Prompt
#3
What is
the significance of the forest? Cite specific passages in which the forest
figures heavily.
The forest appears to have a unique affect on the main
characters. It is as if the forest is a great enchanter that draws men into its
bosom. Its “pitiless breast” suggest that the forest is no comfort to man. It
acts as a catalyst. The reactions it triggers are “forgotten and brutal
instincts.” The forest is personified. It may even fall into an archetype of a
tempter or “devil.” Maybe this is why
Marlow told his audience “I tried to break the spell…” Naturally men feel a
connection to the forest or in this case jungle because we have ascended out of
its bosom or descended to it. It is our place of origin, the wild, “prehistoric
earth.” Adam and Eve got us kicked out of the Garden, then we had to fend for
ourselves in a “wilderness.” “The drone of weird incantation” is the sin or
temptation beckoning t to man. If the forest is the archetype of the devil it
would remind us of our place of origin “by the memory of gratified and
monstrous passion.” These passions maybe why Mr. Kurtz is drawn to the forest.
It would help the reader understand Mr. Kurtz's attraction to the jungle, and
the adorned lady, and his sport, head hunting. Perhaps he has lost all faith.
He has given into "desire, temptation, and surrender." Perhaps this
surrender was caused by a lack of "hope," inner strength, or
spiritual faith. Maybe this is why the narrator alludes to the tree of knowledge
with "complete knowledge." It is probably the idea of sin and man's
ability to fail or give into temptation that the narrator is alluding to ,but
not everyone has given into temptation. The Russian has not participated in the
act of head hunting or poaching. Perhaps Mr. Kurtz was afflicted with
"hopeless despair" after examining his inner character, "soul,"
or knowledge of self that he was overcome by a force unknown to him until he
ventured into his own heart and there he found the darkness. His exclamation of
"The horror! The horror!" could be his realization that he has been
overcome by the evil from within.
The “forest” appears to be almost like a Siren luring the men into its grasps, with the men unable to resist the temptation of the unknown. The forest is almost like the serpent in the story of Adam and Eve, who temps Eve with the apple of knowledge (darkness) and she cannot break “the spell” of temptation. Perhaps the men are Eve, trying to escape a truth which they know they cannot. I agree that “the horror, the horror,” could be the realization that the evil within, and the temptation, have overcome the will of not just Kurtz but all men.
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