Criticism of Heart of Darkness

Francis Galton - The Comparative Worth of Different Races

• Francis Galton assessed the worth of different races using a grading system, and decided that negroes on the whole were two grades less than Anglo-saxons, based on characteristics he had observed.
• He thought that savages were less "fit," based on their extermination from continents. He did not think this was because of colonization, but because they could not support themselves.
• He thinks that we cannot keep up with this modern civilization, and need to enhance our skills and abilities.

Charity

Charity is an interesting concept to me. After all, why is there a principle about humans selflessly giving to others? I suspect that charity originally has religious roots. Then I wonder, do most good concepts have religious roots?

The belief in charity is a value that most have, although people can interpret charity in different ways. Charity can be seen as kindness toward fellow friends, or the generosity to give away one's own wealth. The principle of charity is a personal issue to me, since I value the people who are most helpful to me and at times try to be the same way. 

As I research the origin of the word 'charity, I hope to find out about the concept of the word when it was first used, how the concept has evolved, and the several usages of the word. I hope to be inspired and perhaps  surprised at what I may find, and gain a better understanding of how people have interpreted the meaning of charity over time.

Chivalry

At first, in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries, chivalry stood for knighthood. However, by the early twelfth century, chivalry started to stand for the philosophy, manners, and values that knights should possess. These characteristics came from feudal obligations, commands of the princely court, and the instruction by the Christian Clergy. From 1235-1315, it was said that “The right reason to become a knight is to do right; the wrong reason is for advantage and rank.” A knight had to be: 1. Fit 2. Of a good family 3. Sufficient wealth 4. Wise 5. Generous 7. Loyal 8. Brave 8. Honorable. His ethical duties include 1. To follow the Christian faith 2. To protect his lord 3. “To protect the weak (women, children)” 4. To exercise continuously by hunting and jousting 5. To judge and supervise people’s work 6. To chase robbers and other evil people. A knight had to abstain from 1) pride 2) lechery 3) false oaths 4) and most of all, treachery (i.e. deceiving his lord, sleeping with his wife, and ceding the castle.

 

Unferth's Diary

Dear Sacred Book,

Life is unpleasant. Grendel is gross. I so badly want to show Hrothgar and everyone in the Mead Hall that I am a hero. Who cares about life anyway? It is so unpleasant and depressing. I would rather die knowing that I was famous. But Grendel refuses to kill me.  He scoffs at the concept of honor, like some uncivilized baboon. Deep down, though, I know he is right.  People are constantly in want of honor, so they just end up wasting their time killing people. Grendel is a sly one, he is. I am surprised by the fact that he is not just some stupid, hairy animal. I think he realizes that it is in my self-interest to be killed. So what villain would do what the victim wants? For this reason, I am eternally doomed to live in this unpleasant world with no reputation to feel good about myself.

I do not know if I can live through the humiliating apple moment. Grendel kept on throwing apples at me, and everyone stared, confounded. He laughed at me and humiliatingly mocked my want of glory. And I don't even know why, but life seemed so pointless and terrible at that moment, I just started to cry like a child.

I realized that I had to redeem myself, so I bravely took a journey to his cave and stupidly hoped that he would kill me. I should have realized by then that he was smarter than any rogue animal, not just a being led by devilish instincts. I actually feel that I am more vulnerable to instincts than he is, because sadly, I fell asleep! Again, I acted like a weak child. And the horror! I returned back to Mead Hall alive and Grendel was still alive, and I did not want to explain this utter humiliation to my kingsmen.  How dare I come back alive with the villain still living? How dare I?

As if all of this is not bad enough, some gallant man who claims to be a hero shows up. He calls himself Beowulf. He is big and broad shouldered, and stands as if he is the greatest man in the world. I hate him. His eyes give off this cool, indifferent look. When you talk to him, he looks like he does not take you seriously, like he is so amused. He gives off an impression that he has much more important things to think about. It makes me feel like rotten apples.

Today, at dinner, I ridiculed Beowulf for his swimming challenge with Breca.  Beowulf not only coolly defended himself (who knows what's true though), but he also insulted me. He said that I had done nothing glorious except executing my brothers. Everyone stopped speaking. It was humiliating.

It looks like Grendel and Beowulf have succeeded in making my life a misery. I would kill myself, but that would be dishonorable.

Sincerely,
Unferth

English and Modern German

We can see the similarities between English and Modern German through the German prepositions and pronouns. Sometimes the first letters of the German words and English equivalents will be the same, sometimes the sounds will be very similar, and sometimes the number of syllables will be the same. 

German Prepositions

German	English
dies	This
das	That
diese	These
jene	Those
über	Above
nach	After
um	Around
an	At
wegen	Because of
bevor	Before
neben	Beside
zwischen	Between
aber	But
nah bei/ in der Nähe von	Close to
unten	Down
während	During
für	For
von/ aus	From
in	In
vor	In front of
in	Inside
anstatt	Instead of
wie	Like
nahe	Near
neben	Next to
auf	On
auf	On top of
aus	Out
aussen	Outside
über	Over
seit	Since
als	Than
zu	To
unter	Under
bis	Until
oben	Up
ohne	Without

German Pronouns

Personal Pronouns in German
Singular
I	ich
you (familiar)	du
you (formal)	Sie
he, she, it	er, sie, es
Plural
we	wir
you (familiar)	ihr
you (formal)	Sie
they	sie

Direct Object Pronouns in German
Singular
me	mich
you (familiar)	dich
you (formal)	Sie
him, her, it	ihn, sie, es
Plural
us	uns
you (familiar)	euch
you (formal)	Sie
them	sie

http://www.linguanaut.com/german_prepositions.htm

http://german.speak7.com/german_pronouns.htm

Frankenstein and Radical Science by Marilyn Butler

Summary of Three Key Ideas from the Essay:

1) Creationism vs Evolution - One of the main ideas of this review is stating the points that suggest Mary Shelley's work displays creationism or a belief in evolution. For example, Butler states that people see a warning not to assume God's role as a Creator. However, it could also be interpreted that Mary Shelly attacks Christianity and connects to Lawrence's radical science theories.

2) Vitalism vs. materialism - There are two theories presented in this review, one is Abernethy's theory, vitalism, that besides the chemical and physical make-up of life, something made up for the soul, like "electricity" (Butler 306). Lawrence's theory, materialism, states that our mind is solely made up of chemical processes. Butler states that Frankenstein ". . . suggests the position of Abernethy, who proposes that superadded life-element is analoagous to electricity -- particularly when he uses a machine, reminiscent of a battery, to impart the spark of life" (Shelley 307). This is interesting to think about, although technically, the monster would still be sparked by material.

3) Incest - I'm not sure if this was a main idea (the two first subpoints were mostly the main ideas), but I thought that this was an interesting issue that was talked about. Lawrence negatively writes about incest in the Natural History of Man, and Mary Shelley also displays a negative attitude towards it. Butler demonstrates the marriage between Frankenstein and Elizabeth as "unhealthy" (Shelley 133).

This information greatly enhanced my understanding of the novel. I now almost see this as kind of a science-fiction novel, when before, I had not even thought about the novel portraying the dangers of science. Furthermore, this goes even deeper to say that Mary Shelly could have been portraying creationism, evolution, or both, when I never realized that religion also had a major role in the story. I also learned about theories that could have influenced her such as vitalism vs. materialism, which improves my understanding about how Shelley illustrates the creation of the monster itself. And lastly, I just thought that Shelley included an incestuous relationship because it was common at the time, not because she was commenting on human behavior and displaying negativity towards incest. 

Complex attitude short essay

Mary Shelley illustrates Victor’s complex attitude towards his work, by first demonstrating that Victor’s motives are misguided. Victor desires to feel powerful, and for this reason he states, “Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through…” (Shelley 32).  The way Victor says this is as if he desires to be some powerful sorcerer. In addition, he wants to have a high status in the world. He states that “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs.” (Shelley 32). Thus, Victor, rather than thinking about the good of human kind and what the ability to create life means, solely thinks about the awe of his own work. He does not evaluate the consequences of his actions, since he is so focused on the success of his scientific project.

 Secondly, Shelly demonstrates Victor’s complex attitude through his tense words. Victor’s words are dark and filled with loathing of his deed. For example, he states, “No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane…” (Shelley 32). “Hurricane” implies darkness and destruction; the reader gets a sense that his feelings are destructive. Other descriptions set the scene for a dark setting and deed, with words such as “My cheeks had grown pale,” “The moon gazed on my midnight labours,” “tortured the living animal, “my limbs now tremble,” “filthy creation,” etc. The reader realizes that the scientist Victor is doing is bizarre.

Hence, Shelley portrays Victor’s attitude towards his work through the two paragraphs of the passage on page 32. The first paragraph illustrates Victor’s attitudes towards the motives of his experiment, whereas the second paragraph illustrates Victor’s disgust with the experiment itself.