How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"However, they were all waiting – all the sixteen or twenty pilgrims of them – for something; and upon my word it did not seem an uncongenial occupation, from the way they took it, though the only thing that ever came to them was disease – as far as I could see. They beguiled the time by back-biting and intriguing against each other in a foolish kind of way. There was an air of plotting about that station, but nothing came of it, of course." (1.56)
Conrad plays with time to give the situation a feeling of futility and ineptitude. Everyone experiences a sense of delay and, particularly in Marlow’s case, a sense of endless ennui in the constant waiting.
Quote #8
[Marlow]: "Of course in this you fellows see more than I could then. You see me, whom you know […]." (1.65)
The current, story-telling Marlow emphasizes the differences between himself now and himself as a character in his tale. His maturation from these events of a year ago has now given him a wisdom and perspective he previously lacked.
Quote #9
"Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings." (2.5)
The Congo River is a linear representation of time; the further the men go up it, the more they feel as if they are traveling backwards in time. The jungle they encounter is so thick and untouched that they feel as if they are traversing a prehistoric world.