathe in and to push on through." Pg. 92
I:
A: "His need was to exist, and to move onwards at the greatest possible risk, and with a maximum of privation. If the absolutely pure, inculcating, unpractical spirit of adventure had ever ruled a human being, it ruled this bespathced youth." Pg. 92
I:
A: "I looked around and I don't know why, but I assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arc of this blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness. 'And, ever since, you have been with him of course?" I said." Pg. 93
I:
10/31/07
A: "'What can you expect?' he burst out; 'he came to them with thunder and lightning, you know - and they had never seen anything like it - and very terrible. He could be very terrible. You can't judge Mr. Kurtz as you would an ordinary man. No, no, no! Now to just give you an idea - I don't mind telling you, he wanted to shoot me too, one day - but I don't judge him.'"
Pg. 94-95
I:
A: "Well he wanted it, and wouldn't hear reason. He declared he would shoot me unless I gave him the ivory and then cleared cut the country, because he could do so, and had a fancy for it, and there was nothing on earth to prevent him killing whom jolly well pleased." Pg. 95
I:
A: "'This man suffered too much. He hated all this, and somehow he couldn't get away." Pg. 95
I:
A: "Evidently the appetite for more ivory had got the better of what - shall I say? - less material aspirations. However he had got much worse suddenly." Pg. 96
I:
A: "I returned deliberately to the first I had seen - and there it was, black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids - ahead that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and, with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of teeth, was smiling too, smiling continuously at some jocose dream of that eternal slumber." Pg. 97
I:
A: "I want you clearly to understand that there was nothing exactly profitable in these heads being there. They only showed that Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts, that there was something wanting in him - some small matter which, when the pressing need arose, could not be found under his magnificent eloquence." Pg. 97
I:
A: "Rebels! What would be the next definition I was to hear? There had been enemies, criminals, workers - and these were rebels. Those rebellious heads looked very subdued to me on their sticks." Pg. 99
I:
11/01/07
A: "She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. Amd in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterioud life seemed to look at her, pensive, and shough it had veen looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul." Pg. 103
I:
A: "'Nevertheless I think Mr. Kurtz is a remarkable man,' I said with emphasis. He started, dropped onl me a cold heavy glance, said very quietly, 'he was,' and turned his back on me."
Pg. 105
I:
A: "'But quiet - eh? he urged anxiously. 'It would be axful for his reputation if anybody here - ' I promised a complete iscretion with great gravity." Pg. 107
I:
11/02/07
A: "I tried to break the spell - the heavy, mute spell of the wilderness - that seemed to drew him to its pitiless breast by the awakening of forgotten and brutal instincts, by the memory of gratified and monstrous passions." Pg. 112
I:
A: "I had, even like the niggers, to invoke him - himself - his own exalted and incredible degradation. There was nothing either above or below him, and I knew it." Pg. 112
I:
A: "He stuggled woth himlelf, too. I saw it - I heard it. I saw the inconceivable mystery of a sould that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself." Pg. 113
I:
A: "The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of oup upward progress; and Kurtz's life was running swirtly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time." Pg. 115
A: "'One evening comming in with a candle I was startled to hear him say a little tremendously, 'I am lying here in the dark waiting for death.'" Pg. 117
I:
11/03/07
A: "There was a lamp in there - light, don't you know - and outside it was so beastly, beastly dark. I went no more near the remarkable man who had pronounced a judgment upon the adventures of his soul on this earth. The voice was gore. What else had been there?" Pg. 118
I:
A: "It takes place in an impalpable greyness, with nothing underfoot, without clamour, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of death, in a sickly atmosphere of tepid scepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in htat of your adversary." Pg. 119
I:
A: "I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in restraining myself form laughing in their faces so full of stupid importance. I daresay I was not very well at that time." Pg. 121
I:
11/04/07
A: "But with every word spocken the room was growing darker, and only her forehead, smooth adn withe remained illumined by the unextinguishable light of belief and love." Pg. 127
I:
A: "He had given me some reason to infer that it was his impatience of comparative poverty that drove him out there." Pg. 128
I:
A: Swith from Marlow to Narrator of story Pg. 131
I:
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Jane Eyre Annotations
Chapter 1
A: "Me she had dispensed from joining the group, saying, "she regretted to bi under the necessity of keeping me at a distance"- "she really must exclude me from priviledges intended only for contented, happy little children""pg.9
I: A forshadowing that Jane Eyre will not have good relations with the family. She may get kicked out of the house. The other children may hate her.
A: "He bullied and punished me; not two or three times in a week, nor once or twice in a day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel of flesh shrank when he came near." Pg. 12
I: John Reed is a terrible boy. He may become to be the nightmare of Jane. He, as well as his mother and sisters are probably the antagonists of the story.
A: "Wiked and cruel boy!" I said. "You are like a murderer - you are like a slave-driver - you are like the Roman emperors!" Pg. 13
I: Jane was tired of her oppression and decided to finally stand up for herself. She may then decide to stand for herself against Mrs. Reed and the rest of the family until she is then kicked out of the house. This act may contribute to some courage.
Chapter 2
A: Mr. Reed had been dead nine years: it was in this chamber he breathed his las; here he lay in state; hence his coffin was borne by the undertaker's men; and, since that day, a sense of dreary consecration had guarded it from frequent intrusion." Pg. 16
I: Because Mr. Reed had died in that chamber, no one really went into it unless it was to be cleaned. Mrs. Reed probably did not have much respect for Mr. Reed because she had Jane be locked up in his chamber as punishment. There is also some sort of mystery in the room since it is kept undisturbed since Mr. Reed had died.
A: "All looked colder and darker in that visionary than in reality: and the strange little figure there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving where all else was still, had the effect of a real spirit: I thought it like one of the tiny phantoms, half fairy, half imp, Bessie's evening stories represented as coming up out of lone, ferny dells in moors, and appearing before the eyes of belated travellers. I returned to may stool." Pg. 16
I: Bessie's stories gave Jane a superstition that spirits and ghosts probably did exist. Jane thought that because Mr. Reed had died in that chamber that there probably was left something of him like a spirit or some kind of magic.
A: "instigated some strange expedient to achieve escape from insupportable opression- as running away, or, for that could not be effected, never eating or drinking more, and letting myself die." Pg. 17
I: Jane probably lost all hope of living a good life in the future. Because she is being opressed so much, she grows tired of it and would rather die. Shows that she may be weak in character.
Chapter 3
A: "Poverty looks grim to old people, still more so to children: they have not much idea of industrious, working, respectable poverty; the think of the word as connected with ragged clothes, scanty food, fireless grates, rude manners, and debasing voices: poverty for me was synonymous with degradation" Pg. 26
I: Jane, although she is in constant opression, seems influenced by the family's high rank of living because she could not imagine herself living with poor people, even if they were kind. it is ironic in her position because she is treated as a poor person herself.
Chapter 4
A: "I deliberated a moment; my answer, when it did come, was objectionable: "I must keep in good health and not die"". Pg. 34
I: Jane said this when she was asked what she would do because it seems she would go to hell when she would die because of her wickedness. She seems to not take manners seriously and mocks people.
A: "I am not deceitful: if i were, I shuld say i loved you, but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of any body in the world exept John Reed; and this book about the liar, you may give to hour girl, Georgiana, for it is she who tell lies, and not I." Pg. 38
I: Jane Eyre, after confronting Mrs. Reed, may end up in a lot of trouble. She may surely be kicked out of the house now.
A: "How dare I, Mrs. Reed? How dare I? Because it is the truth. You think I have no feelings, and that I con do without one bit of love or kindness; but I cannot live so: and you have no pity." Pg. 39
I: Jane defends her position on standing up for herself. Ms. Reed may give Jane more respect but it is not likely, since she only cares about her own children. By standing up for herself, Jane may not be as oppressed as she used to be.
Chapter 5
A: "I saw one teacher take a basin of the porridge and taste it; she looked at the others; all their contenances expressed displeasure, and one of them, the stout one, whispered:-"Abomiable stuff! How shamefull!."" Pg. 48
I: The school has very bad conditions and Jane may have to learn the hard way how poverty can affect the life of a person. Jane had been oppresed at Mrs. Reed's house, but she had luxuries that the school does not have to offer. It may change Jane's outlook in what is really important in life.
Chapter 9
A: "Many, already smitten, went home to die: some died at the school, and were buried quietly and quickly, the nature of the malady forbidding delay." Pg. 79
I: Maybe Jane or Helen may get sick and have a terrible ending. The presence of death and sickness may impact Jane.
A: "but a day or two afterwards I learned that Miss Temple, on returning to her own room at dawn, had found me laid in a little crib; my face against Helen Brun's shoulder, my armes round her neck. I was asleep, and Helen was - dead."
I: Jane can get emotionally impacted with the death of her dear friend Helen. Without her, she may start to feel lonely at the school and suffer. she may have to live in isolation for the rest of the time she spends there, since she does not communicate with any of the other girls.
Chapter 10
A: "From the day she left I was no longer the same: with her was gone every settled feeling, every assocation that had made Lowood in some degree a home for me". Pg 87
I: With miss Temple away, Jane might have a hard time because she was close to her and did not really like any of the other teachers. She may now want to get out of the school. It can contribute to her isolation because she does not have a good communication with anyone else.
A: "I desired for liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer; it seemed scattered on the wind then faintly blowing." Pg. 88
I: Jane might try anything to finally get out of the school because she shows her desperate feelings to get out and have some liberty.
Chapter 11
A: "My heart really warmed to the worthy lady as I heard her talk; and I drew my chair a little nearer to her, and expressed my sincire with that she might find my compay as agreeable as the anticipated." Pg 100
I: Jane is going to try hard so that she can feel that she has some sort of new family in the house that she is going to serve. She wants to have really good relations with Mrs. Fairfax especially since she appeared to be a very good woman.
Chapter 12
A: "It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have actions; and they will make it if they cannot find it." Pg. 112
I: Althoug Jane was much better of in Mr. Rochester's house than anywhere she had been, she felt that she still needed some kind of freedom or action. She says that people will tend to make the action themselves if they cannot find it, which can mean that Jane may be up to something.
A: "It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced for their sex." Pg. 113
I: Jane is criticizing the society she lives in because women are limited in many things. she does not like it how women are only limited to working inside a house. it is not fair to her that men have much more power and say than women have at this time.
A: "You play a little, I see; like any other English-girl: perhaps rather better than some, but not well." Pg. 127
I: Mr. Rochester tests the knowledge of Jane. He critizises but compliments her ability to play the piano at the same time. He expects that most girls are probably all the same. Jane at this time shows what she had learned at Lowood and so Mr. Rochester asks to see her portfolio of drawings that she had done. The reader can infere that Mr. Rochester probably expects much out of his employees, espedcially of Jane since she is Adele's teacher.
A: "When I was as old as you, I was a feeling fellow enough; partial to the unfledged, unfostered, and unlucky; but fortune has knocked me about since: she has even kneaded me with her knucles, and now I flatter myself I am as hard and tough as an India-rubber ball" P. 135
I: Mr. Rochester tells Jane her story about how fate had made him a hard person in character. He feels that he will not be able to be like a normal person any more. Jane will probably give him more hope, since Mr. Rochester likes to talk with her. there is also a simile involved in which he compares himself to a india-rubber ball.
A: "Besides, since happiness is irrebocably denied me, I have a right to get pleasure out of life: and I will get it, cost what it may."
I: Mr. Rochester is a man that feels that in his life, he has not really experienced true happiness. He thinks that he deserves a pleasure in life and would do anything possible to get it. This shows Mr. Rochester's desperate feelings. It also gives the assumption that Mr. Rochester may think that happiness may be obtained by having money.
Chapter 15
A: "When I was my charmer thus come accompanied by a cavelier, I seemed to hear a hiss, and the green snake of jealousy, rising on undulating coils from the moonlit balcony, glided within my waistcoat, and ate its way two minutes to my heart's core."
I: Mr. Rochester tells his story of love to Jane. In it he tells her how he became so jealous when he saw a man acompany the woman that he loved. That woman was the mother of Adele, but Mr. Rochester did not consider her as his daughter even though she was. Mr. Rochester's confidence on Jane seems strong because he shared one of his most personal story with her.
Chapter 16
A: "That a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed the breath of life: that more fantastic idiot had never furfeited herself on sweet lies, and swallowed poison as if it were nectar." Pg. 162
I: Jane seems to realize that in her position, it is not likely that Mr. Rochester would really like her as a woman. She starts to have feelings for him and so can not control her feelings toward him. In this quote she is compared to a "fantastic idiot" in which she realizes how ignorant and immature she is to be thinking of Mr. Rochester in an emotional way.
A: " Ill tell you how to manage so as to avoid the embarrasment of making a formalen entrance, which is the most disagreeable part of the business." Pg. 171
I: In this quote, Mrs. Fairfax told Jane that when looked by the high class of people, she should avoid to look bad because it would be a big shame. This shows how important the way someone looked and what social class they belonged to was very important during this time period. Jane will probably not be able to coexist withe the higher classes because she is very different from them.
A: "They dispursed about the room; reminding me, by the lightness and bouyancy of thier movements, of a flock of white plumy birds." Pg. 173
I: In this quote, Jane compares the group of invited people that were going to stay for a while at Mr. Rochester's house to white plumy birds. She is not used to being around a group of individuals that are so different from her. As she observes the people she sees how they just move around in the room and talking to themselves.
A: "a pleasure like what the thirst-perishing man might feel who knows the well to which he has cript is poisoned, yet stops and drinks diving draughts nonetheless." Pg.176
I: At this time of the story, Jane has not doubt that she has strong feelings toward Mr. Rochester. She can not stop looking at him and complimenting him. She knows that he would not be likely to corespond to her but at least has pleasure on looking at him. In the quote, she is compared to a thirst-perishing man who knows the well to which he has cript is poisoned, yet stops and drinks a lot of the water. The poison, in Jane's case would be her illusionment with Mr. Rochester and the likelyhood that he would reject her.
A: "He made me love him without looking at me." Pg. 177
I: Jane continues to tell her feelings toward Mr. Rochester. She says that she did not intend to love him but that she just fell for him. She cannot control her feelings toward him. She even compared Mr. Rochester with the rest of the men that had visited and noted that the other men were nothing compared to his master in her opinion. There may be a chance that Jane will try to get closer to Mr. Rochester if she can find the opportunity.
A: "a great lady, who scorned to touch me with the hem of her robes as she passed, who, if ever her dark and imperious eye fell on me by chance, would withdraw it instantly as an object too mean to merit observation."
I: By this time, Jane begins to realize that she does not like the attitude of the high class like miss Ingram. Miss Ingram was supposedly the chosen bride for Mr. Rochester, but Jane strongly disagrees with his decision because she knows that Miss Ingram does not have the qualities to make Mr. Rochester happy. Jane claims that there is no possible love between them. She criticizes how miss Ingram would prefer to not have any connection with anyone who is of lower class than she is, like Jane. Miss Ingram will probably become another antagonist in the story because she can compete with Jane for Mr. Rochester's love.
A: "But as matters really stood, to watch Mrs. Ingram's efforts at fascinating Mr. Rochester; to witness their repeated failure, herself unconscious that they did fail; vainly fancying that each shoft launched, hit the mark, and infatuately plumbing herself on success, when her pride and self-complacency repelled further and further what she wished to allure-to witness this, was to be at once under ceaseless excitation and ruthless restraint." Pg. 188
I: Jane analyses how Miss Ingram makes many attempst to appeal Mr. Rochester and fails without being conscious of it. She criticizes the intelligence of Miss Ingram for not realizing that Mr. Rochester does not love her. It can be infered that later, Mr. Rochester will decide not to marry Miss Ingram and so she will be heartbroken and want revenge.
Chapter 19
A: "One unexpected sentence came from her lips after another, till I got involved in a web of mystification; and wondered what unseen spirit had been sitting for weeks by my heart wathcing its workings, and takaing record of every pulse." Pg. 201
I: Jane was talking to the gypsy who could supposedly tell the future of people. Jane began to be confused by the things that she said and started to suspect of her questions and knoledge. It laver resulted that the gypsy was Mr. Rochester himself. This tells how Jane really does have feelings for Mr. Rochester because she had recognized it was him without him revealing himself. Mr. Rochester probably also has feelings for Jane because he asked her that question in order to supposedly tell Jane her future.
A: "The flame flickers in the eye; the eye shines like dew; it looks soft and full of feeling; it smiles at my jargon: it is susceptible; impression folows impression though its cleas shere, where it ceases to smile, it is sad; an unconscious latitude weighs on the lid: that signifies melancholy resulting fom loneliness." Pg. 202
I: A gypsy woman is telling Jane her fortune for the future. She tells Jane that she sees loneliness in her eyes. The gypsy woman has probably figured out that Jane is suffering for not being able to express her love to Mr. Rochester. The gypsy understands that Jane must be feeling sad for being alone.
Chapter 20
A: "To live, for me, Jane is to stand on a crater-crust which may crack and spue fire any day." Pg. 218
I: Mr. Rochester explains about some problems that can cause him to fall down any day. He seems to be hiding something from Jane. The dealings with Mason seem suspicious since Mr. Rochester did not want anyone to see him in his house by morning.
Chapter 21
A: "I knew by her stony eye - opaque to tenderness, indissoluable to tears - that she was resolved to consider me bad to the last; because to believe me good, would give her no generous pleasure: only a sense of mortification." Pg. 233
I: Jane describes how she feels that Mrs. Reed still rejects her even though she had called to see her befor she would die. She may experience the old feelings of rejection that she had throughout her child hood wile living with Mrs. Reed.
Chapter 24
A: "He stood between me and every thought of religion, as an elipse intervenes between man and the broad sun. I could not, in those days, see God for his creature of whom I made an idol." Pg.276
I: Jane had fallen so much in love with Mr. Rochester but was not completely certain that she wanted to marry him. She did not like his comment that they would live and die together, since she wanted to live her life however she would like. She wanted to only die when it was her time to do so. She had thought of Mr. Rochester as an idol but not any more.
Chapter 26
A: "Bertha Mason is mad; and she came of a mad family; - idiots and maniacs through three generations! Her mother, the Creole was both mad woman and a drunkard!" Pg. 294
I: Mr. Rochester confesses that he had a wife for many years locked up in the attic because she was mentally challenged. It was right after Jane and Mr. Rochester were about to be married. He tries to justify himself by saying that he was the victim because she had turned mad in an instant. Jane may not be able to forgive Mr. Rochester for betraying and lying to her. It will change the course of the story.
A: "Me she had dispensed from joining the group, saying, "she regretted to bi under the necessity of keeping me at a distance"- "she really must exclude me from priviledges intended only for contented, happy little children""pg.9
I: A forshadowing that Jane Eyre will not have good relations with the family. She may get kicked out of the house. The other children may hate her.
A: "He bullied and punished me; not two or three times in a week, nor once or twice in a day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel of flesh shrank when he came near." Pg. 12
I: John Reed is a terrible boy. He may become to be the nightmare of Jane. He, as well as his mother and sisters are probably the antagonists of the story.
A: "Wiked and cruel boy!" I said. "You are like a murderer - you are like a slave-driver - you are like the Roman emperors!" Pg. 13
I: Jane was tired of her oppression and decided to finally stand up for herself. She may then decide to stand for herself against Mrs. Reed and the rest of the family until she is then kicked out of the house. This act may contribute to some courage.
Chapter 2
A: Mr. Reed had been dead nine years: it was in this chamber he breathed his las; here he lay in state; hence his coffin was borne by the undertaker's men; and, since that day, a sense of dreary consecration had guarded it from frequent intrusion." Pg. 16
I: Because Mr. Reed had died in that chamber, no one really went into it unless it was to be cleaned. Mrs. Reed probably did not have much respect for Mr. Reed because she had Jane be locked up in his chamber as punishment. There is also some sort of mystery in the room since it is kept undisturbed since Mr. Reed had died.
A: "All looked colder and darker in that visionary than in reality: and the strange little figure there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving where all else was still, had the effect of a real spirit: I thought it like one of the tiny phantoms, half fairy, half imp, Bessie's evening stories represented as coming up out of lone, ferny dells in moors, and appearing before the eyes of belated travellers. I returned to may stool." Pg. 16
I: Bessie's stories gave Jane a superstition that spirits and ghosts probably did exist. Jane thought that because Mr. Reed had died in that chamber that there probably was left something of him like a spirit or some kind of magic.
A: "instigated some strange expedient to achieve escape from insupportable opression- as running away, or, for that could not be effected, never eating or drinking more, and letting myself die." Pg. 17
I: Jane probably lost all hope of living a good life in the future. Because she is being opressed so much, she grows tired of it and would rather die. Shows that she may be weak in character.
Chapter 3
A: "Poverty looks grim to old people, still more so to children: they have not much idea of industrious, working, respectable poverty; the think of the word as connected with ragged clothes, scanty food, fireless grates, rude manners, and debasing voices: poverty for me was synonymous with degradation" Pg. 26
I: Jane, although she is in constant opression, seems influenced by the family's high rank of living because she could not imagine herself living with poor people, even if they were kind. it is ironic in her position because she is treated as a poor person herself.
Chapter 4
A: "I deliberated a moment; my answer, when it did come, was objectionable: "I must keep in good health and not die"". Pg. 34
I: Jane said this when she was asked what she would do because it seems she would go to hell when she would die because of her wickedness. She seems to not take manners seriously and mocks people.
A: "I am not deceitful: if i were, I shuld say i loved you, but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of any body in the world exept John Reed; and this book about the liar, you may give to hour girl, Georgiana, for it is she who tell lies, and not I." Pg. 38
I: Jane Eyre, after confronting Mrs. Reed, may end up in a lot of trouble. She may surely be kicked out of the house now.
A: "How dare I, Mrs. Reed? How dare I? Because it is the truth. You think I have no feelings, and that I con do without one bit of love or kindness; but I cannot live so: and you have no pity." Pg. 39
I: Jane defends her position on standing up for herself. Ms. Reed may give Jane more respect but it is not likely, since she only cares about her own children. By standing up for herself, Jane may not be as oppressed as she used to be.
Chapter 5
A: "I saw one teacher take a basin of the porridge and taste it; she looked at the others; all their contenances expressed displeasure, and one of them, the stout one, whispered:-"Abomiable stuff! How shamefull!."" Pg. 48
I: The school has very bad conditions and Jane may have to learn the hard way how poverty can affect the life of a person. Jane had been oppresed at Mrs. Reed's house, but she had luxuries that the school does not have to offer. It may change Jane's outlook in what is really important in life.
Chapter 9
A: "Many, already smitten, went home to die: some died at the school, and were buried quietly and quickly, the nature of the malady forbidding delay." Pg. 79
I: Maybe Jane or Helen may get sick and have a terrible ending. The presence of death and sickness may impact Jane.
A: "but a day or two afterwards I learned that Miss Temple, on returning to her own room at dawn, had found me laid in a little crib; my face against Helen Brun's shoulder, my armes round her neck. I was asleep, and Helen was - dead."
I: Jane can get emotionally impacted with the death of her dear friend Helen. Without her, she may start to feel lonely at the school and suffer. she may have to live in isolation for the rest of the time she spends there, since she does not communicate with any of the other girls.
Chapter 10
A: "From the day she left I was no longer the same: with her was gone every settled feeling, every assocation that had made Lowood in some degree a home for me". Pg 87
I: With miss Temple away, Jane might have a hard time because she was close to her and did not really like any of the other teachers. She may now want to get out of the school. It can contribute to her isolation because she does not have a good communication with anyone else.
A: "I desired for liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer; it seemed scattered on the wind then faintly blowing." Pg. 88
I: Jane might try anything to finally get out of the school because she shows her desperate feelings to get out and have some liberty.
Chapter 11
A: "My heart really warmed to the worthy lady as I heard her talk; and I drew my chair a little nearer to her, and expressed my sincire with that she might find my compay as agreeable as the anticipated." Pg 100
I: Jane is going to try hard so that she can feel that she has some sort of new family in the house that she is going to serve. She wants to have really good relations with Mrs. Fairfax especially since she appeared to be a very good woman.
Chapter 12
A: "It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have actions; and they will make it if they cannot find it." Pg. 112
I: Althoug Jane was much better of in Mr. Rochester's house than anywhere she had been, she felt that she still needed some kind of freedom or action. She says that people will tend to make the action themselves if they cannot find it, which can mean that Jane may be up to something.
A: "It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced for their sex." Pg. 113
I: Jane is criticizing the society she lives in because women are limited in many things. she does not like it how women are only limited to working inside a house. it is not fair to her that men have much more power and say than women have at this time.
A: "You play a little, I see; like any other English-girl: perhaps rather better than some, but not well." Pg. 127
I: Mr. Rochester tests the knowledge of Jane. He critizises but compliments her ability to play the piano at the same time. He expects that most girls are probably all the same. Jane at this time shows what she had learned at Lowood and so Mr. Rochester asks to see her portfolio of drawings that she had done. The reader can infere that Mr. Rochester probably expects much out of his employees, espedcially of Jane since she is Adele's teacher.
A: "When I was as old as you, I was a feeling fellow enough; partial to the unfledged, unfostered, and unlucky; but fortune has knocked me about since: she has even kneaded me with her knucles, and now I flatter myself I am as hard and tough as an India-rubber ball" P. 135
I: Mr. Rochester tells Jane her story about how fate had made him a hard person in character. He feels that he will not be able to be like a normal person any more. Jane will probably give him more hope, since Mr. Rochester likes to talk with her. there is also a simile involved in which he compares himself to a india-rubber ball.
A: "Besides, since happiness is irrebocably denied me, I have a right to get pleasure out of life: and I will get it, cost what it may."
I: Mr. Rochester is a man that feels that in his life, he has not really experienced true happiness. He thinks that he deserves a pleasure in life and would do anything possible to get it. This shows Mr. Rochester's desperate feelings. It also gives the assumption that Mr. Rochester may think that happiness may be obtained by having money.
Chapter 15
A: "When I was my charmer thus come accompanied by a cavelier, I seemed to hear a hiss, and the green snake of jealousy, rising on undulating coils from the moonlit balcony, glided within my waistcoat, and ate its way two minutes to my heart's core."
I: Mr. Rochester tells his story of love to Jane. In it he tells her how he became so jealous when he saw a man acompany the woman that he loved. That woman was the mother of Adele, but Mr. Rochester did not consider her as his daughter even though she was. Mr. Rochester's confidence on Jane seems strong because he shared one of his most personal story with her.
Chapter 16
A: "That a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed the breath of life: that more fantastic idiot had never furfeited herself on sweet lies, and swallowed poison as if it were nectar." Pg. 162
I: Jane seems to realize that in her position, it is not likely that Mr. Rochester would really like her as a woman. She starts to have feelings for him and so can not control her feelings toward him. In this quote she is compared to a "fantastic idiot" in which she realizes how ignorant and immature she is to be thinking of Mr. Rochester in an emotional way.
A: " Ill tell you how to manage so as to avoid the embarrasment of making a formalen entrance, which is the most disagreeable part of the business." Pg. 171
I: In this quote, Mrs. Fairfax told Jane that when looked by the high class of people, she should avoid to look bad because it would be a big shame. This shows how important the way someone looked and what social class they belonged to was very important during this time period. Jane will probably not be able to coexist withe the higher classes because she is very different from them.
A: "They dispursed about the room; reminding me, by the lightness and bouyancy of thier movements, of a flock of white plumy birds." Pg. 173
I: In this quote, Jane compares the group of invited people that were going to stay for a while at Mr. Rochester's house to white plumy birds. She is not used to being around a group of individuals that are so different from her. As she observes the people she sees how they just move around in the room and talking to themselves.
A: "a pleasure like what the thirst-perishing man might feel who knows the well to which he has cript is poisoned, yet stops and drinks diving draughts nonetheless." Pg.176
I: At this time of the story, Jane has not doubt that she has strong feelings toward Mr. Rochester. She can not stop looking at him and complimenting him. She knows that he would not be likely to corespond to her but at least has pleasure on looking at him. In the quote, she is compared to a thirst-perishing man who knows the well to which he has cript is poisoned, yet stops and drinks a lot of the water. The poison, in Jane's case would be her illusionment with Mr. Rochester and the likelyhood that he would reject her.
A: "He made me love him without looking at me." Pg. 177
I: Jane continues to tell her feelings toward Mr. Rochester. She says that she did not intend to love him but that she just fell for him. She cannot control her feelings toward him. She even compared Mr. Rochester with the rest of the men that had visited and noted that the other men were nothing compared to his master in her opinion. There may be a chance that Jane will try to get closer to Mr. Rochester if she can find the opportunity.
A: "a great lady, who scorned to touch me with the hem of her robes as she passed, who, if ever her dark and imperious eye fell on me by chance, would withdraw it instantly as an object too mean to merit observation."
I: By this time, Jane begins to realize that she does not like the attitude of the high class like miss Ingram. Miss Ingram was supposedly the chosen bride for Mr. Rochester, but Jane strongly disagrees with his decision because she knows that Miss Ingram does not have the qualities to make Mr. Rochester happy. Jane claims that there is no possible love between them. She criticizes how miss Ingram would prefer to not have any connection with anyone who is of lower class than she is, like Jane. Miss Ingram will probably become another antagonist in the story because she can compete with Jane for Mr. Rochester's love.
A: "But as matters really stood, to watch Mrs. Ingram's efforts at fascinating Mr. Rochester; to witness their repeated failure, herself unconscious that they did fail; vainly fancying that each shoft launched, hit the mark, and infatuately plumbing herself on success, when her pride and self-complacency repelled further and further what she wished to allure-to witness this, was to be at once under ceaseless excitation and ruthless restraint." Pg. 188
I: Jane analyses how Miss Ingram makes many attempst to appeal Mr. Rochester and fails without being conscious of it. She criticizes the intelligence of Miss Ingram for not realizing that Mr. Rochester does not love her. It can be infered that later, Mr. Rochester will decide not to marry Miss Ingram and so she will be heartbroken and want revenge.
Chapter 19
A: "One unexpected sentence came from her lips after another, till I got involved in a web of mystification; and wondered what unseen spirit had been sitting for weeks by my heart wathcing its workings, and takaing record of every pulse." Pg. 201
I: Jane was talking to the gypsy who could supposedly tell the future of people. Jane began to be confused by the things that she said and started to suspect of her questions and knoledge. It laver resulted that the gypsy was Mr. Rochester himself. This tells how Jane really does have feelings for Mr. Rochester because she had recognized it was him without him revealing himself. Mr. Rochester probably also has feelings for Jane because he asked her that question in order to supposedly tell Jane her future.
A: "The flame flickers in the eye; the eye shines like dew; it looks soft and full of feeling; it smiles at my jargon: it is susceptible; impression folows impression though its cleas shere, where it ceases to smile, it is sad; an unconscious latitude weighs on the lid: that signifies melancholy resulting fom loneliness." Pg. 202
I: A gypsy woman is telling Jane her fortune for the future. She tells Jane that she sees loneliness in her eyes. The gypsy woman has probably figured out that Jane is suffering for not being able to express her love to Mr. Rochester. The gypsy understands that Jane must be feeling sad for being alone.
Chapter 20
A: "To live, for me, Jane is to stand on a crater-crust which may crack and spue fire any day." Pg. 218
I: Mr. Rochester explains about some problems that can cause him to fall down any day. He seems to be hiding something from Jane. The dealings with Mason seem suspicious since Mr. Rochester did not want anyone to see him in his house by morning.
Chapter 21
A: "I knew by her stony eye - opaque to tenderness, indissoluable to tears - that she was resolved to consider me bad to the last; because to believe me good, would give her no generous pleasure: only a sense of mortification." Pg. 233
I: Jane describes how she feels that Mrs. Reed still rejects her even though she had called to see her befor she would die. She may experience the old feelings of rejection that she had throughout her child hood wile living with Mrs. Reed.
Chapter 24
A: "He stood between me and every thought of religion, as an elipse intervenes between man and the broad sun. I could not, in those days, see God for his creature of whom I made an idol." Pg.276
I: Jane had fallen so much in love with Mr. Rochester but was not completely certain that she wanted to marry him. She did not like his comment that they would live and die together, since she wanted to live her life however she would like. She wanted to only die when it was her time to do so. She had thought of Mr. Rochester as an idol but not any more.
Chapter 26
A: "Bertha Mason is mad; and she came of a mad family; - idiots and maniacs through three generations! Her mother, the Creole was both mad woman and a drunkard!" Pg. 294
I: Mr. Rochester confesses that he had a wife for many years locked up in the attic because she was mentally challenged. It was right after Jane and Mr. Rochester were about to be married. He tries to justify himself by saying that he was the victim because she had turned mad in an instant. Jane may not be able to forgive Mr. Rochester for betraying and lying to her. It will change the course of the story.
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