Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fic - Joseph Conrad [137]
27 (p. 115) “The horror! The horror!”: Especially compelling among the broad range of interpretations that this famous passage has received is the suggestion that it sums up Kurtz’s insight into the basic depravity of human nature. T. S. Eliot had planned to use the passage that concludes with these words as the epigraph for The Waste Land (1922) but was dissuaded from doing so by Ezra Pound, who heavily edited the poem. Apparently having in mind Marlow’s characterization of Kurtz as “hollow at the core” (p.103), Eliot subsequently used as an epigraph for “The Hollow Men” (1925) the terse announcement “Mistah Kurtz—he dead” (p. 116).
28 (p.124) It seemed to me.... was his due?: Conrad here alludes to a Latin maxim: Fiat justitia, ruat caelum (Let justice be done, though the heavens fall).
“Amy Foster”
1 (p.125) Martello Tower: More than a hundred of these small but massively fortified and heavily armed structures had been constructed on the southeastern English coast between 1805 and 1812. Given that Yanko’s landing in England is viewed by the rural people as an assault of sorts and that this period was characterized by heightened fears of the military ambitions of European powers toward Britain, this Martello Tower (which is mentioned twice in the story) provides Conrad with an important symbol of insular British xenophobia during an era in which that tendency was particularly pronounced.
2 (p.125) Brenzett ... Colebrook ... Darnford: Although Brenzett is an actual town in County Kent, unlike Conrad’s imaginary counterpart it is several miles inland. The actual Colebrook is not in County Kent, and Darnford is wholly fictional.
3 (p. 128) as some German ... is no thought: Dr. Kennedy is wrong to impute this phrase to a German. The reference, in fact, is to the Dutch philosopher and physiologist Jacob Moleschott (1822-1893), who is widely regarded as the founder of nineteenth-century philosophical materialism. Moleschott famously asserted “without phosphorous, there is no thought” as a way of succinctly conveying his claim that consciousness is a proper subject for investigation by scientists rather than theologians.
4 (p.132) iron track: The reference is to a train track. Later in the paragraph the “steam-machine” denotes a train, and then still later the “steam-machine that went on the water” is a steamship. Many parts of Kennedy’s narrative faithfully reproduce the limited outlook of the peasant Yanko’s account.
5 (p. 133) no military service to do: The fact that one of Yanko’s reasons for attempting to emigrate to America is to avoid conscription in his home country enhances the autobiographical dimension of the story. One of Conrad’s chief reasons for emigrating from Russian-occupied Poland was that, as a Russian subject and the son of a convict, he would have been liable for up to twenty-five years of compulsory duty in the Russian Army had he remained.
6 (p. 147) I wonder whether... of her pity: Conrad had characterized Jessie George, shortly before they married, as a “not at all striking-looking person (to tell the truth alas—rather plain!) who nevertheless is very dear to me” (Collected Letters, vol. 1, p. 265). Because of her evident intellectual inferiority to Conrad, the latter’s friend Edward Garnett went so far as to attempt to dissuade him from marrying her. Such sentiments were reciprocated by Jessie’s provincial family, who were skeptical of the strange foreigner Conrad. Jessie recalls that her mother in particular had qualms about giving her consent to the marriage, as “she had a strong