Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness tells a story within a story. The novella begins with a group of passengers aboard a boat floating on the River Thames. One of them, Charlie Marlow, relates to his fellow seafarers an experience of his that took place on another river altogether-the Congo River in Africa. Marlow's story begins in what he calls the "sepulchral city," somewhere in Europe. There "the Company"-an unnamed organization running a colonial enterprise in the Belgian Congo-appoints him captain of a river steamer. He sets out for Africa optimistic of what he will find. But his expectations are quickly soured. From the moment he arrives, he is exposed to the evil of imperialism, witnessing the violence it inflicts upon the African people it exploits. As he proceeds, he begins to hear tell of a man named Kurtz-a colonial agent who is supposedly unmatched in his ability to procure ivory from the continent's interior. According to rumour Kurtz has fallen ill (and perhaps mad as well), thereby jeopardizing the Company's entire venture in the Congo. Marlow is given command of his steamer and a crew of Europeans and Africans to man it, the latter of whom Conrad shamelessly stereotypes as "cannibals." As he penetrates deeper into the jungle, it becomes clear that his surroundings are impacting him psychologically: his journey is not only into a geographical "heart of darkness" but into his own psychic interior-and perhaps into the darkened psychic interior of Western civilization as well.