Heart Of Darkness

“No, they did not bury me, though there is a period of time which I remember mistily, with a shuddering wonder, like a passage through some inconceivable world that had no hope in it and no desire. I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. They trespassed upon my thoughts. They were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretence, because I felt so sure they could not possibly known the things I knew. Their bearing, which was simply the bearing of commonplace individuals going about their business in the assurance of perfect safety, was offensive to me like the outrageous flaunting of folly in the face of a danger it is unable to comprehend. I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in restraining myself from laughing in their faces so full of stupid importance. I dareway I was not very well at that time. I tottered about the streetsвЂ"there were various affairs to settleвЂ"grinning bitterly at perfectly respectable persons. I admit my behaviour was inexcusable, but then my temperature was seldom normal in these days. My dear aunt’s endeavours to `nurse up my strengthÐ'Ò' seemed altogether beside the mark. It was not my strength that wanted nursing, it was my imagination that wanted soothing. I kept the bundle of papers given me by Kurtz, not knowing exactly what to do with it. His mother had died lately, watched over, as I was told, by his Intended. A clean-shaved man, with an official manner and wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, called on me one day and made me inquiries, at first circuitous, afterwards suavely pressing, about what he was pleased to denominate certain `documentsÐ'Ò'. I was not surprised, because I had had two rows with the manager on the subject out there. I had refused to give up the smallest scrap out of the package, and I took the same attitude with the spectacled man. He became darkly menacing at last and with much heat argued that the Company had the right to every bit of information about its `territoriesÐ'Ò'. And said he, `Mr. Kurtz’s knowledge of unexplored regions must have been necessarily extensive and peculiarвЂ"owing to his great abilities and to the deplorable circumstances in which he had been placed: therefore--`I assured his Mr. Kurtz’s knowledge, however extensive, did not bear upon the problems of commerce or administration. He invoked then the name of science. `It would be an incalculable loss if, Ð'Ò' etc., etc. I offered him the report on the `Suppression of Savage Customs, Ð'Ò' with the postcriptum torn off. He took it up eagerly, but ended by sniffing at it with an air of contempt. `This is not what we had a right to expect, Ð'Ò' he remarked. `Expect nothing else, Ð'Ò' I said. `There are only private letters.Ð'Ò' He withdrew upon some threat of legal proceedings, and I saw him no more; but another fellow, calling himself Kurtz’s cousin, appeared two days later, and was anxious to hear all the details about his dear relative’s last moments. Incidentally he gave me to understand that Kurtz had been essentially a great musician. `There was the making of an immense success, Ð'Ò' said the man, who was an organist, I believe, with lank grey hair flowing over a greasy coat-collar. I had no reason to doubt his statement; and to this day I am unable to say what was Kurtz’s profession, whether he ever had anyвЂ"which was the greatest of his talents. I had taken him for a painter who wrote for the papers, or else for a journalist who could paintвЂ"but even the cousin (who took snuff during the interview) could not tell me what had beenвЂ"exactly. He was a universal geniusвЂ"on the point I agreed with the old chap, who thereupon blew his nose noisily into a large cotton handkerchief and withdrew in senile agitation, bearing off some family letters and memoranda without importance. Ultimately a journalist anxious to know something of the fate of his `dear colleagueÐ'Ò' turned up. This visitor informed me Kurtz’s proper sphere ought to have been politics `on the popular side.Ð'Ò' He had furry straight eyebrows, bristly hair cropped short, an eyeglass on a broad ribbon, and becoming expansive, confessed his opinion that Kurtz really couldn’t write a bitвЂ"`but heavens! How that man could talk. He electrified large meetings. He had faithвЂ"don’t you see?вЂ"he had the faith. He could get himself to believe anythingвЂ"anything. He would have been a splendid leader of an extreme party.Ð'Ò' `What party? Ð'Ò' I asked. `Any party, Ð'Ò' answered the other. `He was aвЂ"an extremist.Ð'Ò' Did I not think so? I assented. Did I know, he asked, with a sudden flash of curiosity, `what it was that had induced him to go out there? Ð'Ò' `Yes, Ð'Ò' said I, and forthwith handed him the famous Report for publication, if he thought fit. He glanced through it hurriedly, mumbling all the time, judged `it would do Ð'Ò' and took himself off with this plunder.

This passage is about the return of Marlow to the Old Continent and how he feels after his journey; it begins with Marlow saying “No, they did not bury meвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ because of his last moments in Africa when he felt ill and during this time he felt he was in “some inconceivable world that had no hope in it and no desire”, perhaps due to the fever, but, in fact he was in that world, at least he thought Africa was other world, totally different from what he had seen, and whose native were lacking in hope. It seems that he is saying that his stay in Africa was a kind of nightmare.

In line 22 he says “I found myself back in the sepulchral city” that, from my point of view is the city in which the Company was placed; sepulchral is related to death, so when he says `sepulchral cityÐ'Ò' he is accusing the city and Europe in of what he has seen in Africa, he has seen how people died there

From line 23 to line 25 he shows he has changed by what he has seen in Africa and shows his