"The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor" on the Thames before Marlow speaks. What does that opening frame do?

The frame narrator says seamen's yarns have "direct simplicity," but "Marlow was not typical." What does the contrast prepare the reader for?

For Marlow, meaning is "not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale." What does this image tell readers to do?

After the tale, "Marlow ceased, and sat apart, indistinct and silent." What does the return to the outer narrator accomplish?

The Thames finally "seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness." What does the frame's last image do?

Marlow breaks off: "No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey" an experience. What does the admission do?

When Marlow says, "We live, as we dream--alone," what pressure does the line put on his narration?

Marlow asks, "Do you see him? Do you see the story? Do you see anything?" What is the effect of these questions?

Marlow calls his narration "trying to tell you a dream--making a vain attempt." What does that metaphor change?

"I don't want to bother you much with what happened to me personally," Marlow says, yet he goes on to stress the journey's effect on him. What does the hedge reveal?

"The conquest of the earth," Marlow says, "mostly means the taking it away" from others. What does the blunt correction do?

"They were called criminals," Marlow says of chained men. What does the passive phrasing expose?

"The word 'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed." What does this diction make visible?

Marlow repeatedly calls Company agents "pilgrims." What does that name do in the novella's language?

Kurtz's report ends with "Exterminate all the brutes!" after polished humanitarian prose. What does that placement reveal?

Marlow lists labels: "enemies, criminals, workers--and these were rebels." What does the sequence show?

"He was just a word for me," Marlow says of Kurtz. What does introducing Kurtz this way accomplish?

Marlow says, "The man presented himself as a voice." What does that withholding emphasize?

"I did not see the man in the name any more than you do," Marlow tells listeners. What does the address do?

In the dark, Marlow "had been no more to us than a voice." How does the frame echo the Kurtz narration?

Marlow begins, "It was unearthly, and the men were--No, they were not inhuman." What does the self-correction reveal?

To the Intended, Marlow says Kurtz's last word was "your name." What does this lie replace?

After lying, Marlow says, "I could not tell her. It would have been too dark--too dark altogether...." What does the ending withhold?

Marlow reflects, "The heavens do not fall for such a trifle." What does calling the lie a "trifle" show?

The Intended has "a mature capacity for fidelity, for belief, for suffering." How does this shape the closing lie?