Difference between revisions of "Talk:2008-09 BM1 Assignment 3: Fiction"

Latest revision as of 09:20, 4 February 2009

Student Questions

• How am I supposed to quote? There are no numbers for lines given. Am I allowed to give them numbers or do I have to write down the passage to that I refer? It would be a huge problem, when I have to wrote down the sentences, because 3 pages offer not that much space. Regards, Sören

Just give first and last words of passages you want to refer to, and [...] in between. Or quote entire passages if they are shorter than a sentence. You will not need to set footnotes on these quotes - we assume you quote the same text (Penguin edition etc.) as stated in our question. --Olaf Simons 16:00, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

• I have a question regarding exercise 1 and 2. Should we also include other passages than the given one? Shall we characterize Marlow and the aunt really only based on what we know from the passage? According to number 3. Shall we only analyze the narration and focalization in this passage or also describe possible changes throughout the whole story, apart from the passage?

Questions 1-3 (4) aim at your ability to analyze a short passage based on 'close reading'. They provide a basis for question 5, where your knowledge of the entire text is needed. Thus, as regards your question, stick to the passage first and foremost. Then, and only if your findings require this (and you do not exceed the three pages), may you reflect on how they substantiate/contrast your knowledge of the text. Best, Anna Auguscik 09:23, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

• Is the fifth question restricted to one particular passage or can we refer to several examples? For instance, in case of "the darkness", there are lots of pages with good examples. Do we have to decide on one? I'm just wondering because I have in mind that we need to consider the whole story...

Try to stick to the instructions as far as possible in order to avoid superficial answers. However, it is always a good idea to keep the whole novel in mind and let your reader know about it (if the reflections on the entire texts shed light on your findings). Best, Anna Auguscik 09:35, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

• Working on the assignment I got somehow "stuck" with the 4th question concerning the critical distance. Is it referring to the reader's critical distance towards the narrator or does the question refer to Marlow's critical distance from the Company, his aunt etc.? I'm somehow not quite sure about that.

The analysis of "critical distance" refers to a wide spectrum of possibilities which is comparable to the spectrum of characterization and narration/focalization. Best, Anna Auguscik 13:33, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

• If a story is written in the simple past, would that automatically mean that the narrator is external? When we have a story containing two levels of narration how can we distinguish between a story composed of an extra-diagesis + diagesis and a story composed of a diagesis and a hypo-diagesis. I don't understand how to distinguish between these?

It seems worthwhile to visit the library and browse through Rimmon-Kenan's Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics (Handapparat BM 1/Kirchhofer). The chapter on "Narration: Levels and Voices" explains the diegetic level as "the events themselves" and the extradiegetic level as "immediately superior to the first narrative and concerned with its narration". Additionally, Rimmon-Kenan offers examples which may be of interest. The topic of tenses is to be found - among other passages - in the sub-chapter on "Temporal Relations". Best, Anna Auguscik 09:42, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

• Is the quotation "I found her triumphant" a case of direct definition or indirect presentation? It directly names a trait of the aunt, but it is a transient trait -- if Marlow were to visit her two hours later, he might find her tired and irritable.

Same advice here: visit the library and browse through Rimmon-Kenan's Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics (Handapparat BM 1/Kirchhofer). Chapter 5 on "Text: Characterization" offers insight into the differences between indirect presentation and direct definition, as well as a wide range of further examples. If the passage remains problematic, discuss. Best, Anna Auguscik 09:42, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

If I understand Rimmon-Kenan correctly, direct definition is "by definition" explicit and supratemporal, describing a quality not so susceptible to the passage of time...

Good point. But how supra-temporal is a description of, say, beauty? And if so, would the contested example (the triumphant aunt) be indirect presentation by actions (commission / omission / contemplated action), characteristics of speech, external appearance, environment?

Student Samples

Sample One

• 1.) First of all Marlow defines his aunt directly as “excellent” and as “the excellent woman, living right in the rush of all that humbug,“ who “got carried off her feet” which describes her as an upper-class lady who is influenced by her wealthy environment. Moreover one can find several indirect presentations as for example the description of the aunt’s physical environment: her room “that most soothingly looked just as you would expect a lady’s drawing-room to look” and “the fireside”. But also the content of her speech characterizes her indirectly saying “‘weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways’“ or “’You forget […] worthy of his hire.‘”which reveals her bourgeois attitude and even a racist notion. A reinforcement of characterization by analogy is shown by the similarity of her to women in general and in the contrast to Marlow. This describes her additionally as a naive and narrow-minded woman with a restricted point of view. The commission of action when she embraces Marlow and gives him instructions before he departs, shows that she is nevertheless a caring and loving aunt, but also very proud as she praises him as a great person.
• 2.) Marlow is firstly directly defined “as an exceptional and gifted creature – a piece of good fortune for the company – a man you don’t get hold of every day” by his aunt to characterise him as a great person. Furthermore he is directly defined by himself as an impostor, which contradicts to the findings before. An indirect presentation is given by the characteristic of his speeches like his sarcastic statement of taking just a cheap steamboat in contrast to all the glorifications by his aunt, revealing his combatant attitude towards the Company’s principles and towards the fuss being made of this trip. Also when he describes his opinion of the distinction of women and men in the world, which shows his hierarchic point of view and contradicts to the open-minded and non-racist notion he mentioned before. Admitting that his aunt’s statement made him feel quite uncomfortable and his daring hint on the Company’s run for profit, contrast himself additionally to his aunt’s character which is a reinforcement of characterization by analogy to emphasize Marlow’s rather non-racial attitude. All these findings reveal a contradiction in his character.
• 3.) In the present passage the focalizer and the narrator are combined in the first-person narrator Marlow, who can be defined as an intra-homodiegetic narrator as he is involved in the story (he tells) and subordinated to the extra-diegetic narrator at the beginning of the whole story. This is also signaled by the quotation marks used at the beginning. Furthermore, Marlow is also an ulterior narrator, presenting the events in past tense, but also giving foreshadowing statements (“the last decent cup of tea for many, many days”). One could easily define Marlow as an internal character-focalizer as he is a character of the story. However, there are some passages which indicate a shift in focalization from internal to external focalization. This is for example shown by the sentence “One thing […] aunt.”, but also when saying “In the course […] got carried off her feet.” “It’s queer […] the whole thing over.”, where he seems to address his listeners or the reader directly and shifts from an experiencing focalizer to a narrating one. Indicators for this are “and goodness knows”, “you know”, “upon my word” and “I don’t know why”. The insertions seem to be stated from a narrating Marlow later on the boat and not from the experiencing Marlow during the encounter. Knowing about his last cup of tea for a longer time or about the “talk just about that time”, shows a variation in time (telling in the past, but giving hints for the future) which argues for an external focalizer. He sees the events from a more distant point of view and thereby achieves more knowledge. Whenever Marlow experiences his aunt’s meeting directly, his perspective turns to an internal focalizer (character-focalizer) who is inside the represented events. Objects are observed from his position within the story, which makes him a limited observer, thus, having a limited knowledge. Marlow focalizes on himself from within, which is to be seen in stating his feelings (“she made me quite uncomfortable.”). At the same time he focalizes on his aunt and others from without, that is to say that he cannot express their thoughts and feelings, but only states his external observations he makes. The aunt in this section is the character-focalized who remains non-transparent. There are different means to show the degree of perceptibility to make the narrator Marlow become evident for the reader. For once, he describes the setting, by naming the room, the fireside and the street. Secondly he identifies and defines other characters, like his aunt (“my excellent aunt” “I found her triumphant”, etc.) and is able to give a temporal summary, as he uses the past and tells the story from another temporal point in the story. Finally he comments on his aunt, judges her statements and thereby emphasizes on his own existence as a narrator. Concerning the narrator’s degree of unreliability in this passage, one can state, that Marlow is restricted in his knowledge, as he does not reveal his aunt’s conscience and feelings. His personal involvement is evident as he is character of the story, however this level of involvement changes within the change of focalizer. But he surely represents a problematic value-scheme, as he shows contradictions in his character (cf. 2.)).
• 4.) There are different means in this passage which establish a sense of critical distance from Marlow to his aunt and the Company, and also effect the reader’s perception of the narrator and the story. First of all, Marlow exaggerates to establish sarcasm, which can be seen in the passage “… and I was […] sort of apostle.”, to ridicule for once his aunt’s glorification, but also the Company’s fuss being made of a conventional, ordinary steamboat. “Rot” and “humbug” additionally criticize his aunt’s environment. His exclamations “Good heavens” and his addressing inputs like “you know” seem like a request to the reader to affirm his statements and thoughts. Moreover his judgment on women in general and therefore also on his aunt, shows his direct discontent of her attitude and of the Company’s principles and contrasts himself to them both. This also affects the reader’s notion and may distance him as well from the aunt and from the Company, as being shown as negative, but may also distance the reader from Marlow as a character and narrator. Thus, Marlow’s criticism and his contradictions of his character (working for company, but criticizing it; gaining help from his aunt, but ridiculing her; criticizing racism, but being dismissive towards women) make the reader become suspicious of his reliability.
• 5.) Analyzing Marlow’s notion of women and his behaviour towards them, one can compare the present passage to a passage in the end where he meets Kurtz's intended. The extract from p. 92 “She came forward,…” to p. 94 “… unhappy for life – for life.’” shows similarities between the intended and Marlow’s aunt. The intended is characterized as a rather weak and naïve woman, living in mourning of Kurtz's death, as she apparently entirely devoted herself and her life to him and still admires him a year after his death. Like the aunt she seems to be restricted in her point of view, blinded by Kurtz's evident greatness (“’It was impossible to know him and not to admire him.’” p. 93). She seems indifferent and “unhappy for life – for life.” (p. 94), because of the great loss. For the aunt, the correct environment is the one of the rich western people like the Company. The intended's “beautiful world” is represented by Kurtz. Both somehow seem to live in these fatuous worlds as Marlow stated about women in general. And to sustain this illusion, he does not argue with his aunt, even though he has a different opinion and as a result feels like an impostor. Likewise, he does not argue with the intended, repeats her instead, although he did not always accompany with Kurtz's methods and opinions. He lies to her to make her contented and to affirm her. So, both women are represented as naïve, narrow-minded and influenceable. Accusing Marlow as a chauvinist is now arguable.

Sample Two

• 1.The aunt is characterized using both direct definition and indirect presentation. Marlow uses the adjective "excellent" in conjunction with his aunt twice (p. 12). Although we can garner from this that she is indeed a woman of some quality, Marlow, as we shall see below, is not the most reliable of narrators. The aunt is also presented as being "triumphant," indicating that she is proud of her part in Marlow's employment (p. 12). Indirect presentation in this passage takes several forms. In acts of commission, the aunt talks to the "wife of the high dignitary" in order to secure Marlow's position (p. 12). This reveals that she is both a woman of high social status and fond enough of her nephew to use her connections for his benefit. This is also shown when she embraces Marlow. She is additionally described as getting "carried off her feet" by ideas circulating at the time (p.12). This categorizes her as being easily swayed and naive.

In acts of (reported) speech, the aunt reveals her matronly side by reminding Marlow to "wear flannel" (p. 13) She seems to talk a lot—she not only talks about Marlow to the dignitary's wife, but "goodness knows to how many more people besides" (p. 12). Her farewell to Marlow ends in "and so on," which implies that she talks beyond the point where Marlow listens enough to remember (p. 12). In direct (quoted) speech, the aunt shows a capacity for hate when she talks of "weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways," yet she also shows the ideals accompanying this hatred by calling Marlow an "emissary of light," a Western, civilizing force (p. 12). "You forget, dear Charlie, that the labourer is worthy of his hire" is a statement that expresses both her naive trust in the Company as being something more than a company and the high expectations and opinions she attaches to her nephew. Finally, the aunt's environment underscores the matronly aspects of her character. There's a spot of tea to be had, a cozy fire by which to sit, and a drawing room that falls "soothingly" within the bounds of whatever gender expectations Marlow has.

• 2. There is relatively little direct definition of Marlow. Marlow's aunt talks of him as being an "exceptional and gifted creature," among other things (see above). Marlow himself, not agreeing with these statements, does what he can to distance himself from them (see below). He describes himself as the future man-in-charge of a modest steamboat, presenting a picture of a man more concerned with practical matters and less concerned with himself.

In terms of indirect presentation, the act of commission Marlow performs by visiting his aunt in the first place shows that he pays attention to good form (by visiting his benefactor) and fulfills obligations dutifully (by listening to his aunt rattle on). When Marlow leaves his aunt, he feels like an imposter, perhaps because he does not share her ideals (her talk about civilizing the masses made him "quite umcomfortable"), perhaps because he doesn't feel like he can live up to her lofty opinion or her expectations. Since Marlow himself doesn't know why he feels like an imposter, it is left to the reader to surmise. Though he is in disagreement with his aunt's views, he only "ventures to hint" that the Company is interested in profit, not souls (p. 12). This has to do with his patronizing and romanticized views of women. For Marlow, women are beings not capable of dealing with the truth; they live in a "world of their own," a situation with which Marlow has no problems (cf. pp. 12-13). Marlow does not wish to disturb his aunt's constructed reality because it would jive with his own internalized system of beliefs. Marlow's character is revealed by indirect presentation through speech—the entire passage quotes Marlow directly as he tells his story. Marlow is thoughtful. He trys to piece things together, looking for the motives behind his aunt's beliefs and finding them in the "print and talk" of the day (p.12). He also constructs gender theory, which indicates a capacity for abstraction and an interest in ideas for their own sake (cf. p. 12).

• 3. The quotation marks at the beginning of each paragraph it clear that someone is quoting Marlow. From this passage, we know nothing more of the extradiegetic narrator than that he or she exists. Marlow himself is therefore an intra-homodiegetic narrator, a narrator within the story who also takes part in it. He describes past events; this is ulterior narration. As Marlow is personally involved in the story, has limited knowledge (he speaks of his experiences filtered through his perception), and has a subjective value-scheme (his view of women and his use of the words "rot" and humbug" represent subjective opinions), he cannot be considered an entirely reliable narrator. In addition, he often uses reported speech or quotes sentence fragments, which leaves room for subjective interpretation of what his aunt actually says to and about him.

The focalizing agent switches from being the Marlow of the past to the narrator Marlow, who then acts as an external narrator-focalizer: "there had been a lot of such rot let loose ... just about that time" / "the last decent cup of tea for many days" (p. 12). Both citations imply a temporal distance from the happenings that the character-focalizer Marlow could not have. The narrator-focalizer Marlow presents his theory of women (note the use of present and present-perfect tenses, "It's queer how out of touch women are ... we men have been living contentedly," pp. 12-13), and it is the narrator-focalizer Marlow who doesn't know why his past self feels like an imposter on the street, saying "I don't know why" and not I didn't know why (p. 13).

The aunt, her actions and surroundings are focalized from without—only her observable behavior is shown. Marlow is focalized from within—we know when he feels uncomfortable and what he is thinking ("it became quite plain to me," p. 12).

• 4. Marlow distances himself from his aunt's description of him as well as her expectations regarding the exalted nature of his employment using both content and form. He uses the passive voice—"I had been represented"—to imply that what was said is beyond his control (p. 12). He uses phrases like "something like" and "it appears" to indicate that he is at odds with his being pegged as something more than a regular worker, even as he comically exaggerates his job description into being "a lower sort of apostle" (p.12). At the same time, Marlow humorously trivializes the work he is to carry out as captain of a "two-penny half-penny steamboat with a penny whistle attached" (p. 12). "Good Heavens!" he says, summing up both his amusement and his exasperation with the whole business (p. 12). Marlow distances himself from the concepts fueling his aunt's expectations by directly referring to them as "humbug" (p.12). Marlow also tries to achieve distance from the story by establishing a bond with the listeners—he assumes that his listeners have the same mental picture of a lady's drawing room and the same assumptions regarding women in general ("as you would expect"/"you know"/ "we men," p. 12).

• 5. In the final passage of the book ("I felt like a chill grip ... too dark altogether," pp. 76-77), Marlow sits with Kurtz's Intended and has a talk of a darker nature than the one with his aunt. Instead of tea and a fireside chat, words that indicate warmth and comfort, this passage conjures up a cold and oppressive atmosphere—"chill grip," "dusk," a menacing whisper, "the horror," "unspeakable pain," and so on (pp. 76-77). Here, Marlow once again comes into conflict with himself about how much truth he should let slip to a woman, but since the subject—Kurtz's demise—is more emotionally charged than differing opinions of the moral code of the Company, the conflict is also more dramatic. At his aunt's, the dissonance between her opinions and Marlow's merely makes him uncomfortable. He goes so far as to venture to hint at the truth, but no further, thus airing his discomfort without bringing his aunt's alternate reality into danger. He wants women to stay in their place—"they—the women I mean—are out of it—should be out of it. We must help them to stay in that beautiful world lest ours get worse" (p.48). With the Intended, Marlow comes close to crying, stops in a "fright," feels a chill grip—the truth that the Intended wants to hear threatens not only her emotional being, but Marlow's deep-seated conviction that her beautiful world must be protected. He thus finds himself on the horns of a dilemma—should he lie or endanger the order of the world as he understands it? To even venture the truth would be "too dark," so he chooses to lie and protect both her realm and his (p. 77) .

• Bibliography

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness [1899]. Ed. Paul B. Armstrong. New York and London: W.W. Norton and Co., 2006.