Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fic - Joseph Conrad [135]
11 (p. 52) Inferno: The reference is to the account of Hell in the Inferno, the first volume of the Divine Comedy trilogy by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321).
12 (p. 55) Mr. Kurtz: In the manuscript, the name here (and in the next three instances) is given as “Klein.” Georges Antoine Klein was a company agent whom Conrad picked up at Stanley Falls and who died of dysentery during the voyage downstream on the Roi des Belges. Aside from these facts, however, the historical Klein bears no significant resemblance to Conrad’s Kurtz.
13 (p.57) I did not see.... not at all: Marlow here alludes cryptically to an apparent conspiracy. The implication is that the manager, first by arranging to have the ship damaged and then by delaying its repairs, postpones Kurtz’s treatment, thereby ensuring that Kurtz will no longer be able to threaten his own professional position. As the manager subsequently projects—accurately, Marlow recognizes, with the wisdom of hindsight—the three months it will take to secure rivets and fix the ship “ought to do the affair” (p. 59). Marlow returns to this subject later, while describing the manager’s reaction to the evidently dying Kurtz: “he had no vital anxieties now, he took us both in with a comprehensive and satisfied glance: the ‘affair’ had come off as well as could be wished” (p. 114). In short, as Norman Sherry puts it, “the death of Kurtz is laid at the manager’s door” (Conrad’s Western World, p.47).
14 (p.59) “Once when various ... ‘have no entrails”’: The account here of large numbers of agents succumbing to disease is based on the historical facts. Hochschild observes that “before 1895 fully a third of white Congo state agents died there; some of the others died of the effects of disease after returning to Europe” (King Leopold’s Ghost, p. 138).
15 (p. 61 ) allowing one man... a halter: This phrase is a play on the adage “One man may steal a horse, while another may not look over a hedge,” which conveys the idea that whereas some people are above the law, others are unjustly held to account for trivial infractions.
16 (p.64) inhabitants in the planet Mars: In 1877 the Italian astronomer Gio vanni Schiaparelli reported the existence of caneli (“channels”) on the Martian surface; the term, however, was translated into English as “canals,” spuriously lending credence to the notion that there was intelligent life on Mars. In January 1898 Conrad’s friend H. G. Wells published The War of the Worlds, depicting an invasion of Earth by Martians. Conrad began writing Heart of Darkness in December of that year, and it is likely that this reference to “inhabitants in the planet Mars” was inspired by Wells’ popular novella.
17 (p. 71) “Ivory.... from him”: As we have already seen (in endnote 13, above), the manager schemes against Kurtz because he believes him to be after his job, and he worries that Kurtz’s prowess as an acquirer of ivory may enable him eventually to do just that. Further, he finds galling Kurtz’s ostensibly humanitarian notions as to how the business should be run. Disdainfully citing the latter’s contention that “[e]ach station should be like a beacon on the road towards better things, a centre for trade of course, but also for humanizing, improving, instructing” (p. 72), he makes clear his own view that such an idealistic approach would hamper the company’s ability to accrue profits.
18 (p. 82) brass wire... lumps of some stuff ... lavender colour: Sherry points out that brass wire was the staple currency of the Congo during this period, and he identifies the scanty food the African crewmen eat as a tapioca-based dough (Conrad’s Western World, p.60). Their grossly inadequate means of subsistence underscores the company’s inhumane treatment of them, and it also enhances Marlow’s admiration for what he terms