Starter:
Write down your questions for pages 82-96 in the chat box and then silently read the discussion questions for today.
Agenda
Part 3 pages 82-end Discussion Questions
Context on “The Hollow Men” by T.S. Eliot
The poem is narrated by one of the "Hollow Men." (Is Marlow a "hollow man"?)
This epigraph seems to hark back longingly for even such monstrous men who at last believed in what they were doing, however horrific the results, setting up a natural contrast to the hollowness of modern man, who fundamentally believes in nothing and is, therefore, empty at the core of his being, like a Guy Fawkes dummy. So, two different types of `hollow/stuffed men´ are presented: he who lacks a soul (Mister Kurtz) and he who lacks a real body (Guy Fawkes dummy), representing both physical and spiritual emptiness.
In the first section of the poem, a bunch of Hollow Men are leaning together like scarecrows. Everything about them is as dry as the Sahara Desert, including their voices and their bodies. Everything they say and do is meaningless. They exist in a state like Hell, except they were too timid and cowardly to commit the violent acts that would have gained them access to Hell. They have not crossed over the River Styx to make it to either Heaven or Hell. The people who have crossed over remember these guys as "hollow men".
Write down your questions for pages 82-96 in the chat box and then silently read the discussion questions for today.
Agenda
- Go over your questions as well as the discussion questions below
- Discuss your insights/questions about the “Hollow Men” poem, and 1 passage from the HoD that you think connects to the poem. (check this video of T.S. Elliot reading the poem-- creepy!)
- Review upcoming assignments
Part 3 pages 82-end Discussion Questions
- Why does Marlow remain loyal to Kurtz (to the “nightmare of his choice”) and how does his view of Kurtz differ from his view of “The Company” and other civilians?
- On his view of “The Company” and civilians think back to early parts of the book as well as: pages 77, 88-89
- For his “explanations” for why he chose to stay loyal to Kurtz, see pages 87 (see pages 77, 87-88, 91,
- How does Marlow describe the last moments before Kurtz’s death?
- 86, 88: What is “the horror, the horror” to which Kurtz refers? Why does Marlow conclude in Heart of Darkness that Kurtz's final words are a "moral victory"? What drives Kurtz into “madness”??
- What is the Heart of Darkness? Is part of the point of this modernist text that we cannot ultimately come to one objective truth? Is it meant to be intentionally ambiguous? Either way, it seems Conrad points to some explanations
- See pp 82-83, bottom of 84, Marlow’s compounding the beating of the drum with his own heart on 81, 86
- 92-96: Describe the scene when Marlow goes to see Kurtz’s Intended. What is their conversation like and what is Marlow’s own inner monologue like?
- 94-96: Why does Marlow lie to the Intended? What are the consequences, according to Marlow, of such a lie? What does Conrad imply the consequences are?
- To what extent do Marlow's comments regarding women in Heart of Darkness help to explain why he decides to lie to Kurtz's Intended? What else explains his lie?
- To what extent is HoD an existentialist text?
- For Marlow’s struggle between recognizing the terror/absurdity and futilely constructing meaning and reason: page 80, 93
- For Marlow’s views of Death: 87
- For Marlow’s fears of alienation (from self? From others?) - 81
- Ashley will explain Camus’s philosophy regarding the absurd, the inevitability of death, and Sisyphus as “Absurd Hero”. See also the notes at the bottom of the discussion question guide.
- What transformations have you observed in Marlow over the course of the novella? What contributes to his changes? To what extent does his physical journey reflect his psychological journey?
- How are the beginning and the end of Heart of Darkness similar? Why does Conrad end with us heading back into the heart of an immense darkness especially given Marlow’s decision to lie to the Intended?
Context on “The Hollow Men” by T.S. Eliot
- This poem might be useful for some of your analyses of Heart of Darkness-- especially those of you examining what the heart of darkness actually is. Another option would be to do an analysis of characters in the novel as comparison to the hollow men in this poem. Is T.S. Elliot critiquing the men in HoD through this poem? Which men? Which aspects of society? Is Conrad? So in case you might be down with that, here are some points to consider in interpreting this poem.
- Dark message: If you aren't going to be a good person, at least be a really bad person and get yourself all the way to hell. How does this relate to Heart of Darkness?
- The English celebrate Guy Fawkes Day every November 5th with fireworks and the burning of little straw men or "effigies."
- Guy Fawkes was convicted of trying to blow up King James I in 1605 by stashing gunpowder underneath the Parliament building. King James continued a legacy of persecuting Catholics. The incident is known as the "Gunpowder Plot." But Fawkes and the gunpowder were discovered before the plan went off, and Fawkes gave up the names of his co-conspirators under torture.
- To celebrate Guy Fawkes Day, English children ask for money to fund the explosions of their straw effigies of Fawkes, so they say, "A penny for the guy?" "Guy" being his first name.
- But there's more. According to Ancient Greek mythology, a person who died would need to pay Charon, the ferryman, with a coin before he would take you across the River Styx into the realm of death. So the "Old Guy" also refers to the ancient figure of Charon. Apparently, someone is begging for a "penny" to give the ferryman to get across the Styx. Charon would locate his coin traditionally in the mouth of the dead. Without payment, the dead would not get into the underworld and would be left to drift on the shore for 100 years.
- The River Styx is a principal river in the Greek underworld (also called Hades). The river forms a border between the underworld and the world of the living. The word means hate in Greek and is named after the goddess, Styx.
The poem is narrated by one of the "Hollow Men." (Is Marlow a "hollow man"?)
This epigraph seems to hark back longingly for even such monstrous men who at last believed in what they were doing, however horrific the results, setting up a natural contrast to the hollowness of modern man, who fundamentally believes in nothing and is, therefore, empty at the core of his being, like a Guy Fawkes dummy. So, two different types of `hollow/stuffed men´ are presented: he who lacks a soul (Mister Kurtz) and he who lacks a real body (Guy Fawkes dummy), representing both physical and spiritual emptiness.
In the first section of the poem, a bunch of Hollow Men are leaning together like scarecrows. Everything about them is as dry as the Sahara Desert, including their voices and their bodies. Everything they say and do is meaningless. They exist in a state like Hell, except they were too timid and cowardly to commit the violent acts that would have gained them access to Hell. They have not crossed over the River Styx to make it to either Heaven or Hell. The people who have crossed over remember these guys as "hollow men".