Plot Summation

        Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” opens to a scene of five men relaxing on a “cruising yawl” named The Nellie, which is anchored at the mouth of the Thames River. Among these five men is the Director of Companies, who is also the captain and host, the Lawyer, the Accountant, Marlow, and the unnamed narrator. While much about these men is enshrouded in mystery and never delved into by the narrator, it is revealed that all of these men share the bond of the sea. The approaching of night prompts Marlow to comment that England was once considered savage. This train of thought leads Marlow to recount his time as a steamship captain on the Congo River. After acquiring a job with a Belgian “company” that trades on the Congo River, Marlow spends the next month traveling down the western coast of Africa to the company’s Outer Station. Up to this point in the journey, Marlow has ominous indicators of the Belgian Congo: the Swedish captain tells him about a man who went inland to kill himself, the boat fires blankly into the jungles of Africa, the doctor who works for the company has informed Marlow that he rarely ever sees people return from the Congo. Upon arriving at the Outer Station, Marlow encounters the stark contrast between the severe despair and emaciation of the exploited African people and an accountant he meets there who is dressed lavishly and doesn’t sympathize with the Africans. In addition to this contrast, the accountant also introduces Kurtz, the manager of the Inner Station, who is revered by all in the Belgian company for his immense outputs of ivory. Marlow remains at the Outer Station for ten days before he continues his journey to the Central Station. Here, the Manager of Central Station informs Marlow that his steamship has been wrecked and is in need of repair before the men can proceed to the Inner Station. The Manager strikes Marlow as peculiar: it seems that the only reason the Manager has risen in the company is his uncanny ability to remain healthy while other men perish. Furthermore, during his stay at the Central Station, Marlow learns that Kurtz has ceased communicating with the station and has stopped shipping ivory. Moreover, he hears that Kurtz may be sick. After repairing his boat, Marlow sets out for the Inner Station with the manager of the Outer Station and a crew that includes cannibals as well as white men. The journey to the Inner Station incessantly challenges Marlow’s navigational capacity and the world he finds full of vegetation and glimpses of elusive natives seems endless. Eventually, Marlow stops for wood and finds a sailor’s guide and a warning to proceed with caution. Echoing the warning, later, the boat is caught in an abyss of fog, hits a snag, and takes fire from hostile natives. In the crossfire, Marlow’s helmsman dies. The whistle of the steamship eventually drives the hostiles away. When the steamer arrives at the Inner Station, a talkative Russian trader dressed in motley, like a clown or a jester, greets Marlow. The Russian has scoured the jungle for nearly two years before he ended up at the Inner Station, where he doctored Kurtz through sickness. Soon after arriving, the crew finds out that Kurtz is insane, has taken an African suitor, and planned or inspired the attack against the steamship. Marlow decides that they must capture Kurtz and bring him back to civilization. The crew captures Kurtz, but he escapes. Marlow finds him hiding in the deep grass and safely returns him to the boat. On the boat, Kurtz becomes ill and dies. His last words are “The Horror! The Horror!” A year after his return, Marlow meets with Kurt’s fiancé and gives her papers that Kurtz intended for her. He lies to her and tells her that Kurtz’s last words were “your name.” While Conrad’s motif of darkness makes it overwhelmingly that the Belgian Congo is the “Heart of Darkness,” when the book ends, the unnamed narrator parallels the two settings of the novella by observing that at that moment the Thames, as it leads out to sea, “seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.”