Kurtz's Intended: the setting
"Heart of Darkness" is a psychological novel, yet the setting and character descriptions can be quite accurate, and especially so in the last part of the story, when setting, sound and light all contribute to painting an impressive background to the contrastsing reactions, emotions and thoughts of Marlow and Kurtz's Intended.
Her house - a rich one - is described in detail:
Her house - a rich one - is described in detail:
The dusk was falling. I had to wait in a lofty drawing-room with three long windows from floor to ceiling that were like three luminous and bedraped columns. The bent gilt legs and backs of the furniture shone in indistinct curves. The tall marble fireplace had a cold and monumental whiteness. A grand piano stood massively in a corner, with dark gleams on the flat surfaces like a sombre and polished sarcophagus. A high door opened - closed. I rose.
A careful description of the changingf light accompanies the equally changing of Marlowe's and the woman's emotions, as if the sky and the whole world - from outside the high windows - were participating in the event.
The room seemed to have grown darker...
The darkness deepened...
By the last gleams of twilight I could see the glitter of her eyes...
The woman is sometimes very physical...
... all in black... She was in mourning... dark eyes
She took both my hands in hers...
She was not very young - I mean not girlish
...fair hair... pale visage... her forehead, smooth and white...
She put out her arms.... stretching them black and with clasped pale hands...
... and sometimes supernatural, almost eerie:
She came forward.... floating towards me in the dusk
... this pure brow seemed surrounded by an ashy halo from which the dark eyes looked out at me...
I shall see her too, a tragic and familiar Shade...
(with contributions from Adelaide, Chiara, Irene, Valentina)