HEART OF DARKNESS

Key Facts

Full title

Heart of Darkness

Author

· Joseph Conrad

Type of work

· Novella (between a novel and a short story in length and scope)

Genre

· Symbolism, colonial literature, adventure tale, frame story, almost a romance in its insistence

on heroism and the supernatural and its preference for the symbolic over the realistic

Language

· English

Time and place written

· England, 1898–1899; inspired by Conrad’s journey to the Congo in 1890

Date of first publication

· Serialized in

Blackwood’s

magazine in 1899; published in 1902 in the

volume

Youth: A Narrative; and Two Other Stories

Publisher

· J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.

Narrator

· There are two narrators: an anonymous passenger on a pleasure ship, who listens to

Marlow’s story, and Marlow himself, a middle-aged ship’s captain.

Point of view

· The first narrator speaks in the first-person plural, on behalf of four other passengers

who listen to Marlow’s tale. Marlow narrates his story in the first person, describing only what he
witnessed and experienced, and providing his own commentary on the story.

Tone

· Ambivalent: Marlow is disgusted at the brutality of the Company and horrified by Kurtz’s

degeneration, but he claims that any thinking man would be tempted into similar behavior.

Tense

· Past

Setting (time)

· Latter part of the nineteenth century, probably sometime between 1876 and 1892

Setting (place)

· Opens on the Thames River outside London, where Marlow is telling the story that

makes up

Heart of Darkness.

Events of the story take place in Brussels, at the Company’s offices, and

in the Congo, then a Belgian territory.

Protagonist

· Marlow

Major conflict

· Both Marlow and Kurtz confront a conflict between their images of themselves as

“civilized” Europeans and the temptation to abandon morality completely once they leave the context
of European society.

Rising action

· The brutality Marlow witnesses in the Company’s employees, the rumors he hears

that Kurtz is a remarkable and humane man, and the numerous examples of Europeans breaking down
mentally or physically in the environment of Africa.

Climax

· Marlow’s discovery, upon reaching the Inner Station, that Kurtz has completely abandoned

European morals and norms of behavior

Falling action

· Marlow’s acceptance of responsibility for Kurtz’s legacy, Marlow’s encounters with

Company officials and Kurtz’s family and friends, Marlow’s visit to Kurtz’s Intended

Character List

Marlow

- The protagonist of

Heart of Darkness.

Marlow is philosophical, independent-minded, and

generally skeptical of those around him. He is also a master storyteller, eloquent and able to draw his
listeners into his tale. Although Marlow shares many of his fellow Europeans’ prejudices, he has seen
enough of the world and has encountered enough debased white men to make him skeptical of
imperialism.

Kurtz

- The chief of the Inner Station and the object of Marlow’s quest. Kurtz is a man of many

talents—we learn, among other things, that he is a gifted musician and a fine painter—the chief of
which are his charisma and his ability to lead men. Kurtz is a man who understands the power of
words, and his writings are marked by an eloquence that obscures their horrifying message. Although
he remains an enigma even to Marlow, Kurtz clearly exerts a powerful influence on the people in his
life. His downfall seems to be a result of his willingness to ignore the hypocritical rules that govern
European colonial conduct: Kurtz has “kicked himself loose of the earth” by fraternizing excessively
with the natives and not keeping up appearances; in so doing, he has become wildly successful but has
also incurred the wrath of his fellow white men.

General manager

- The chief agent of the Company in its African territory, who runs the Central

Station. He owes his success to a hardy constitution that allows him to outlive all his competitors. He
is average in appearance and unremarkable in abilities, but he possesses a strange capacity to produce
uneasiness in those around him, keeping everyone sufficiently unsettled for him to exert his control
over them.

Brickmaker

- The brickmaker, whom Marlow also meets at the Central Station, is a favorite of the

manager and seems to be a kind of corporate spy. He never actually produces any bricks, as he is
supposedly waiting for some essential element that is never delivered. He is petty and conniving and
assumes that other people are too.

Chief accountant

- An efficient worker with an incredible habit of dressing up in spotless whites and

keeping himself absolutely tidy despite the squalor and heat of the Outer Station, where he lives and
works. He is one of the few colonials who seems to have accomplished anything: he has trained a
native woman to care for his wardrobe.

Pilgrims

- The bumbling, greedy agents of the Central Station. They carry long wooden staves with

them everywhere, reminding Marlow of traditional religious travelers. They all want to be appointed to
a station so that they can trade for ivory and earn a commission, but none of them actually takes any
effective steps toward achieving this goal. They are obsessed with keeping up a veneer of civilization
and proper conduct, and are motivated entirely by self-interest. They hate the natives and treat them
like animals, although in their greed and ridiculousness they appear less than human themselves.

Cannibals

- Natives hired as the crew of the steamer, a surprisingly reasonable and well-tempered

bunch. Marlow respects their restraint and their calm acceptance of adversity. The leader of the group,
in particular, seems to be intelligent and capable of ironic reflection upon his situation.

Russian trader

- A Russian sailor who has gone into the African interior as the trading representative

of a Dutch company. He is boyish in appearance and temperament, and seems to exist wholly on the
glamour of youth and the audacity of adventurousness. His brightly patched clothes remind Marlow of
a harlequin. He is a devoted disciple of Kurtz’s.

Helmsman

- A young man from the coast trained by Marlow’s predecessor to pilot the steamer. He is

a serviceable pilot, although Marlow never comes to view him as much more than a mechanical part of
the boat. He is killed when the steamer is attacked by natives hiding on the riverbanks.

Kurtz’s African mistress

- A fiercely beautiful woman loaded with jewelry who appears on the shore

when Marlow’s steamer arrives at and leaves the Inner Station. She seems to exert an undue influence
over both Kurtz and the natives around the station, and the Russian trader points her out as someone to
fear. Like Kurtz, she is an enigma: she never speaks to Marlow, and he never learns anything more
about her.

Kurtz’s Intended

- Kurtz’s naïve and long-suffering fiancée, whom Marlow goes to visit after

Kurtz’s death. Her unshakable certainty about Kurtz’s love for her reinforces Marlow’s belief that
women live in a dream world, well insulated from reality.

Aunt

- Marlow’s doting relative, who secures him a position with the Company. She believes firmly

in imperialism as a charitable activity that brings civilization and religion to suffering, simple savages.
She, too, is an example for Marlow of the naïveté and illusions of women.

The men aboard the Nellie

- Marlow’s friends, who are with him aboard a ship on the Thames at the

story’s opening. They are the audience for the central story of

Heart of Darkness,

which Marlow

narrates. All have been sailors at one time or another, but all now have important jobs ashore and have
settled into middle-class, middle-aged lives. They represent the kind of man Marlow would have likely
become had he not gone to Africa: well meaning and moral but ignorant as to a large part of the world
beyond England. The narrator in particular seems to be shaken by Marlow’s story. He repeatedly
comments on its obscurity and Marlow’s own mysterious nature.

Fresleven

- Marlow’s predecessor as captain of the steamer. Fresleven, by all accounts a good-

tempered, nonviolent man, was killed in a dispute over some hens, apparently after striking a village
chief.

From the way Marlow tells his story, it is clear that he is extremely critical of imperialism, but his
reasons apparently have less to do with what imperialism does to colonized peoples than with what it
does   to   Europeans.   Marlow   suggests,   in   the   first   place,   that   participation   in   imperial   enterprises
degrades   Europeans   by   removing   them   from   the   “civilizing”   context   of   European   society,   while
simultaneously tempting them into violent behavior because of the hostility and lawlessness of the
environment. Moreover, Marlow suggests that the mission of “civilizing” and “enlightening” native
peoples is misguided, not because he believes that they have a viable civilization and culture already,
but because they are so savage that the project is overwhelming and hopeless. Marlow expresses horror
when he witnesses the violent maltreatment of the natives, and he argues that a kinship exists between
black   Africans   and   Europeans,   but   in   the   same   breath   he   states   that   this   kinship   is   “ugly”   and
horrifying, and that the kinship is extremely distant. Nevertheless, it is not a simple matter to evaluate
whether Marlow’s attitudes are conservative or progressive, racist or “enlightened.”
In   the   first   place,   one   would   have   to   decide   in   relation   to

whom

Marlow was conservative or

progressive. Clearly, Marlow’s story is shaped by the audience to whom he tells it. The anonymous
narrator states that Marlow is unconventional in his ideas, and his listeners’ derisive grunts and
murmurs suggest that they are less inclined to question colonialism or to view Africans as human
beings than he is. His criticisms of colonialism, both implicit and explicit, are pitched to an audience
that is far more sympathetic toward the colonial enterprise than any twenty-first-century reader could
be. The framing narrative puts a certain amount of distance between Marlow’s narrative and Conrad
himself. This framework suggests that the reader should regard Marlow ironically, but there are few
cues within the text to suggest an alternative to Marlow’s point of view.

Part I (continued)

Marlow’s visit to the Company Headquarters through his parting with his aunt.
After he hears that he has gotten the job, Marlow travels across the English Channel to a city that
reminds him of a “whited sepulchre” (probably Brussels) to sign his employment contract at the
Company’s office. First, however, he digresses to tell the story of his predecessor with the Company,
Fresleven.  Much later,  after the  events  Marlow  is  about to recount, Marlow was sent  to recover
Fresleven’s   bones,  which  he   found  lying  in  the  center  of  a   deserted  African  village.  Despite  his
reputation as mild mannered, Fresleven was killed in a scuffle over some hens: after striking the
village chief, he was stabbed by the chief’s son. He was left there to die, and the superstitious natives
immediately abandoned the village. Marlow notes that he never did find out what became of the hens.
Arriving at the Company’s offices, Marlow finds two sinister women there knitting black wool, one of
whom admits him to a waiting room, where he looks at a map of Africa color-coded by colonial
powers.   A   secretary   takes   him   into   the   inner   office   for   a   cursory   meeting   with   the   head   of   the
Company. Marlow signs his contract, and the secretary takes him off to be checked over by a doctor.
The doctor takes measurements of his skull, remarking that he unfortunately doesn’t get to see those
men who make it back from Africa. More important, the doctor tells Marlow, “the changes take place
inside.” The doctor is interested in learning anything that may give Belgians an advantage in colonial
situations.
With all formalities completed, Marlow stops off to say goodbye to his aunt, who expresses her hope
that he will aid in the civilization of savages during his service to the Company, “weaning those
ignorant millions from their horrid ways.” Well aware that the Company operates for profit and not for
the good of humanity, and bothered by his aunt’s naïveté, Marlow takes his leave of her. Before
boarding the French steamer that is to take him to Africa, Marlow has a brief but strange feeling about
his journey: the feeling that he is setting off for the center of the earth.

Analysis

This section has several concrete objectives. The first of these is to locate Marlow more specifically
within the wider history of colonialism. It is important that he goes to Africa in the service of a Belgian
company rather than a British one. The map that Marlow sees in the Company offices shows the
continent overlaid with blotches of color, each color standing for a different imperial power. While the
map represents a relatively neutral way of describing imperial presences in Africa, Marlow’s
comments about the map reveal that imperial powers were not all the same. In fact, the yellow patch
—“dead in the center”—covers the site of some of the most disturbing atrocities committed in the

name of empire. The Belgian king, Leopold, treated the Congo as his private treasury, and the Belgians
had the reputation of being far and away the most cruel and rapacious of the colonial powers. The
reference to Brussels as a “whited sepulchre” is meant to bring to mind a passage from the Book of
Matthew concerning hypocrisy. The Belgian monarch spoke rhetorically about the civilizing benefits
of colonialism, but the Belgian version of the practice was the bloodiest and most inhumane.
This does not, however, mean that Conrad seeks to indict the Belgians and praise other colonial
powers. As Marlow journeys into the Congo, he meets men from a variety of European nations, all of
whom are violent and willing to do anything to make their fortunes. Moreover, it must be remembered
that Marlow himself willingly goes to work for this Belgian concern: at the moment he decides to do
so, his personal desire for adventure far outweighs any concerns he might have about particular
colonial practices. This section of the book also introduces another set of concerns, this time regarding
women.

Heart of Darkness

has been attacked by critics as misogynistic, and there is some justification

for this point of view. Marlow’s aunt does express a naïvely idealistic view of the Company’s mission,
and Marlow is thus right to fault her for being “out of touch with truth.” However, he phrases his
criticism so as to make it applicable to all women, suggesting that women do not even live in the same
world   as   men   and   that   they   must   be   protected   from   reality.   Moreover,   the   female   characters   in
Marlow’s story are extremely flat and stylized. In part this may be because Marlow uses women
symbolically as representatives of “home.” Marlow associates home with ideas gotten from books and
religion   rather   than   from   experience.   Home   is   the   seat   of   naïveté,   prejudice,   confinement,   and
oppression. It is the place of people who have not gone out into the world and experienced, and who
therefore cannot understand. Nonetheless, the women in Marlow’s story exert a great deal of power.
The influence of Marlow’s aunt does not stop at getting him the job but continues to echo through the
Company’s correspondence in Africa. At the Company’s headquarters, Marlow encounters a number
of apparently influential women, hinting that all enterprises are ultimately female-driven.
Marlow’s departure from the world of Belgium and women is facilitated, according to him, by two
eccentric men. The first of these is Fresleven, the story of whose death serves to build suspense and
suggest to the reader the transformations that Europeans undergo in Africa. By European standards,
Fresleven was a good and gentle man, not one likely to die as he did. This means either that the
European view of people is wrong and useless or else that there is something about Africa that makes
men behave aberrantly. Both of these conclusions are difficult to accept practically or politically, and
thus the story of Fresleven leaves the reader feeling ambivalent and cautious about Marlow’s story to
come.
The second figure presiding over Marlow’s departure is the Company’s doctor. The doctor is perhaps
the ultimate symbol of futility: he uses external measurements to try to decipher what he admits are
internal changes; moreover, his subjects either don’t return from Africa or, if they do, don’t return to
see   him.   Thus   his   work   and   his   advice   are   both   totally   useless.   He   is   the   first   of   a   series   of
functionaries with pointless jobs that Marlow will encounter as he travels toward and then up the
Congo River.

Part I (continued)

Marlow’s journey down the coast of Africa through his meeting with the chief accountant.
The French steamer takes Marlow along the coast of Africa, stopping periodically to land soldiers and
customshouse officers. Marlow finds his idleness vexing, and the trip seems vaguely nightmarish to
him. At one point, they come across a French man-of-war shelling an apparently uninhabited forested
stretch of coast. They finally arrive at the mouth of the Congo River, where Marlow boards another
steamship bound for a point thirty miles upriver. The captain of the ship, a young Swede, recognizes
Marlow as a seaman and invites him on the bridge. The Swede criticizes the colonial officials and tells
Marlow about another Swede who recently hanged himself on his way into the interior.
Marlow disembarks at the Company’s station, which is in a terrible state of disrepair. He sees piles of
decaying machinery and a cliff being blasted for no apparent purpose. He also sees a group of black
prisoners walking along in chains under the guard of another black man, who wears a shoddy uniform
and carries a rifle. He remarks that he had already known the “devils” of violence, greed, and desire,
but that in Africa he became acquainted with the “flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious
and pitiless folly.” Finally, Marlow comes to a grove of trees and, to his horror, finds a group of dying

Marlow travels overland for two hundred miles with a caravan of sixty men. He has one white
companion who falls ill and must be carried by the native bearers, who start to desert because of the
added burden. After fifteen days they arrive at the dilapidated Central Station. Marlow finds that the
steamer he was to command has sunk. The general manager of the Central Station had taken the boat
out two days before under the charge of a volunteer skipper, and they had torn the bottom out on some
rocks. In light of what he later learns, Marlow suspects the damage to the steamer may have been
intentional, to keep him from reaching Kurtz. Marlow soon meets with the general manager, who
strikes him as an altogether average man who leads by inspiring an odd uneasiness in those around him
and whose authority derives merely from his resistance to tropical disease. The manager tells Marlow
that he took the boat out in a hurry to relieve the inner stations, especially the one belonging to Kurtz,
who is rumored to be ill. He praises Kurtz as an exceptional agent and takes note that Kurtz is talked
about on the coast.

The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were

praying to it.

Marlow   sets   to   work   dredging   his   ship   out   of   the   river   and   repairing   it,   which   ends   up   taking
three months. One day during this time, a grass shed housing some trade goods burns down, and the
native laborers dance delightedly as it burns. One of the natives is accused of causing the fire and is
beaten severely; he disappears into the forest after he recovers. Marlow overhears the manager talking
with the brickmaker about Kurtz at the site of the burned hut. He enters into conversation with the
brickmaker after the manager leaves, and ends up accompanying the man back to his quarters, which
are noticeably more luxurious than those of the other agents. Marlow realizes after a while that the
brickmaker is pumping him for information about the intentions of the Company’s board of directors
in Europe, about which, of course, Marlow knows nothing. Marlow notices an unusual painting on the
wall, of a blindfolded woman with a lighted torch; when he asks about it, the brickmaker reveals that it
is Kurtz’s work.
The brickmaker tells Marlow that Kurtz is a prodigy, sent as a special emissary of Western ideals by
the   Company’s   directors   and   bound   for   quick   advancement.   He   also   reveals   that   he   has   seen
confidential correspondence dealing with Marlow’s appointment, from which he has construed that
Marlow is also a favorite of the administration. They go outside, and the brickmaker tries to get
himself into Marlow’s good graces—and Kurtz’s by proxy, since he believes Marlow is allied with
Kurtz. Marlow realizes the brickmaker had planned on being assistant manager, and Kurtz’s arrival has
upset his chances. Seeing an opportunity to use the brickmaker’s influence to his own ends, Marlow
lets the man believe he really does have influence in Europe and tells him that he wants a quantity of
rivets from the coast to repair his ship. The brickmaker leaves him with a veiled threat on his life, but
Marlow enjoys his obvious distress and confusion.
Marlow finds his foreman sitting on the deck of the ship and tells him that they will have rivets in three
weeks,   and   they   both   dance   around   exuberantly.   The   rivets   do   not   come,   however.   Instead,   the
Eldorado Exploring Expedition, a group of white men intent on “tear[ing] treasure out of the bowels of
the   land,”   arrives,   led   by   the   manager’s   uncle,   who   spends   his   entire   time   at   the   station   talking
conspiratorially with his nephew. Marlow gives up on ever receiving the rivets he needs to repair his
ship, and turns to wondering disinterestedly about Kurtz and his ideals.

Analysis

As Marlow describes his caravan journey through the depopulated interior of the colony, he remarks
ironically that he was becoming “scientifically interesting”—an allusion to his conversation with the
company doctor in Brussels. Given this, it is curious that Marlow talks so little about the caravan
journey itself. In part, this is because it’s not directly relevant to his story—during this time he is
neither in contact with representatives of the Company nor moving directly toward Kurtz. Nonetheless,
something about this journey renders Marlow a mystery even to himself; he starts to think of himself
as a potential case study. Africa appears to him to be something that happens to a man, without his
consent. One way to interpret this is that Marlow is disowning his own responsibility (and that of his
fellow employees) for the atrocities committed by the Company on the natives. Because of its
merciless environment and savage inhabitants, Africa itself is responsible for colonial violence. Forced