Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness retells the story of Marlow's job as an ivory transporter down the Congo. Through his journey, Marlow develops an intense interest in investigating Kurtz, an ivory-procurement agent, and Marlow is shocked upon seeing what the European traders have done to the natives.

Marlow begins telling the story of his adventures through the Congo to some of his shipmates one night out at sea while the sun slowly sets and the story envelopes them. Marlow was looking for adventure, looking for the exotic and when he finally was given charge of a ship he began his trek into a foreign land.

On his way to the camp he is struck by a chain gang of skeletal shadows, the humanity stripped from them, they toiled up the hill ahead of Marlow looking as if each one was close to taking his last step...Marlow is horrified by the inhumanity of this strange country where men are regulated to little more than animals based on the color of their skin.

When he finally gets to the camp he finds his ship is in disrepair and he spends months waiting for parts and trying to rig his ship back together as best as possible, meanwhile the bureaucracy is exposed as a virtually inefficient mercenary enterprise. He leaves as quickly as he can and begins the dangerous trek to find Kurts, who at this point he has begun to deify. He has imaginary conversations with Kurts and defends his name when slighted...only to reach Kurts camp and find yet another dissolution waiting for him. Kurts is nothing more than a psychotic, mercenary, megalomaniac. Capable of the kind of cruelty that had become commonplace in the Congo and justified by the search for ivory.

Kurts is unwell and dies on the ship, his last moments are ones filled with the horror of the immense cruelty he had inflicted on the natives he came into contact with the the utter darkness and depravity of the Congo.

He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision—he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath—"The horror! The horror!"

Three Sisters - Chekhov

"A thousand years from now man will still be sighing "Ah, how hard life is..." Yet he will fear death exactly as he does now...and be unwilling to doe. Life will remain just the same as it always was...it doesn't change. It remains..."

"A man must have some faith or must seek a faith, otherwise his life is empty. Either hi know what he lives for or it's all futile and worthless..."

Irina finally agrees to marry Tuzenbach and the day before the depart for the long awaited journey to Moscow, Tuzenbach is killed in a duel by Solyony who claims to love Irina...

Three Sisters describes the lives and aspirations of the Prozorov family. Three sisters and their brother Andrei. They are refined and educated living in a small provincial town and dissatisfied and frustrated with their present existence.

When Andrei decides to get married, the sisters despise his choice saying the bride, Natalia, is an uneducated floozy. They have bigger hopes and dreams for their brother and aspire to move to Moscow and begin a new life. Yet years later as Andrei has been slowly driven bankrupt by his gambling habits, Natalia becomes the woman of the house ans as the siblings dreams recede she takes control of whats left of the inheritance and their lives. Eventually the dream of Moscow never materializes and they see their dreams recede further and further..

Uncle Vanya - Chekhov

Uncle Vanya tells the story of a family headed by aging Professor Serebryakov, a once celebrated academic whose career and health are in decline, he owns the struggling country estate that once belonged to his late wife. Serebryakov's daughter Sonya and former brother-in-law, Uncle Vanya, now run the property with help from Marina and Telegin. Serebryakov has returned to the home along with his young second wife Yelena, whose beauty draws attention from both Vanya and Astrov, a country doctor and forester who is a frequent visitor to the estate.

All of the main characters are pitiable in that none of them have found a satisfactory life. The professor, once full of promise, is now gout-ridden and does not have the standing among the intelligentsia that he once enjoyed. Yelena is giving her best years to the old man, much to the distress of Vanya, who has already given Serebryakov decades of fruitless labor. Sonya has toiled on the property and loves Astrov, though his affections are directed toward Yelena. Astrov dedicated his life to healing the sick and preserving his beloved forests, only to find himself surrounded by peasants while watching his trees slowly disappear.

Love and angst, 2 fired shots that are as futile as the lives they all live. First Chekhov play I've read where all the characters have survived to the end...and yet the lives they live are long and monotonous...a long breath as they slowly wait to die.

The Seagull - Chekhov

A seagull lives happily by the sea until a hunter comes by and out of boredom destroys it.

Nina kind of loves Konstantin - but runs away with Trigorin, who quickly disposes of her. Nina no longer has anything to live for and must live out her days as a wandering shadow. Konstantin, after realizing she will never come back and return his love...shoots himself.

An explosion is heard, "it's probably just the ether..."

Dorn: (Lowering his voice) Get Nina away from here somehow...The fact is, Konstantin Gavrilovich has shot himself...

Ivanov - Chekhov

A man marries a rich Jewess, thinking her to have a large dowry - but when Sarah converts to Catholicism her parents disown her and she is given nothing. Ivanov is disappointed and soon becomes bored and dissatisfied. Slowly Sarah dies of consumption, unhappy, unloved and alone, while Ivanov turns his mercenary sights to Sasha. After Sarah's death and a borderline respectable time of mourning, Ivanov is about to be married to Shasha. Before the wedding he feels unable to destroy Sasha's youthful purity with his base calcultions and money grubbing and shoots himself...

S: (screams) I know what he's going to do! Nikolai, for God's sake!

I: I've been going down hill long enough - now I'll stop! There's a limit to everything! Stand aside! Thank you Sasha!

S: (shrieks) Nikolai, for God's sake! Stop him!

I: Leave me alone! (Runs aside and shoots himself)

You've got to hand it to Chekhov...he knows how to pile on the pepper...

On Liberty - John Stuart Mill

Mill was raised by his father, James Mill, to be a strict Utilitarian. Mill's childhood was rigid, and he suffered a nervous breakdown at twenty-one when he began to question some of his beliefs. Mill later struggled with his sense that Utilitarianism was too unemotional and that it failed to capture or understand the "higher" pleasures. On Liberty can be understood as an attempt to broaden the meaning of utility and show that Utilitarianism can provide a strong protection of rights. The essay also reflects Mill's passionate belief that individuality is something that should be protected and nurtured. As such, the essay illustrates his disgust at how he believed society squelches nonconformity...

"The subject of this Essay is not the so-called Liberty of the Will, so unfortunately opposed to the misnamed doctrine of Philosophical Necessity; but Civil, or Social Liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual..."

"Whenever there is an ascendant class, a large portion of the morality of the country emanates from its class interests and its feeling of class superiority..."

"The majority have not yet learned to fuel the power of the government with their power, or its opinions their opinions. When they do so, individual liberty will probably be as much exposed to invasion from the government as it already is from public opinion..."

"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any person of society, against his will, is to prevent harm to others..."

"Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign..."

"The tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach..."

The Lady from the Sea - Ibsen

Spoiler alert: She's a mermaid...or is she? After reading a quick succession of Ibsen plays the theme seems to be unhappy couples...struggling for allusive freedom of sorts, often are unable to come to the terms that the freedom requires and instead shoot themselves... This is the only Ibsen play that I have read where all the characters have managed to survive to the end...

Basically the plot is Ellida is in love with the sea and has a past shrouded in mystery (because she's a mermaid) she has promised herself to a sailor and after many years the sailor imposes himself on the happy family and attempts to claim her. Her husband realizing he has no power over her gives her the freedom to choose her fate and by that gesture Ellida realizes she will stay despite her constant draw to the sea.