The effectiveness of the starting passage for

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William Nicholls

The effectiveness of the starting passage for “Heart of Darkness”  

   

The Starting passage of Heart of darkness helps to introduce us to the themes that occur within the book. It is also interestingly started by a Narrator and this framing narrative provides a different perspective for the story. The narrator and the crew are unnamed as they are simply identified by there professional positions, “The Accountant” “The Lawyer” and “The director of companies”. However the only crew member with a name is Marlow, he is also the only crew member who is described to us physically, “He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back and an ascetic aspect”. This tells us that he is important and almost the most “realistic” character among the crew members, as the others seem to be stereotypical almost as if they don’t simply represent one single person but a whole wide range of British society. The narrator also expresses the views of the crew members in the first person plural which helps create the image of them representing society.

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 The setting of the start is on the river Thames, “the beginning of an interminable waterway” as though the sea is endless and you can follow it “to the uttermost ends of the earth”. The time of day for the start of the book is near sunset as

“The day was ending in a serenity of still and exquisite brilliance.” The language contained at the start really creates an image of calmness, peace and natural beauty, for example “the water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light.” However this contrasts with ...

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