studyguide109

Online Study GuidesEng 109 - Spring 1999
for key "Representative Texts" featured in
Davis, Paul, and others, eds. Western Literature in a World Context. Volume 2:
The Enlightenment through the Present. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995.
Unless otherwise indicated, text & page references are to this Eng 109 required textbook.

Faust - A Reading Guide to Prologue to Heaven, The First Part of the Tragedy
Wuthering Heights - Narrative Structure; Reading & Discussion Questions
Heart of Darkness Reading & Discussion Questions: Part I (pp. 1367-1387);
Part II (pp. 1387-1404); Part III, (pp. 1404-1421)
Things Fall Apart Reading & Study Questions:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/achebTFA.htm
Part I (chs. 1-13); Part II (chs. 14-19); Part III (chs. 20-25)
From Hum 211 African Authors: Chinua Achebe & Things Fall Apart:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/achebe.htm
Recommended: Achebe's "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Rpt. in Heart of Darkness: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Essays in Criticism. 3rd ed. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: W. W. Norton, 1988. 251-262.)

Faust A Reading Guide to . . .

Prologue to Heaven (pp. 551-554)

Contrast Mephistopheles’ view of humankind and Faust (pp. 552-553) to the Lord’s view of humankind and Faust (pp. 553-554)
The wager between God (AKA: the Lord) and Mephistopheles (AKA: Satan, the Devil) (pp. 553-554)
Mephistopheles’ role in the Lord’s divine scheme & the relationship between the Lord and Mephistopheles (pp. 553-554).

The First Part of the Tragedy

Night (pp. 554-564)

Faust’s attitude toward his acquired knowledge and why he feels it is inadequate (pp. 554-555)
The sources of Faust’s dissatisfaction: what he wants (pp. 555-556) and how he reacts to the Earth Spirit (pp. 557-558)
Contrast Faust’s views to those of his student Wagner (pp. 558-560)
Reason(s) why Faust contemplates suicide and nearly drinks the poison (pp. 560-562)
What prevents Faust from committing suicide as Easter morn dawns (pp. 563-564)

Outside the City Gate (pp. 564-573)

Goethe presents a view of common life going about its business on Easter Day outside Faust’s isolated study (pp. 564-567)
Contrast Faust’s and Wagner’s attitudes toward common folk (pp. 567-570)
Faust’s dissatisfied yearnings and the "Two souls" that divide him (pp. 570-571)
A black dog appears and Faust alone intuits that the dog may be more than it appears (pp. 572-573): (Mephistopheles is a shape changer and can appear in many forms)

Study Room (pp. 573-581)

Re-entering his study with the black poodle, Faust experiences mixed feelings—hope, discontent (pp. 573-574)—and seeks answers in revising a passage in the Bible, John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Deed!" (l. 1238)
Faust casts a spell that catches the dog and forces it to reveals it true identity (pp. 574-576)
Note how Mephistopheles answers Faust’s question: "…who are you then?" (l. 1335). How does Mephistopheles identify himself? What are his goals on Earth and why can’t he realize them? What are his limitations? What is his current "bold" plan? (pp. 576-579)
Mephistopheles uses his spirit assistants to lull Faust to sleep to he can escape the holding spell (pp. 579-580).

Study Room II (pp. 581-593)

Mephistopheles knocks and is admitted to Faust’s study again, this time in the guise of an urbane squire "come here to dispel/Your moods" (ll. 1534-1535).
Note how Faust summarizes his condition (pp. 581-582).
The wager between Faust and Mephistopheles is struck; note that Faust does not sell his soul to the Devil outright. What are Mephistopheles’ terms? What are Faust’s terms? (pp. 583-584)
What does Faust want now? (pp. 585-586) Where will Faust now seek satisfaction, with Mephistopheles as his servant and slave? (pp. 586-587)

… [Scene "Auerbach’s Cellar in Leipzig" omitted: see n. 19, p. 593.

Faust shows, on his first acquaintance with the world of action and experience, that he cannot be tempted simply with cheap debauchery.]

Witch’s Kitchen (pp. 593-601)

Mephistopheles brings Faust to the Witch’s Kitchen where Faust’s youth is restored (pp. 598-600). Then Mephistopheles offers Faust the love of a pure maiden (pp. 600-601).

A Street (pp. 601-603)

Upon meeting Margaret [AKA Gretchen, the affectionate nickname], Faust is strongly attracted to her: why? (p. 601). Over Mephistopheles’ reservations (pp. 601-602), Faust vows: "You must get me that girl, you hear?" (l. 2619).

Evening (pp. 603-606)

Even as Mephistopheles pursues a plot to woo Margaret/Gretchen by depositing a casket of jewels in her room that she thinks comes from Faust, Faust has second thoughts about seducing her when he sees her room: why? (pp. 603-604).
How does Margaret react to meeting Faust and finding the casket of jewels? (p. 603, 605-606).

Promenade (pp. 606-607)

Mephistopheles informs Faust that the jewels have been confiscated by Margaret’s mother—"ill-gotten goods" (l. 2823)—and given to a priest. So Mephistopheles forms another plan to advance Faust’s seduction of Margaret (p.607).

The Neighbor’s House (pp. 607-613)

Martha, the worldly wise neighbor with a wandering husband, advises Margaret/Gretchen not to tell her mother that she has found another, even richer casket of jewels in her room (pp. 607-608).
Mephistopheles lies to get the ladies to meet with him and Faust later in the Garden. (pp. 610-612). Compare Martha’s and trusting Margaret’s reactions.

A Street (pp. 612-613)

Mephistopheles reports to Faust on what he has accomplished at the neighbor Martha’s house. Contrast Faust’s feelings for Margaret/Gretchen with Mephistopheles’s cynicism over the impending meeting (p. 613).

A Garden (pp. 613-617)

Note how Faust is reacting to Margaret in this scene—e.g., her "simplicity and innocence … lowliness and sweet humility" (ll. 3101-3104).
Do you think Faust really loves Margaret, as the star flower predicts (pp. 616-617)? What does Mephistopheles think? (p. 617).

A Summer House (pp. 617-618)

Margaret has given herself to Faust in the purity of her love (see ll. 3211-3216).

Forest and Cavern (pp. 618-622)

Summarize Faust’s opening speech (ll. 3217-3250). Note Faust’s response to this sojourn in the "wilderness" and Mephistopheles’ cynicism (pp. 619-620).
How does Faust react to Mephistopheles’ taunts regarding Margaret/Gretchen? (pp. 620-622). Now that he has won the pure maiden and her love, is Faust satisfied? (pp. 621-622).

Gretchen’s Room (pp. 622-623)

What state is Gretchen/Margaret in?

Martha’s Garden (p. 623-626)

When Margaret/Gretchen looks for reassurance and presses "Henry" Faust for an expression of religious faith, note his response (pp. 623-625). What Romanticist attitudes does Faust express in his speech, lines 3431-3458?
What is Margaret’s reaction to Faust’s speech and the company (i.e. Mephistopheles) that her lover keeps? (pp. 624-625)
To lie with her again, Faust offers Margaret a potion to put her mother to sleep—trusting, Margaret accedes (although the drink will actually kill her mother, pp. 625)
How does Mephistopheles interpret the scene just transpired? (p. 626).

At the Well (pp. 626-628)

From Lieschen, Gretchen/Margaret learns about the fate of Barbie, paralleling her own condition. How does Gretchen react? (pp. 627-628).

Zwinger (see note 24., p. 628)

Gretchen/Margaret laments her situation.

Night (pp. 629-633)

Valentine, Gretchen/Margaret’s brother, has learned what has happened and vows revenge (p. 629), and when he fights Faust, he is killed—with help from the Devil (pp. 630-631).
As he dies, Valentine condemns his sister and curses Martha: on what grounds (pp. 631-632). Characterize the social attitude toward fallen women like Gretchen/Margaret and Barbie.

Cathedral (pp. 633-634)

As she tries to pray in Cathedral, an Evil spirit goads Gretchen/Margaret for her sins—what sins is Gretchen charged with? (pp. 633-634). Gretchen falls in a faint.

Walpurgis Night (pp. 634-644 – see n. 29, p. 634)

Mephistopheles spirits Faust away from the scenes of his crimes. On Walpurgis Night, Faust undertakes the epic, Romantic journey into the underworld realm of the supernatural-unfamiliar-dangerous dark side of the human psyche—even as his beloved Margaret/Gretchen is suffering the consequences of their sins. Faust is offered the "magic-mad," orgiastic, "freedoms" of Walpurgis Night.
In the midst of these ambiguous imaginative freedoms, what vision does Faust have (p. 643)?

Gloomy Day (pp. 644-645)

What has Mephistopheles kept from Faust? And how does Faust react when he finds out?

Night, Open Country (p. 645)

Mephistopheles and Faust speed toward Margaret.

Dungeon (pp. 646-651)

Margaret has been condemned to death for murdering her and Faust’s illegitimate child, and awaits the carrying out of her sentence in dungeon. What is her state? How does Henry Faust react?
Faust wants to save Margaret and carry her away to safety, with the Devil’s help, but she refuses: why? See pp. 648-651.
Consider the parallels between Blake’s Songs and Margaret/Gretchen’s fall from innocence into experience. What is lost and what is gained? In the end, Margaret "Is saved! (l. 4611), declares "A VOICE [from above]: what has happened and why? (p. 651)
Faust is brought to declare, "Would I were never born!" (l. 4596): why? As is developed later in the "Tragedy," Faust realizes that his lust for experience, Romantic egoism, and irresponsibility has resulted in terrible calamities. Margaret has been an agent in Faust’s tragic but progressive development and though he leaves the scene with Mephistopheles at the end of Part I, he is changed. Guilt can lead to redemption. As predicted by the Lord in the Prologue, man striving is bound to err, yet going "slack" and refusing to strive is a worse sin in the Romanticist view.

See "Faust: Summary of Part II and Commentary" handout distributed in class.

Wuthering Heights

Narrative Structure

Chs. 1-4 [Narrative Present; narr. Lockwood] Lockwood's visits to Wuthering Heights and his ensuing illness; he entreats Nelly Dean to tell the "history" and the Exposition (introduction) of major settings, characters, and conflicts begins.

Narrative Frame is established to provide a plausible reason for telling the story (the narrative) of Wuthering Heights: The first narrative voice we hear in the "narrative present" of the novel is that of the character Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange (Heathcliff is his landlord). Shocked and intrigued by his visits to Wuthering Heights, Lockwood the first narrator (story teller) invites his housekeeper Nelly Dean to tell him the full "history." Thus, we are introduced to the second and main narrator of the story: Nelly Dean was an eye-witness, a participant-narrator in the "history" she will relate to Lockwood—and to us, the readers of Wuthering Heights. The "time frame " of the narrative will thus shift back and forth between the "narrative past" (of Nelly Dean re-telling the "history" of Wuthering Heights) the "narrative present" (of Lockwood being told the "history" by Nelly Dean).

The character of participant-narrator Nelly Dean is especially important to analyze and understand. In creating and choosing this character to be the primary narrator of WH, Emily Bronte has set up a complex narrative frame. Many critics have asked and tried to answer why. One reason may be to make WH more believable and "realistic. Nelly Dean seems firmly rooted in common sense, every day, normative "reality," and thus helps to "authenticate"—or make more "realistic" and plausible—the often wild, passionate, even fantastic story of WH. Yet Nelly Dean also complicates our understanding of the characters and actions of the story, because she was a "participant" in the past history she relates. Overall, she seems to be a "reliable" narrator—but -not altogether nor always an objective, disinterested observer. –She has opinions and interests invested in the events and characters she presents to Lockwood—and to us. Keep in mind, then, that Nelly "mediates" the story—we have access to the "history" only through her "mediating" point of view—she "filters" and can be tempted to "color" her account with her values, opinions, and perspectives. For example, it becomes clear after awhile that she does not like the protagonist Cathy Earnshaw: consider how Nelly’s attitude could affect and prejudice the way she represents the original Cathy to Lockwood—and to us. Consider also that as a participant as well as a witness to most of the events, she narrates, Nelly Dean may also have a stake in "coloring" her own part (or blame) at times.

Chs. 4-7 ["Narrative Past" narr. Nelly Dean] Heathcliff's mysterious origins and introduction to the Earnshaw household & estate Wuthering Heights. Family dynamics are characterized in terms of relationships to Heathcliff, Mr. Earnshaw’s favorite (why?). Formative childhood characters and events develop Heathcliff, Catherine, & Hindley. Hindley is sent away to college. Mr. Earnshaw dies and Hindley returns with wife & abuses/degrades Heathcliff. Strong attachment between Catherine & Heathcliff: Catherine teaches Heathcliff his letters & they roam the moors as free spirits. Then comes the incident at Thrushcross Grange: Catherine mends, staying 5 weeks with Lintons. When Catherine returns to Wuthering Heights, she is changed.

KEY SCENE: Ch. 7. Edgar and Isabella Linton visit Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff attempts to be presentable but Hindley banishes him to the garret. Catherine steals away to join Heathcliff--who vows revenge:"…I shall pay Hindley back" (714). Note contrasts between Edgar Linton & Heathcliff—especially from Cathy’s point of view.

Chs. 7-10 [Narrative Past, narr. Nelly Dean]. Hareton Earnshaw is born, his mother Mrs. Hindley Earnshaw dies, and his father Hindley grows ferocious and savage, especially toward Heathcliff. Then . . .

KEY SCENES: Ch. 8-9. Catherine dresses for Edgar Linton’s visit; note further contrasts made between Edgar and Heathcliff. Nasty scene develops wherein Cathy slaps Nelly and Edgar, but Edgar doesn’t leave—he is "doomed" in Nelly’s view. Hindley enters drunk and abusive: he drops his son Hareton, but Heathcliff saves the child, ironically "the instrument of thwarting his own revenge" (722).

Out of sight by the fire, Heathcliff overhears (part of) Catherine’s discussion with Nelly regarding Cathy’s accepting Edgar’s proposal of marriage. Catherine relates her "queer dream"—a parallel with traits of the Byronic hero/ine—her "joy" when angels fling her out of heaven. Cathy contrasts her love for Edgar and Heathcliff: "Nelly, I am Heathcliff" (726). She can’t abide the idea that they would ever be really separated. Heathcliff disappears, Cathy grieves and experiences her first serious illness--Nelly observes, Catherine can’t "bear crossing much" (730). Edgar and Catherine marry, and Nelly goes with them to live at Thrushcross Grange.

[Return to "Narrative Present":] Lockwood’s illness updated; Nelly continues her "history"

Chs. 10-14 [Narrative Past, narr. Nelly Dean, resumed]. Catherine & Edgar’s marital happiness--until Heathcliff returns after 3 years absence. Heathcliff’s transformation and Cathy’s joy. Isabella Linton falls in love with Heathcliff, despite Catherine’s and Nelly’s warnings and assessment of his true character. Heathcliff pursues his revenge plot against Hindley, taking up his gambling debts. Heathcliff learns of Isabella’s feelings for him and hatches a second revenge plot:

KEY SCENES: Ch. 11-12: Heathcliff accuses Cathy of treating him "infernally" and swears he won’t "suffer unrevenged" (743). Edgar forbids Heathcliff to come again to the ‘Grange. Note Catherine’s reaction to this 2^nd separation from Heathcliff: she holds herself blameless, feels victimized by both Heathcliff’s and Edgar’s "ingratitude" (744), vows to "break their hearts by breaking my own" (745) and punish them by dying. Catherine fasts three days in her room. Nelly mistakes Catherine’s "true condition" (747) and remembers too late Cathy’s previous illness (748; caused also by the first sustained separation from Heathcliff, when he disappeared three years earlier). Cathy’s madness: her bird and mirror hallucinations, her return to childhood self when Hindley had also tried to separate her from Heathcliff, "my all in all" (750). To this 12-year-old remembered Catherine, Mrs. Linton is "wife of a stranger; an exile and an outcast"/an "abyss" (750). Catherine foresees her own death, and speaks to Heathcliff through the window to her past self: "I won’t rest til you are with me. I never will!" (750). Edgar, learning of Catherine’s true condition, is enraged with Nelly Dean. Cathy, realizing very late that Nelly has been an enemy rather than a friend, calls Nelly "traitor" and "witch" (752).

Isabella elopes with Heathcliff; Edgar is resigned. Catherine, pregnant, sustains a long illness. Nelly learns that Isabella and Heathcliff have returned to Wuthering Heights via a long letter Isabella writes to Nelly. In it Isabella asks, "Is Mr. Heathcliff a man? . . . mad? . . . [or] a devil?" (756). Alarmed, Nelly pays a visit to Wuthering Heights, is more alarmed when she sees Isabella, and undergoes Heathcliff’s close questioning about Catherine’s illness. Heathcliff is in obvious inner torment, and he exacts from Nelly a promise to help him see Catherine.

Ch. 15[Narrative Present; narr. Lockwood ]. Lockwood is recovering from his illness and says he’ll continue the "history" of Wuthering Heights. He is said to remark, but in Nelly’s "own words, . . . [that] she is . . . a fair narrator." Then . . .

Chs. 15-25 [Return to Narrative Past, narr. Nelly Dean]

KEY SCENE: Ch. 15: Heathcliff’s last meeting with Catherine alive: "Oh, Cathy! Oh, my life! how can I bear it? . . .". Catherine responds: " . . . You and Edgar have both broken my heart, Heathcliff! . . ." Heathcliff: " . . . Why shouldn’t you suffer? I do! . . . " (768). Catherine: ". . . I shall not be at peace. . ." (768). Heathcliff: ". . . Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? . . . " (769). & etc. Edgar comes, but Cathy won’t let loose her grasp on Heathcliff. She faints.

Young Cathy is born, the child of Edgar and Catherine. Catherine dies; Heathcliff’s reaction is savage, tormented. Nelly Dean twines the locks of Heathcliff’s and Edgar’s hair and (re)places them in dead Catherine’s locket before she is buried (773). A storm breaks the next day. Hindley and Isabella’s murder attempt on Heathcliff’s life fails. Isabella escapes Wuthering Heights, goes south (to London), and bears their son Linton Heathcliff. Hindley dies 6 months after his sister Catherine dies. Heathcliff is now the outright legal master of Wuthering Heights, and he extends his revenge plot against the next generation: to Hindley’s son Hareton, Heathcliff says: "Now . . . you are mine!….we’ll see if one tree won’t grow as crooked as another, given the same wind to twist it!" (783).

Twelve years pass. Young Cathy’s character is introduced. She begins to long to visit Penistone Crags, which she cans ee through her nursery windows, and she gets her chance when her father Edgar goes to London to attend his dying sister Isabella. While he is away, young Cathy visits Wuthering Heights. She encounters her cousin Hareton Earnshaw and they wound each other’s pride. Edgar returns with his nephew Linton Heathcliff, but Heathcliff comes to claim his son, "my property" (794). Heathcliff still pursues his revenge plot against Edgar Linton: wanting to his son Lord of Thrushcross Grange (795), Heathcliff plots to get young Cathy to marry his son Linton. Meanwhile, Linton Heathcliff’s abusive treatment of his cousin Hareton Earnshaw is depicted. Direct and inverted parallels suggest themselves between the first and second generations of the Earnshaw-Linton-Heathcliff characters. Edgar tries to warn his daughter Cathy of Heathcliff’s true character, but she still wants to get to know her cousin Linton Heathcliff better. Their secret "love" correspondence is stopped, but during her chaperon Nelly Dean’s illness, young Cathy visits Linton at Wuthering Heights. Nelly tells on Cathy, and her father Edgar forbids further visits.

Ch. 25 [Return to Narrative Present]: "These things happened last winter," Nelly tells Lockwood (820). Lockwood vows to leave the district for "the busy world" beyond, though he is a bit attracted to young Cathy Linton.

Chs. 25-30 [Narrative Past]

Edgar relents and allows Cathy and Linton’s correspondence to resume. Both Edgar and Linton are very ill, though Linton’s state is kept secret. Cathy rides to meet Linton on the heath, and she doubts his professed feelings for her, but Linton is desperate because of his father’s threats. Heathcliff lures Cathy and Nelly Dean back to Wuthering Heights with Linton, and takes them prisoner. Heathcliff’s final revenge plot nears fruition, when he forces Cathy to marry Linton. Cathy is anguished at being kept from her dying father Edgar. Nelly is released, and Cathy escapes and manages to see her father Edgar before he dies. Edgar is unable to change his will in time, for his lawyer has been bought off by Heathcliff. Edgar dies, and Cathy, now married to Linton, is ordered to return to Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff reveals to Nelly that he has unearthed Catherine’s face in her grave and is "pacified—a little" (838). Heathcliff takes Catherine’s portrait from Thrushcross Grange and makes Nelly stay at the Grange.

Nelly, our primary narrator, now must rely upon the reports of Zillah, the housekeeper at Wuthering Heights, for news of young Cathy’s life. Nelly calls Zillah "a narrow-minded, selfish woman" because Zillah dislikes young Cathy (839)—an ironic parallel to her own attitude toward the original Cathy. Linton dies: "He’s safe and I’m free," young Cathy proclaims (840). Yet Heathcliff’s second revenge plot seems fulfilled: he is now master of Thrushcross Grange and young Cathy, "destitute of cash and friends" (840), is his dependent. Zillah tries to help Hareton smarten up (note parallels to Nelly’s relationship to young Heathcliff in earlier years), but young Cathy scorns her cousin . . . at first.

Ch. 30-31 [Return to Narrative Present]: "Thus ended Mrs. Dean’s story" (842). Lockwood, recovered, plans to quit the Grange and return to London, and he visits his landlord Heathcliff to tell his plans.

Ch. 32-34 [Narrative Present & immediate past]

Some time passes: Lockwood returns to Yorkshire and finds Nelly Dean at Wuthering Heights, Cathy and Hareton in love (Cathy teaching Hareton to read & the two wandering the moors, paralleling the original Cathy and Heathcliff in their youth), and Heathcliff dead.

Nelly provides Lockwood with the "sequel of Heathcliff’s history" (849).

Heathcliff’s reaction to the growing intimacy between Cathy Heathcliff and Hareton Earnshaw: an "absurd termination to my violent exertions" (856)—i.e. an ironic conclusion to his revenge plots. Heathcliff is disarmed by young Cathy’s "resemblance" to the original Catherine, and sees her eyes in both young Cathy and Hareton. He also sees in Hareton "a personification of my youth" (857). Heathcliff: "I am surrounded by her image" (857), and he foretells a strange "change," the attainment of his "single wish" is at hand. Nelly relates Heathcliff’s strange behavior, his talk of his will and burial wishes. Heathcliff is haunted: "Well, there is one who won’t shrink from my company! By God! she is relentless" (862-863). Nelly finds Heathcliff dead in his bed. Joseph gives thanks that the "lawful master and the ancient stock were restored to their rights" (863). Hareton grieves for Heathcliff’s death. Heathcliff is buried next to Catherine in the churchyard, to the scandal of the neighborhood. Country folk swear that the ghosts of Heathcliff and "a woman" walk. Hareton and Cathy are to marry on New Year’s Day and move to Thrushcross Grange.

Ch. 34 [Narrative Present & Conclusion; narr. Lockwood]

Lockwood visits the graves of Edgar, Catherine, and Heathcliff. In the closing lines,

Lockwood "wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth" (864).

Reading & Discussion Questions: Wuthering Heights

What sort of person is Lockwood? How does his own experience color his account? Is his illness related to his visits to Wuthering Heights?
How do Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange differ as physical places? What do these differences suggest about their symbolic role in the novel? Is it reasonable to characterize them as opposites?
Characterize Nelly Dean. Why do you think Bronte chose her to narrate the story? Is Dean a reliable narrator? Does she misrepresent or omit information in her account? Does she cause any significant events to happen? What is the purpose of having two narrators—Lockwood and Dean—as the "narrative frame" of Wuthering Heights?
What mysteries are there about Heathcliff and his origins? What possible explanations might there be for Mr. Earnshaw’s fondness for Heathcliff? What attracts Catherine to Heathcliff? Why does Hindley hate him?
Why does Catherine marry Edgar Linton? Does Catherine’s explanation to Nelly Dean of her different feelings for Linton and Heathcliff suggest she knows that she is making a mistake in marrying Linton?
Many critics view Catherine and Heathcliff as "Byronic heroes"—e.g. like the heroes in the poems of George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824), a celebrated and notorious English Romantic poet. The typical Byronic hero is contemptuous and rebellious against conventional morality and/or defies fate; is proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow and misery on his brow—usually a secret misery; he is passionate: capable of strong and deep affection, implacable in revenge. Do you think this description fits the character of Catherine and/or Heathcliff?
Analyze the characters of Edgar and Isabella Linton. Why does Heathcliff marry Isabella? Describe Heathcliff’s relationships with Hindley and Hareton.
Does Wuthering Heights seem to be Catherine’s story or Heathcliff’s? Or would you argue that the novel has two protagonists? Do you sympathize with either or both? What motives and desires drive these two characters?
Some critics consider Catherine a Faustian character. Both Catherine and Faust are divided souls, conflicted within themselves. Are their divisions and conflicts similar? Consider also the destructive choices that Catherine and Faust make—these female and male versions of the Romantic quest to overcome self-division. Compare/contrast Catherine and Faust.
What are some of the "Realistic" aspects of the novel. Consider, for example, Joseph. He is a difficult character in the novel, difficult to get along with and his dialect difficult for most readers to understand. What is his role in the novel? What would be missing if he were left out?
Wuthering Heights covers a long period of time and three generations of the families involved. How does Bronte try to unify her story? What are the roles of Hareton and young Cathy, and the effect of carrying the story of the Earnshaws and Lintons into a third generation? Compare/contrast them to Heathcliff and the original Cathy. Would the novel have been more or less effective if it had stopped with the story of Catherine and Heathcliff’s generation? Compare Catherine and Heathcliff’s end to that of Hareton and young Cathy. Do they redeem the excesses of the original pair?

Heart of Darkness: Reading & Discussion Questions
(1899, 3-part serial, Blackwood's Magazine; 1902, rev. Blackwood)

Part I (pp. 1367-1387)

In Heart of Darkness, we encounter another "frame narrative" [cf. Wuthering Heights]: who are the two narrators of the novel? Describe the situation and characters on board the Nellie. How does Marlow differ from the other men, his audience, on board the Nellie? What does the narrative frame contribute to the ensuing story of Marlow's journey up the Congo River?
The unnamed first-person narrator prepares the way for Marlow's initial meditation "evok[ing] the great spirit of the past upon the lower reaches of the Thames" river (1368). Marlow begins his story suddenly: "'And this [England] also . . . has been one of the dark places of the earth'" (1368), "'when the Romans first came here nineteen hundred years ago--the other day . . .'" (1369). In describing the Roman conquest of England (1369-1370), Marlow suggests parallels to the main story of Heart of Darkness: what seems to be foreshadowed? How does Marlow define "conquerors" and what kind of "idea" might redeem such conquest (1370)?
The unnamed Nellie narrator describes Marlow at various moments in the novel. What is Marlow like? How do the others regard him? How does the unnamed narrator characterize Marlow's tales (1369)? Marlow suggests that his audience must "'understand the effect'" on him to construct the meaning of this story--what the unnamed narrator calls another of "Marlow's inconclusive experiences" (1370). Later Marlow says, "It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream,'" perhaps an "'impossible task'" (1385). What, then, is the nature of such story-telling?
Try constructing a chart, timeline, or map identifying the key places, events, and stages of Marlow's journey: his initial attraction to Africa, the Company's office in the "city," the voyage from Europe to Africa, the first stop in the Congo, stages of the journey up the Congo River to Kurtz, and the return.
Consider Marlow's account of what drew him out to Africa. What is suggested by his likening the Congo River to a "snake" and himself to a foolish, charmed "bird"? Note the case of Fresleven, the river captain whom Marlow is to replace; Marlow's comparison of the city of his employers to "a whited sepulchre" (1372); the ominous atmosphere of the Company's office with the two women knitting black wool and "guarding the door of Darkness" (1373); the doctor ["alienist"] who measures Marlow's head because he has a scientific interest in measuring "the mental changes of individuals" who venture out to Africa in the Company's employ (1373). What type of experience, what type of journey, do these signs seem to predict?
Characterize Marlow's attitude toward women like his aunt (1374). Despite his protest that the Company is "run for profit," note that Marlow has been "represented"--like Kurtz before him--as "an exceptional and gifted creature," "Something like an emissary of light" or "lower sort of apostle," and his "excellent" aunt runs on about '''weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways.'" Afterwards he feels he is "an imposter." Compare that "too beautiful" world such women live in, apt to fall apart at the first encounter with reality, to the image of the blind-folded woman carrying a "lighted torch" depicted in Kurtz's painting (1383) in the room of the young aristocratic agent at Central Station.
Describe Marlow's first impressions of the European presence in Africa, captured in his observations regarding the French steamer firing into the coast and regarding the Company's lower station (1376-1379). Contrast the Europeans' naming of the Africans as "enemies" to Marlow's view of the Africans.
Consider Marlow's description of the "devils" he has seen (1377). What are the different types of "devils" he describes? Why is he so appalled by the "flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly" that he sees in most Europeans in Africa? What does he mean?
Consider the Europeans that Marlow meets at the Company's stations: (a) the Company's chief accountant (1378-79: why does Marlow respect him?), (b) the manager (1380-81: why is such a man in command?), (c) the "faithless pilgrims" (1382: why does Marlow call them that?), (d) the "manager's spy" (1382: what kind of "devil" is this "papier-mache Mephistopheles" [1384]?); and (e) the "sordid buccaneers" of the Eldorado Exploring Expedition (1387). How does Marlow assess these men and their motives for coming to and remaining in Africa?
How does Marlow describe the setting: the Congo jungle--the "wilderness" (e.g., see pp. 1384, 1387)? [Consider how Conrad's representation of the physical nature differs from that of the Romantics.]
Long before he meets Kurtz, Marlow hears from others that Kurtz is extraordinary, "remarkable." On what evidence do these claims seem to be based? By the end of Part I, Marlow develops a strong curiosity about Kurtz: why?
Marlow sometimes leaps ahead of his story, as when he says that he would not have fought for Kurtz, "but I went for him near enough to lie" (1384). Why does Marlow "flashforward" in this way at times in his narrative? What is Marlow's attitude toward lies (1384)? What is the consequence of his allowing the "young fool" to overestimate Marlow's "influence in Europe" (1385)? Here we are returned to the "narrative present" of the narrative frame: how does the unnamed Nellie narrator feel at this point in Marlow's narrative (1385)?
Analyze Marlow's statements about his "work": why is he so intent upon wanting "rivets" (pp. 1385-1386)? Given his surroundings, the example of the other Europeans around him, his admission that he doesn't really like work (p. 1386)--why do you think Marlow now turns so avidly to the "battered, twisted, ruined, tin-pot steamboat" (1386)?

Part II (pp. 1387-1404)

14. Marlow, unobserved, overhears a conversation about Kurtz between the manager and his nephew (pp. 1387-89), and states, "...I seemed to see Kurtz for the first time," turning his [Kurtz's] back on headquarters and home, "setting his face towards the depths of the wilderness..." (p. 1388). Marlow wonders at Kurtz's motive in turning back to the Inner Station instead of returning home as he had intended. A bit later Marlow begins to supply an answer: "Everything belonged to him--but that was a trifle. The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own" (p. 1400). What do you think had called Kurtz back to his Inner Station in the "heart of darkness"?

15. As Marlow progresses on his journey upriver, he grows increasingly "excited at the prospect of meeting Kurtz" (1389); and when he thinks Kurtz might die before Marlow gets to him, Marlow confesses "extreme disappointment": he had looked forward to "a talk with Kurtz" (1399)--why? What do you think is the source of Marlow's fascination with Kurtz? Why does Marlow feel that to miss Kurtz would be to miss "my destiny in life" (1399)?

16. Marlow observes: "Going up the river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world," a past remembered "in the shape of an unrestful and noisy dream," amid this "strange" African "silence, a "stillness" without "peace"--the "stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect" (1389). They "crawled toward Kurtz" and "penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness" (1390; emphasis mine--note this title allusion). "We were wanderers on a prehistoric earth"--an atavistic journey into the human past--"We could have fancied ourselves the first of men taking possession of an accursed inheritance, to be subdued at the cost of profound anguish and of excessive toil" (1390-91). What is this "accursed inheritance" that Marlow envisions? Kurtz has travelled up this river before Marlow--what has happened to Kurtz? (See also p. 1400.)

17. Twenty "cannibals" travel with Marlow upriver (1390). Aware of the Africans onshore, their headman advises Marlow to "'Catch 'im. Give 'im to us" so they can "Eat 'im'" (1394). Marlow then realizes that his African crewmen "must be very hungry" (1394), and meditates on the "devilry of lingering starvation, its exasperating torment,...its...ferocity" (1395). Yet these big powerful Africans "didn't go for us [the white men on board]" and Marlow is dazzled by the fact of their "Restraint!" (1395). What is the source of such "restraint" that earns Marlows grudging admiration? Compare to Marlow's later judgment that his dead helmsman, "just like Kurtz," "had no restraint" (1402): what is their common deficiency?

18. Describe Marlow's attitude toward black Africans. In particular, consider the attitudes expressed on p. 1391. Why does he say that "the worst of it" is suspecting "their not being inhuman"? Why is the thought of "remote kinship" judged "Ugly" by Marlow? What is their "terrible frankness"--"truth stripped of its cloak of time"? What does Marlow mean when he says: "The mind of man is capable of anything--because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future"? What does it take to prove that one is "as much of a man as these [Africans] on shore"?

19. Examine Marlow's attitude toward the African "fireman" (1392-93) and the "helmsman" (1397). consider the scene of the helmsman's death (1398-99). Why does Marlow miss "my late helmsman awfully" (1401)? What is the helmsman's "claim of distant kinship [to Marlow] affirmed in a supreme moment" (1402)?

20. Why does Marlow consider Towson's An Inquiry into some Points of Seamanship "an extraordinary find" (1392)? Marlow judges it "luminous with another than a professional light"--why...especially in the midst of all this madness? Later we learn that this book belonged to the "harlequin" Russian (1403-1404). Describe the Russian. What seems to be his relationship to Kurtz?

21. Marlow admits that there is "an appeal to me in this fiendish row [the "wild and passionate uproar" of the Africans onshore]....Very well; I hear;...but I have a voice, too, and for good or evil mine is the speech that cannot be silenced" (1391). A bit later Marlow argues with himself about "whether or no I would talk openly with Kurtz," but doubts seriously whether it would matter: "my speech or my silence ...would be a mere futility," for "The essentials of this affair lay deep under the surface, beyond my reach, and beyond my power of meddling" (1393). Still, Marlow wants to talk to Kurtz and he must tell his [Marlow's own? Kurtz's] story of Heart of Darkness: why?

Consider the theme of voice(s): Marlow makes what he calls "the strange discovery" that Kurtz "presented himself as a voice" (1399). The Russian says, "'You don't talk with that man--you listen to him" (1403). Consider Kurtz's pamphlet for the "International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs"--Kurtz's 17-pages of "eloquence" and its "luminous and terrifying" postcription: "Exterminate the brutes!" (1401)--as examples of what Kurtz has to say.

In what sense has "All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz" (1401)? And why does Marlow feel the need to try to "account to myself for--for--Mr. Kurtz--for the shade of Mr. Kurtz" (1400-1401)?

22. "The approach to this Kurtz grubbing for ivory in the wretched bush was beset by as many dangers as though he had been an enchanted princess sleeping in a fabulous castle" (1396). Does this comparison seem ironic, accurate, or both? Is Marlow on a kind of quest? Does his journey bear any parallels, for example, to the Romantic quest of Faust?

23. Marlow's boat is attacked by Kurtz's natives, we learn, because "'They don't want him to go'" (1404). And at one point Marlow sees "a face amongst the leaves...looking at me very fierce and steady;" (1397)--Kurtz's African woman. Note how she will be compared to Kurtz's European fiancee, the "Intended."

Marlow believes that men must help keep European women like Kurtz's fiancee and Marlow's aunt "in that beautiful world of their own, lest ours get worse" (1400). This statement follows Marlows proclaimation: "I laid the ghost of his [Kurtz's] gifts at last with a lie" (1400). Consider the relationships among these statements to Marlow's notion of a redeeming "idea," his earlier statements regarding "lies," and their implications for Marlow's actions in the final scene (the interview with the Intended) in Part III.

24. Consider the characteristic ways that Marlow describes the African jungle setting--the "wilderness"--in Part II: e.g., pp. 1393, 1400. What part does the African "wilderness" play in this novel?

Part III (pp. 1404-1421)

25. What is the function of the Russian in the novel? What motivates him? What is his relationship to Kurtz? Why does Marlow consider the Russian "bewildering," "an insoluable problem" (1404)? What do we and Marlow learn about Kurtz from the Russian? What was Kurtz doing in the "heart of darkness"?

26. What do the "heads on the stakes" reveal (1406)? How do you interpret Marlow's response to this "savage sight": he says, "pure, uncomplicated savagery was a positive relief"--from what?--"being something that had a right to exist--obviously--in the sunshine" (1407)? Why does Marlow scoff at the description of the heads belonging to "Rebels!" (1407)? The heads, Marlow decides, "only showed that Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint..." (1406). What is the "deficiency" that Marlow perceives in Kurtz--the lack of "restraint" that left Kurtz vulnerable to "the wilderness [which] had found him out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion" (1406)?

27. When Kurtz finally appears in the story (1407 & following), does he confirm the advance accounts that we have had of him? Marlow describes Kurtz repeatedly as "a voice"--again (see Part II. question #21), what is the significance of this description? What other terms used to describe Kurtz seem to you particularly important?

28. The African woman, "a wild and gorgeous apparition," appears on p. 1408. Note how she is described, the gesture she makes more than once (e.g. pp. 1409, 1414), Marlow's associations between her and the "wilderness itself" (1409). What is her significance? Compare/contrast her to Kurtz's European "Intended."

29. The manager judges Kurtz's "method...unsound" (1409). What "method" and of doing what, does the manager have in mind? Why does Marlow react the manager with such disgust?--he says, "...I had never breathed an atmosphere so vile" (1410). What prompts Marlow to turn, instead, "mentally to Kurtz for relief"--and ultimately pronounce Kurtz "a remarkable man" (1410)? Marlow observes that he has "at least a choice of nightmares" (1410): what "choice" does he mean? (See also pp. 1411, 1414, when Marlow repeats this expression and indicates that Kurtz is associated with Marlow's "choice.")

30. What is the source of Marlow's feeling of kinship with Kurtz? What leads him to call himself "Mr Kurtz's friend--in a way" (1410), to confess that "I did not betray Mr. Kurtz--it was ordered I should never betray him" (1411), to take into his keeping Kurtz's personal papers and his fiancee's photograph, and to remain "loyal" to Kurtz to the end?

31. Amid drum beats and "weird incantation" dying in the night, "a strange narcotic effect" coming over him, Marlow discovers Kurtz missing. Then Marlow experiences "a sheer blank fright," an "overpowering" emotion induced by "moral shock...as if something altogether monstrous, intolerable to thought and odious to the soul, had been thrust upon me unexpectedly" (1411). The sensation lasts "the merest fraction of a second"; then Marlow follows Kurtz's trail into the darkness. What "moral shock" has Marlow experienced, do you think?

32. When Marlow finds Kurtz, it is the "moment, when the foundations of our intimacy were being laid" (1412). Marlow tries "to break the spell--the heavy, mute spell of the wilderness--that seemed to draw [Kurtz] to its pitiless breast"--and understands what "had driven him out to the edge of the forest...towards...the throb of drums, the drone of weird incantations;...beguiled his unlawful soul...beyond the bounds of permitted aspiration" (1412). What is driving Marlow into this terrible "intimacy" with Kurtz? Here, in the heart of darkness, Marlow proclaims: "Soul! If anybody had ever struggled with a soul, I am the man" (1413). Kurtz's soul, "Being along in the wilderness,...had looked into itself, and by heavens! I tell you, it had gone mad. I had--for my sins, I suppose--to go through the ordeal of looking into it myself" (1413). Interpret this moment of crisis--for Kurtz and for Marlow.

33.On board the boat, moved by the "brown current...swiftly out of the heart of darkness" (1414), that soul "that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear" (1413), still continues to struggle (1414). What opposing forces do you believe struggle within Kurtz? What "diabolic love and...unearthly hate of the mysteries it had penetrated" contend for "possession of that soul satiated with primitive emotions, avid of lying fame, of sham distinction, of all the appearances of success and power" (1414)? Do you see any correspondences with Faust?

34. To what do Kurtz's final words, "The horror! The horror!" refer (1415)? It is because of Kurtz's last words, finally, that Marlow affirms, "Kurtz was a remarkable man" (1415). Why does Marlow call these words "an affirmation, a moral victory" (1416)? and why does Marlow later lie to the Intended (p. 1420) when she asks for Kurtz's final words?

35. When Marlow returns to Europe and "the sepulchral city," why does he find it so profoundly "irritating" and "offensive" (1416)?

36. Marlow goes to see Kurtz's Intended--whether out of "unconscious loyalty" or "ironic necessit[y]," he's not sure (1417). Why do you think he goes?

37. The final scene (pp. 1418-1421) between Marlow and Kurtz's fiancee is charged throughout with verbal and dramatic irony: that is, when the speaker's implicit meanings differ from what he says, and/or the readers share with the author or character knowledge of which another character (i.e. the Intended) is ignorant. Identify some instances of such ironies in this final scene.

38. Revisit the opening section of Part I, from "when the Romans first came here" to "What redeems it is the idea only...an unselfish belief in the idea--something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to..." (1369-1370). Consider the parallels foreshadowing what you now know happens to Kurtz, and to Marlow, in the heart of darkness. Reconsider also Marlow's allusion to a redeeming "idea" (1370) in relation to the Intended's "mature capacity for fidelity, for belief, for suffering" (1418), "the faith that was in her,...that great and saving illusion" before which Marlow bows his head (1419)--and which Marlow preserves by telling a lie.

39. The novel concludes by returning to the narrative frame, set aboard the Nellie: the tide is now turning; the unnamed narrator observes that "the tranquil waterway [the Thames]" seems now "to lead into the heart of an immense darkness" (1421). Marlow is described as sitting "apart...in the pose of a meditating Buddha": do you think Marlow has achieved some sort of enlightenment? Have you? Now that you, too, have experienced Marlow's story, revisit and reinterpret the unnamed narrator's description of where the meaning lies of one of Marlow's tales on p. 1369. What, for you, seem to be the meaning(s) of Heart of Darkness?

Things Fall Apart
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