Heart of Darkness

63 pages • 2 hours read

Heart of Darkness

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1899

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Quiz

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Quiz

Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes

Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.

Part 1

Reading Check

1. Who is the narrator of the frame story?

2. Who says, “And this also…has been one of the dark places of the earth”?

3. What does Marlow say he had a passion for when he was a child?

4. Who helps Marlow get his job on the Congo steamboat?

5. Who is the chief of the Inner Station that Marlow hears so much about?

Multiple Choice

1. Where is the Nellie when Marlow tells his story?

A. in France

B. in England

C. in Belgium

D. in the Congo

2. What area are Marlow’s relatives referring to when they say it is “cheap and not so nasty as it looks”?

A. Africa

B. India

C. England

D. Continental Europe

3. When Marlow meets two women just inside the door of the Company offices, what are the two women doing?

A. knitting

B. writing letters

C. bookkeeping

D. arguing

4. From whom does Marlow first hear Kurtz’s name?

A. the man who interviews him at the Company headquarters

B. the pilot of the boat he takes to Africa

C. the chief accountant he meets at the first station

D. the general manager of the Central Station

5. What concern about Kurtz does the Central Station manager express?

A. Kurtz is not bringing in his assigned quota of ivory.

B. Kurtz is thinking about quitting his job.

C. Kurtz is said to be very sick and his station is in danger.

D. Kurtz has been badly mistreating the Congolese people.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What draws Marlow to Africa?

2. What is ironic about Marlow’s attitude toward his female relatives?

3. What makes Marlow uneasy about his first encounter with the Company when he goes to their offices for his interview?

4. Why does Marlow stay at the Central Station for much longer than intended?

5. What does the bricklayer at the Central Station tell Marlow about Kurtz?

Part 2

Reading Check

1. What hope do the uncle and nephew express about Kurtz when Marlow overhears them talking?

2. What does Marlow encounter onshore about fifty miles before the Inner Station?

3. As Marlow approaches the Inner Station, what is he more and more obsessed with?

4. What happens as the boat tries to pass the sandbank about a mile and a half below the Inner Station?

5. What does one of Marlow’s listeners say to him that makes Marlow angry enough to interrupt his storytelling?

Multiple Choice

1. Whom does Marlow say are “fine fellows…in their place”?

A. cannibals

B. agents

C. bricklayers

D. the Congolese

2. To what does Marlow compare the jungle because of the chanting, stomping, and clapping sounds the indigenous people make?

A. a church

B. a madhouse

C. a theater

D. a schoolyard

3. Besides “Wood for you” and “Hurry up,” what else does the note that Marlow finds say?

A. Bring food.

B. We have ivory.

C. We need medicine.

D. Approach cautiously.

4. When they are about eight miles from the Inner Station, what sound causes everyone on Marlow’s boat to worry that they will be attacked?

A. shrieking

B. drums

C. gunfire

D. singing

5. To what does Marlow compare the man standing on the bank by the Inner Station?

A. an albatross

B. a lightning bolt

C. a harlequin

D. a shepherd

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What causes one of Marlow’s listeners to become offended and interrupt his story?

2. What criticism does Marlow make about the education of his boat’s fireman?

3. When the “cannibal” crew becomes hungry, what does Marlow think stops them from eating the Europeans on board the boat?

4. What conclusion does Marlow come to about Kurtz after the boat is attacked?

5. What obligation does Marlow say men have to women?

Part 3

Reading Check

1. Who does Marlow say is completely ruled by “the absolutely pure, uncalculating, unpractical spirit of adventure”?

2. What did Kurtz threaten to shoot the Russian trader over?

3. Who is the man in the stretcher at the Inner Station?

4. What does Marlow use to frighten the native people?

5. Where does Kurtz die?

Multiple Choice

1. What does Marlow think is the greatest danger the Russian trader faces?

A. the indigenous people

B. his own greed

C. his devotion to Kurtz

D. the Company’s reaction to competition

2. What is Kurtz’s house surrounded by?

A. a razor-wire fence

B. bonfires

C. armed guards

D. heads on stakes

3. Whom does Marlow call “an animated image of death carved out of old ivory”?

A. The Russian trader

B. Kurtz

C. Kurtz’s Intended

D. The African woman

4. What is Marlow implying about the manager when he says that he “considered it necessary to sigh, but neglected to be consistently sorrowful”?

A. He is being hypocritical.

B. He is worried about the ivory.

C. He hopes to save Kurtz.

D. He is naturally optimistic.

5. What are Kurtz’s last words?

A. “Close the shutter.”

B. “Save me? I have saved you!”

C. “The horror! The horror!”

D. “Do you understand?”

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does the Russian trader tell Marlow Kurtz has been doing on his expeditions?

2. What does Marlow believe Kurtz learned about himself while he was out in the jungle?

3. What symbolic value does Conrad assign to the unnamed African woman?

4. What does Marlow learn about himself that causes him to call Kurtz a “remarkable man”?

5. What question does Kurtz’s Intended ask Marlow, and what lie does Marlow tell her in response?

Quizzes – Answer Key

Part 1

Reading Check

1. an anonymous narrator

2. Marlow

3. maps

4. his aunt

5. Mr. Kurtz

Multiple Choice

1. B (Part 1)

2. D (Part 1)

3. A (Part 1)

4. C (Part 1)

5. C (Part 1)

Short-Answer Response

1. Marlow is drawn to Africa because, as a child, he saw it as a mysterious place; when he was little, it was the biggest “blank” on his map. Now, it is the “snake” of the Congo River that fascinates him. (Part 1)

2. Marlow turns to his female relatives when he is looking for a job, and his aunt finds him one. But when he explains this, he is condescending, implying that it is beneath his dignity to ask women for help. (Part 1)

3. The people's attitudes at the Company seem ominous to him: the silent women, the cursory interview, and the document that he signs all make him feel like he is part of a conspiracy. (Part 1)

4. When Marlow arrives at the Central Station, he learns that the steamer he was supposed to captain has sunk in an accident that he finds suspiciously careless. (Part 1)

5. The bricklayer at the Central Station tells Marlow that Kurtz is a very successful agent and is expected to one day be the General Manager of the Central Station. This is due to Kurtz’s intelligence and supposedly enlightened attitude toward the Congolese. (Part 1)

Part 2

Reading Check

1. that he will die

2. a hut

3. meeting Kurtz

4. The native people shoot arrows at the boat.

5. that his story is “absurd”

Multiple Choice

1. A (Part 2)

2. B (Part 2)

3. D (Part 2)

4. A (Part 2)

5. C (Part 2)

Short-Answer Response

1. One of the people listening to Marlow’s story is offended when he refers to their work as “monkey tricks” and alludes to how little they are paid. (Part 2)

2. Marlow says that the education the man received to work as a fireman on a boat has ruined the man. He compares him to a dog in clothing, walking on his hind legs. (Part 2)

3. Although the crew is close to starving, Marlow thinks they refrain from eating the Europeans on board because they do not look like wholesome food. (Part 2)

4. After the boat is attacked, Marlow assumes that the local indigenous people must have killed Kurtz. (Part 2)

5. Marlow says that it is men’s responsibility to keep women “out of it.” He means that men should protect women from the more brutal truths about life. (Part 2)

Part 3

Reading Check

1. the Russian trader

2. ivory

3. Kurtz

4. the boat’s whistle

5. on board Marlow’s boat

Multiple Choice

1. C (Part 3)

2. D (Part 3)

3. B (Part 3)

4. A (Part 3)

5. C (Part 3)

Short-Answer Response

1. Kurtz has been going out into the jungle to explore and raid the area for ivory; along the way, he has created a loyal following of local villagers. (Part 3)

2. Marlow thinks that the wilderness has shown Kurtz things about himself that were hidden before, things that Kurtz found fascinating. Marlow also thinks that his experience in the jungle has revealed that Kurtz is “hollow at the core.” (Part 3)

3. Because the jungle around the unnamed African woman stills and seems to look at her as if seeing a reflection of its own soul, the implication is that this woman symbolizes the soul of Africa itself. (Part 3)

4. After coming close to death himself, Marlow realizes that he is a person with “nothing to say.” By contrast, he sees Kurtz as someone who had something to say, and “He said it.” (Part 3)

5. Kurtz’s Intended asks Marlow what Kurtz’s last words were. He finds that he cannot tell her the truth; he lies and tells her that Kurtz’s final words were her name. (Part 3)