Nina competed an exercise identifying various phrases and descriptions of the mysterious character Kurtz who has not yet appeared in the novel other than by reputation. Nina very perceptively recognized that the Manager who claims Kurtz is "exceptional" is fearful Kurtz will take his job and therefore has in reality sabotaged Marlow's vessel in the hope that Kurtz will die in the jungle before he can be rescued . We then analyzed the symbolism of Kurtz' painting of a blindfolded woman holding a torch noting the veiled allusion to Beatrice in Dante's "Inferno". We discussed the phrase"philanthropic pretense" in this context and tied this painting to Marlowe's earlier comment that women must carry on Man's pretenses and illusions as women are too fragile to bear the truth of the cruelty underlying the illusion. We also parsed Marlowe's contradictory observation about his distaste for lies. Although Marlowe has not yet met Kurtz ,we examined how he begins to feel aligned with Kurtz believing that Kurtz offers some hope of a redeeming idea justifying the greed and exploitation that Marlowe begins to encounter in the Outer Station. Last, we reviewed Nina's study guide homework and supplemented her answers based on class discussion.