Comparing Heart of Darkness with The Secret River

Heart of Darkness (1902)

The Secret River (2005)

'Alien' cultures in history help define us

In other words, we compare ourselves with what we think we are not.HOD and TSR draw links between Roman colonisation of Britain and colonies in the Africa and Australia.

• Britons were once 'the Other' to invading cultures, just as the Aborigines are to the settlers.
• T. seeks to comfort Sal with this fact when they first arrive at the point:

"Just like the old Thames before them Romans came along."

• However, at the start of his tale, Marlow sees exploration and empire building as a test of manliness. Of the Romans first arriving at the Thames in 43AD, he says "They were men enough to face the darkness."
• These quotes also suggest to us that, despite our pretensions, we all have the capacity for barbarism within us. Degrees of civilisation or culture are a matter of perspective: for example, how 'civilised' was T's upbringing in London? Do you wish to add to your thoughts on the titles now?

The strangeness of landscapes in both texts is impenetrably mysterious yet endlessly compelling.

Comment on the effectiveness of the language / sentence structure in both quotations:

• "the landscape began to swim in his vision. But he had never caught a rock in the private act of falling."

(p347... what does this suggest T. usually does?)

• "the silence of the land went home to one's very heart - its mystery, its greatness, the amazing reality of its concealed life."

(Marlow marvels at the jungle in HOD, p.31)

• "I tried to break the spell -- the heavy mute spell of the wilderness" (Marlow, HOD, p82)

Kurtz and Thornhill share admirable qualities of fortitude, but both are imprisoned by the hollowness of their urge to win.

"We live, as we dream -- alone." (Kurtz, p33)

"Each time, it was a new emptiness. // [...] // He could not understand why it did not feel like triumph." // (TSR, p348-9)

• Comment on the effectiveness of the punctuation and paragraphing here.
• How does Thornhill share in Kurtz's "brutal instincts... monstrous passions." p82)?
• See also 'Tragic recognitions'

Consumerism lies at the heart of the capitalist drive to build empires, according to both Conrad and Grenville.

" 'You show them you have in hand something that is really profitable, and then there will be no limits to the recognition of your ability.'" (Kurtz, p85)

How does Grenville explore a similar idea with early depictions of the the settlers' consumption and then Thornhill's love of "excess" but of always wanting more, always encountering dissatisfaction despite his riches, in the final pages of her novel?

Both Kurtz and Thornhill finally recognise their own moral failings.

Comparable moments of anagnorisis

"The horror! The horror!"

(HOD p86); re-read whole, powerful paragraph for the context of Kurtz's last words...

"...a hollow feeling. Too late, too late." (TSR p.349) - Knowledge of the two crises of conscience where outside forces and inner drives tragically meet to force him to make fateful decisions . First, the theft of Brazil wood, and then the massacre. The Settlers' massacre can be compared to Kurtz' uncompromising stance on the natives. is the inevitable inconscionable end point of colonial oppression. "Exterminate all the brutes," as Kurtz concludes (262). "Sterminate them, Smasher said." (311)

Sterminate'

Don't forget...

• ATQ! "How does Grenville make the reader feel Thornhill's sense of confusion, emptiness and unrest in the final pages of the book?"

• Use notes from last term from your workbook in Lesson 31, as well as your reading of HOD. This essay is is on TSR; use comparison with HOD wisely to inform your ideas on TSR as a whole.

• Use your Lit Essay template to help structure your essay

• Make sure you INTEGRATE your quotations accurately. Give a sense you know where they come from and what's happening / what they mean as you do in Q2 of the Language paper. See advice on quotation from last term.