English 206 Discussion Question 6

Directions: After reading the lecture, answer one of the main questions, which will appear in red. This question is due no later than July 10. Following that will be other questions, in black, which you should read and think about--they may help you answer the main question. However, you are not required to answer these questions in writing.

Your responses to other students' answers are due by midnight on July 11. Remember: in order to get the full 20 points, you MUST respond thoughtfully to at least 3 or 4 other people's postings. This set of discussion questions is worth a possible 20 points.

Late answers receive 0 points, so post early :)

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Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest Link

1. Regenia Gagnier argues in her article, "Wilde and the Victorians," that Oscar Wilde's rebellion against Victorian social conventions is only superficial--at heart, she says, he truly accepts Victorian values. The Victorians sought control of the physical world through the use of science and technology; they wanted to be free from Nature (i.e., scarcity), and they had faith in the objectivity of their knowledge. They wanted freedom from political tyranny and economic exploitation, and believed firmly in individual freedom, equality, and autonomy. They also believed that human beings were essentially rational and, while they were social beings, were individually unique.
Other critics have argued that Wilde's rejection of Victorian social values makes him a Modern. The Moderns rejected the political and religious traditions upon which society had laid its foundations. They believed that God either never existed, or was now dead. Thus, all values based on a belief in God had to be called into question. There could, then, be no objective "Truth," since the only way we could know things was through our individual perceptions; with God no longer serving as arbiter, there was no longer any way to discover whose perception was correct. There could also be no firm basis for morality or ethics, as systems of morality and ethics had been based on religious systems. (More on Modernism in next week's lecture.)
In your opinion, was Wilde a Victorian or a Modern? Explain.

2. Critics have had various reactions to The Importance of Being Earnest.

George Bernard Shaw said that the play was "heartless," "merely an assemblage of old-fashioned farcical devices," and objected to its lack of purpose.
Richard Ellman believes that the play is beautifully done, and not at all purposeless. Its theme, he says, is sin and crime, rendered harmless by being treated indifferently.
William Archer wrote, "It is delightful to see, it sends wave after wave of laughter curling and foaming around the theatre; but as a text for criticism it is barren and delusive...what can a poor critic do with a play which raises no principle, whether of art or morals, creates its own canons and conventions, and is nothing but an absolutely wilful expression of an irrepressibly witty personality?"

In your opinion, does the play have any "purpose" beyond entertainment?

What happens to the cucumber sandwiches Lane made for Lady Bracknell?
Who has drunk 8 bottles of Algernon's champagne? How does he react to this?
What comments are made in Act 1 about marriage by Lane? By Algernon? By Jack?
What does Algernon say is the essence of romance? Does Jack agree?
What secret has Jack been hiding from Algernon? How is his secret exposed?
What is a "Bunburyist"?
Why is Jack "Jack" in the country and "Ernest" in the city?
How is Lady Harbury coping since her husband's death? How does Algernon and Lady Bracknell's conversation about her mock Victorian marriage conventions?
What does Lady Bracknell have to say about the health and illness of Bunbury? How do her comments parody Victorian attitudes toward health and morality?
According to Gwendolen, why is she so attracted to Jack? What does Jack intend to do about this?
After Jack and Gwendolen become engaged, Lady Bracknell interrogates Jack. What does she ask him? How does he answer? How do Lady Bracknell's opinions both reveal and satirize Victorian attitudes?
How does Lady Bracknell react when Jack tells her he was "found" and doesn't know his true parentage?
What are the characters' attitudes toward the truth in this play?
How does Algernon get Jack's address in the country? Why does he want to go there? Why does Jack want to keep him away?
How does Cecily feel about German? What has Lady Bracknell said, earlier in the play, about the German language? What does this contradiction between the two characters reveal about them?
Who is Miss Prism? How is her secret foreshadowed in Act 2?
Who is Dr. Chasuble? What is his relationship with Miss Prism?
How is Cecily different from what Algernon had expected?
How does everyone react when they find out that "Ernest" is not really dead? What does this reveal about their attitudes toward the truth?
Why does Algernon propose to Cecily, after all he has said about marriage?
What surprise does Algernon get when he proposes to Cecily?
Why has Cecily been in love with Algernon for so long? How does Algernon react to this?
How do Gwendolen and Cecily get along?
How do Gwendolen and Cecily react when they are told the truth about "Ernest"?
In Act 3, when the women are listening to the men's excuses, what do they say about truth?
How do the women react when the men resolve to be christened?
How does Lady Bracknell react when she is told that Cecily and Algernon are engaged? How does she attempt to verify Cecily's social "fitness"? What finally convinces her that Cecily is "acceptable"?
What is revealed about Miss Prism in Act 3?
Who are Jack's real parents? What is Jack's relation to Algernon?
What is Jack's real name?

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Link

1. Marvin Mudrick argues that Conrad's ability falls short of his desire to create a sense, for the reader, of absolute evil. He complains that, when Conrad doesn't know quite how to express his idea, he falls back on melodramatic abstractions ("It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention"). Do you find Conrad's prose melodramatic, or do you think he is able to create a sense of absolute evil?

2. When Kurtz says, "'The horror! The horror!" what does he mean?

3. What (and where) is the "heart of darkness"?

Why not name the people introduced at the beginning of the novel: the Director of Companies, the Lawyer, the Accountant?
Who is the narrator?
Why do you think Conrad chose not to make Marlowe the narrator?
What does the narrator's description of Marlowe ("Marlowe sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzenmast. He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and, with his arms dropped, the palms of hands turned outwards, resembled an idol") suggest about Marlowe?
How does the narrator describe their surroundings at the beginning of the story? How does he describe them at the end of the story? How has his perception changed by the end of the novel?
What icons of civilization does the narrator invoke at the beginning of the story? How does he feel about them? Has this perception changed by the end of the novel?
The narrator says that, to Marlowe, "the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze..." Ho does this relate to the rest of the narrator's story? How does it relate to the structure and technique of the novel?
Why is Marlowe thinking of the time when the Romans first came to England? In his mind, how is it related to the tale he tells of his African journey?
How does his description of the Roman commander relate to himself and his story?
When Marlowe says that what redeems the conquest of the earth is "the idea at the back of it," what does he mean? How does this relate to himself? To Kurtz? To the colonizers?
Why does he compare the river in the Congo to a snake?
Why include the story about Fresleven, the captain Marlowe replaced? What point(s) is Conrad making with this story?
Why does Marlowe repeat the word "glorious" so often? Is his tone the same each time he says it?
What does the description of the Company's office reveal about it?
Why does Conrad include the passage about Marlowe's visit to his aunt? How is her attitude toward his journey revealing of European attitudes toward Africans?
How does Marlowe's description of the coastline of Africa create the tone and mood for the rest of the story?
When Marlowe arrives at the Company's station, what does he see? How is the decaying machinery symbolic?
Why is Marlowe so upset by what he sees of the treatment of the Africans by the whites? How is their treatment symbolic?
Why does Marlowe automatically find himself allied with the Europeans he meets? How does he feel about this?
How does the appearance of the Company's accountant contrast with the appearance of the Africans Marlowe sees at the station? Why does Marlowe say he "respected" him?
When Marlowe is waiting at the station, a sick man is brought into the accountant's office to wait to be sent home. What is the point of this incident?
Marlowe gets to the Central station and discovers that the steamer he was to take upriver is sunk. He says, "I did not see the real significance of the wreck at once. I fancy I see it now, but I am not sure--not sure at all." What does he mean?
What is the goal of the Europeans at the station? What product do they crave? Why does Marlowe call them "pilgrims"?
Why is everyone so awed by Kurtz? What do they say about him?
What imagery and allusion does Conrad use to associate the Central station with Hell?
Marlowe says he hates lies--yet he allows the men at the Central station to believe he is something he is not. Why?
What does Marlowe say about his foreman? Why does he like him?
What is the point of the episode describing the Eldorado Exploring Expedition?
Marlowe says that when you are attending to the "mere incidents of the surface, the reality--the reality, I tell you--fades. The inner truth is hidden..." What does he mean?
Marlowe talks, when traveling up the river, about how he begins to feel a kinship with the Africans they encounter. He says it allows him to see "the truth." What does he say about "the truth," and what does he mean?
Marlowe finds an old book at an abandoned station. Why does he keep it?
When they are nearly at Kurtz's station, a mist rises, isolating them. What is the significance of this? What other images of or statements about isolation are made in the novel?
Why did the cannibals they hired to help them get upriver not eat Marlowe and the others? What does their restraint reveal about them? About the Europeans on the boat?
How does Marlowe describe the death of his helmsman? Why is he so anxious to get his shoes and socks off?
Why does the thought of Kurtz's death upset Marlowe so much, when he has never met him? How does he descrive Kurtz's "voice"?
How has the wilderness "gotten into" Kurtz? What does Marlowe mean when he says Kurtz "had taken a high seat amongst the devils of the land"?
Marlowe says, "The earth for us is a place to live in, where we must put up with sights, with sounds, with smells, too, by Jove--breathe dead hippo, so to speak, and not be contaminated." What does he mean?
Was Kurtz "contaminated"? Explain.
What was Kurtz's failure? What was his greatness?
What does Marlowe mean when he says, "All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz"?
Why can't Marlowe remember the words of Kurtz's report?
How does Marlowe describe Kurtz's station?
The Russian they meet at Kurtz's station tells Marlowe, "I went a little farther, then still a little farther--till I had gone so far that I don't know how I'll ever get back." What does he mean?
According to the Russian, how did Kurtz get all his ivory?
According to Marlowe, why was the wilderness able to "invade" Kurtz?
Marlowe despises Kurtz, in one way. In another, he reveres him. Why?
Why does Marlowe take Kurtz's side and protect him and his memory against the Company? What does he mean when he says, "Ah! but it was something to have at least a choice of nightmares"?
How are the two women in Kurtz's life the same? How are they different?
What does Marlowe mean when he says of Kurtz that he had "kicked himself loose of the earth"?
Kurtz says, "Live rightly, die, die..." What does he mean?
Why does Marlowe say that Kurtz's last cry ("The horror! The horror!") was a victory?
Why does Marlowe go to see Kurtz's fiancee? Does he find what he expects?
Why does Marlowe allow her to keep her illusions about Kurtz?
Why does he lie to her about Kurtz's last words?