Heart of Darkness LitChart PDF

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Heart of Darkness
Narrator:
Heart of Darkness is a framed story: Marlow tells the
BA
BACK
CKGR
GROUND
OUND INFO story of his
time in the Congo to an unnamed Narrator, and the
Narrator
describes hearing Marlow tell the story to the reader.
AUTHOR BIO
Full Name: Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, changed to HISTORICAL AND
LITERARY CONTEXT
Joseph Conrad in 1886. When
Published: 1899
Date of Birth: 1857 Literary
Period: Victorianism/Modernism
Place of Birth: Berdichev, Poland (now Berdichev, Ukraine) Related
Literary Works: Joseph Conrad's novels reside in the
Date of Death: 1924 transition
period between Victorianism, with its strict
conventions
and focus on polite society, and Modernism, which
Brief Life Story: Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski was an
sought to
explode old conventions and invent new literary
orphan by the age of 12; his mother and father both died as a
forms to
convey human experience more fully. Conrad's work
result of time the family spent in exile in Siberia for plotting
was
instrumental in this effort, particularly his experimentation
against the Russian Tsar. At seventeen, he traveled to
with the use
of time and non-chronological narratives. Heart of
Marseilles and began to work as a sailor. Eventually, he began
Darkness also
fits squarely into the genre of colonial literature,
to sail on British ships, and became a British citizen in 1886, at
in which
European writers portrayed the colonialism and
the age of 29. It was about this time he changed his name to the
imperialism of
European nations from Africa to the Far East in
more British-sounding Joseph Conrad and published his first
the late 19th
and early 20th century.
short stories (he wrote in English, his third language after
Polish and French). For the next eight years, Conrad continued Related
Historical Events: During the last two decades of the
to work as a sailor (even spending time commanding a 19th century,
European nations battled each other for wealth
steamship in the Belgian Congo), and continued to write. He and power.
This battle caused the "scramble for Africa," in
published his first novel (Almayer's Folly) in 1894. In 1896, which European
countries competed to colonize as much of
Conrad married Jessie George. He quickly won critical praise, Africa as
possible. While the colonizing Europeans claimed to
though financial success eluded him for many years and both he want to
"civilize" the African continent, their actions spoke
and his wife suffered serious illnesses. He wrote his best- otherwise:
they were interested solely in gaining wealth and
known works in the years just before and after the turn of the did not care
how they did it, or who was killed. One of the most
century: Heart of Darkness (1899), Lord Jim (1900), and brutal of the
European colonies in its treatment of the native
Nostromo (1904). Conrad died in 1924. Africans was
the Belgian Congo, the property of the Belgian
King Leopold
I. In 1890, Joseph Conrad worked as a pilot on a
steamship in
the Belgian Congo, and Heart of Darkness is at
KEY FACTS least in part
based on his experiences there.
Full Title: Heart of Darkness
Genre: Colonial literature; Quest literature EXTRA CREDIT
Setting: The Narrator tells the story from a ship at the mouth Heart of the
Apocalypse. Heart of Darkness is the source for
of the Thames River near London, England around 1899. the movie
Apocalypse Now. The movie uses the primary plot
Marlow's story-within-the-story is set in an unnamed European and themes of
Heart of Darkness, and shifts the story from
city (probably Brussels) and in the Belgian Congo in Africa Africa to
Vietnam to explore the hypocrisy, inanity, and
sometime in the early to mid 1890s, during the colonial era. emptiness of
the American war effort there.
Climax: The confrontation between Marlow and Kurtz in the
jungle
Protagonist: Marlow
PL
PLO
OT O
OVERVIEW
VERVIEW
Antagonist: Kurtz The Narrator
describes a night spent on a ship in the mouth of
the Thames
River in England. Marlow, one of the men on board,
Point of View: First person (both Marlow and the Unnamed
tells of his
time spent as a riverboat pilot in the Belgian Congo.
Narrator use first person)
With the help
of his well-connected aunt, Marlow gets a job as
pilot on a
steamship on the Congo River in Africa for a
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European business outfit called the Company. First he travels Marlow also
falls ill, but survives. He returns to the sepulchral
to the European city he describes as a "whited sepulcher" to city in
Europe and gives Kurtz's papers to the relevant people.
visit the Company headquarters, and then to Africa and up the The last
person he visits is Kurtz's Intended (his fiancé). She
Congo to assume command of his ship. The Company believes
Kurtz is a great man, both talented and moral, and asks
headquarters is strangely ominous, and on his voyage to Africa Marlow to
tell her Kurtz's last words. Marlow can't find it in
he witnesses waste, incompetence, negligence, and brutality so himself to
destroy her beautiful delusions: he says Kurtz's last
extreme that it would be absurd if it weren't so awful. In words were
her name.
particular, he sees a French warship firing into a forest for no On the ship
in the Thames, Marlow falls silent, and as the
discernible reason and comes upon a grove where exploited Narrator
stares out from the ship it seems to him that the
black laborers wander off to die. While at the Company's Outer Thames leads
“into the heart of an immense darkness."
Station, Marlow meets the Company's Chief Accountant. He
mentions a remarkable man named Kurtz, who runs the
Company's Inner Station deep in the jungle.
CHARA
CHARACTERS
CTERS
Marlow hikes from the Outer Station to the Central Station,
Marlow – One
of the five men on the ship in the Thames. Heart
where he discovers that the steamship he's supposed to pilot
recently sank in an accident. In the three months it takes of Darkness
is mostly made up of his story about his journey into
Marlow to repair the ship, he learns that Kurtz is a man of the Belgian
Congo. Marlow is a seaman through and through,
impressive abilities and enlightened morals, and is marked for and has seen
the world many times over. Perhaps because of
rapid advancement in the Company. He learns also that the his journeys,
perhaps because of the temperament he was born
General Manager who runs Central Station and his crony the with, he is
philosophical, passionate, and insightful. But Marlow
Brickmaker fear Kurtz as a threat to their positions. Marlow is also
extremely skeptical of both mankind and civilization, and,
finds himself almost obsessed with meeting Kurtz, who is also to him,
nothing is simple. As the Narrator describes him: "to
rumored to be sick. him the
meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but
outside,
enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow
Marlow finally gets the ship fixed and sets off upriver with the brings out a
haze." The one thing Marlow does seem to believe
General Manager and a number of company agents Marlow in as a
source of simple moral worth is hard work.
calls Pilgrims because the staffs they carry resemble the staffs
of religious pilgrims. The trip is long and difficult: native drums Kurtz – The
fiancé of his Intended, and a man of great intellect,
beat through the night and snags in the river and blinding fogs talent, and
ambition who is warped by his time in the Congo.
delay them. Just before they reach Inner Station the steamship Kurtz is the
embodiment of all that's noble about European
is attacked by natives. Marlow's helmsman, a native trained to civilization,
from his talent in the arts to his ambitious goals of
steer the ship, is killed by a spear. "civilizing"
and helping the natives of Africa, and can be seen as
a symbol of
that civilization. But in his time in Africa Kurtz is
At Inner Station, a Russian trader meets them on the shore. He transformed
from a man of moral principles to a monster who
tells them that Kurtz is alive but ill. As the General Manager makes himself
a god among the natives, even going so far as to
goes to get Kurtz, Marlow talks to the Russian trader and perform
"terrible rites." His transformation proves that for all
realizes that Kurtz has made himself into a brutal and vicious of his
talent, ambition, and moral ideas, he was hollow at the
god to the natives. When the General Manager and his men core.
bring Kurtz out from the station house on a stretcher, the
natives, including a woman who seems to be Kurtz's mistress, Gener
Generalal
Manager – The head of the Company's Central Station
appear ready to riot. But Kurtz calms them and they melt back on the river.
Untalented and unexceptional, the General
into the forest. Manager has
reached his position of power in the Company
because of
his ability to cause vague uneasiness in others
The Russian sees that the General Manager has it in for him, coupled with
an ability to withstand the terrible jungle diseases
and slips off into the jungle, but not before telling Marlow that year after
year. The General Manager has no lofty moral
Kurtz ordered the attack on the steamship. That night, Marlow ambitions,
and cares only about his own power and position
discovers Kurtz crawling toward the native camp. Marlow and making
money.
persuades Kurtz to return to the ship by telling him he will be
“utterly lost" if he causes the natives to attack. The steamer The Russian T
Trrader – A wanderer and trader who wears a
sets off the next day. But Kurtz is too ill to survive the journey, multi-colored
patched jacket that makes him look like a
and gives his papers to Marlow for safekeeping. His dying harlequin (a
jester). Through some miraculous stroke of luck, he
words are: "The horror! The horror!" Marlow believes Kurtz is has ended up
alone in the jungle along the Congo and survived.
judging himself and the world. He is naïve
and innocent and believes Kurtz is a great man
beyond any
conventional morality. He even nursed Kurtz back

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to health on a number of occasions though Kurtz once The Pilgrims –
Company agents that Marlow gives the derisive
threatened to shoot him. Of all the white men in the Congo, nickname
Pilgrims because they carry long wooden staves
only the Russian refrains from trying to assert control over the wherever they
go.
jungle. The Helmsman –
A coastal native of Africa trained to man the
Narr
Narrator
ator – One of the five men on the ship in the Thames, he is helm of a
steamship. He works for Marlow until he's killed.
the one who relays to the reader Marlow's story about Kurtz African W
Woman
oman
– A savage and stately African tribeswoman
and the Congo. He is insightful, and seems to understand who seems
likely to have been Kurtz's lover.
Marlow quite well, but otherwise has little personality. He does
seem to be affected by Marlow's story. The Gener
General
al
Manager's servant – A native boy who has grown
insolent
because he works for the General Manager.
The Brickmak
Brickmaker er – The General Manager's most trusted agent.
A sly, lazy, power-hungry fellow who despite his title seems to
have never made a brick, the Brickmaker cares only about his
THEMES
own advancement and therefore sees Kurtz as a threat. He
also thinks that Marlow and Kurtz are somehow allied within In LitCharts
each theme gets its own color and number. Our
the company. Marlow describes the Brickmaker as a "papier- color-coded
theme boxes make it easy to track where the
mâché Mephistopheles." themes occur
throughout the work. If you don't have a color
The Gener
General
al Manager's Uncle – The uncle of the General printer, use
the numbers instead.
Manager, and the head of the Eldorado Exploring Expedition.
Like his nephew, the uncle has come to Africa to make his 1 COLONIALISM
fortune. He is generally untalented, and his expedition Marlow's story
in Heart of Darkness takes place in the Belgian
disappears in the jungle. Congo, the most
notorious European colony in Africa for its
Kurtz's Intended – The woman in Europe to whom Kurtz is greed and
brutalization of the native people. In its depiction of
betrothed to be married. She is incredibly idealistic about both the monstrous
wastefulness and casual cruelty of the colonial
Kurtz and the colonization of Africa. She continues to mourn agents toward
the African natives, Heart of Darkness reveals the
Kurtz as a great man even a year after he dies. utter hypocrisy
of the entire colonial effort. In Europe,
Marlow's Aunt – A well-connected and idealistic woman, she colonization of
Africa was justified on the grounds that not only
helps Marlow get the job as a steamer pilot for the Company. would it bring
wealth to Europe, it would also civilize and
She is extremely idealistic about the European colonization of educate the
"savage" African natives. Heart of Darkness shows
Africa, seeing it as a beautiful effort to civilize the savages. that in
practice the European colonizers used the high ideals of
colonization as
a cover to allow them to viciously rip whatever
Director of Companies – One of the five men on the ship in the wealth they
could from Africa.
Thames who listen to Marlow's story.
Unlike most
novels that focus on the evils of colonialism, Heart
La
Lawy
wyer
er – One of the five men on the ship in the Thames who of Darkness
pays more attention to the damage that
listen to Marlow's story. colonization
does to the souls of white colonizers than it does
Accountant – One of the five men on the ship in the Thames to the physical
death and devastation unleashed on the black
who listen to Marlow's story. He is not the same as the Chief natives. Though
this focus on the white colonizers makes the
Accountant. novella
somewhat unbalanced, it does allow Heart of Darkness
Fresle
reslevven – A steamship pilot who got into a silly argument that to extend its
criticism of colonialism all the way back to its
cost him his life. His death opened the position into which corrupt source,
the "civilization" of Europe.
Marlow was hired.
Doctor – A medical man in the sepulchral city who is interested 2 THE
HOLLOWNESS OF CIVILIZATION
in how the Congo drives men crazy. Heart of
Darkness portrays a European civilization that is
Swede – A steamship captain who has nothing but disdain for hopelessly and
blindly corrupt. The novella depicts European
the "government chaps" who care only about money. society as
hollow at the core: Marlow describes the white men
he meets in
Africa, from the General Manager to Kurtz, as
Chief Accountant – A Company employee at the Outer Station
empty, and
refers to the unnamed European city as the
who wins Marlow's admiration simply by keeping himself
"sepulchral
city" (a sepulcher is a hollow tomb). Throughout the
impeccably groomed. (Do not confuse him with the Accountant
novella, Marlow
argues that what Europeans call "civilization" is
on the ship in the Thames.)
superficial, a
mask created by fear of the law and public shame
The F
Foreman
oreman – A man who helps Marlow repair the steamship.
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The best way to
that hides a dark heart, just as a beautiful white sepulcher hides Students and
critics alike often argue about whether Heart of
the decaying dead inside. Darkness is a
racist book. Some argue that the book depicts
Marlow, and Heart of Darkness, argue that in the African Europeans as
superior to Africans, while others believe the
jungle—"utter solitude without a policeman"—the civilized man novel attacks
colonialism and therefore is not racist. There is
is plunged into a world without superficial restrictions, and the the evidence
in the book that supports both sides of the
mad desire for power comes to dominate him. Inner strength argument,
which is another way of saying that the book's actual
could allow a man to push off the temptation to dominate, but stance on the
relationship between blacks and whites is not
civilization actually saps this inner strength by making men itself black
and white.
think it's unnecessary. The civilized man believes he's civilized Heart of
Darkness attacks colonialism as a deeply flawed
through and through. So when a man like Kurtz suddenly finds enterprise
run by corrupt and hollow white men who
himself in the solitude of the jungle and hears the whisperings perpetrate
mass destruction on the native population of Africa,
of his dark impulses, he is unable to combat them and becomes and the novel
seems to equate darkness with truth and
a monster. whiteness
with hollow trickery and lies. So Heart of Darkness
argues that
the Africans are less corrupt and in that sense
3 THE LACK OF TRUTH superior to
white people, but it's argument for the superiority
of Africans
is based on a foundation of racism. Marlow, and
Heart of Darkness plays with the genre of quest literature. In a
Heart of
Darkness, take the rather patronizing view that the
quest, a hero passes through a series of difficult tests to find an
black natives
are primitive and therefore innocent while the
object or person of importance, and in the process comes to a
white
colonizers are sophisticated and therefore corrupt. This
realization about the true nature of the world or human soul.
take on
colonization is certainly not "politically correct," and can
Marlow seems to be on just such a quest, making his way past
be
legitimately called racist because it treats the natives like
absurd and horrendous "stations" on his way up the Congo to
objects
rather than as thinking people.
find Kurtz, the shining beacon of European civilization and
morality in the midst of the dark jungle and the "flabby
rapacious folly" of the other Belgian Company agents.
SYMBOLS
But Marlow's quest is a failure: Kurtz turns out to be the
biggest monster of all. And with that failure Marlow learns that Symbols
appear in red text throughout the Summary & Analysis
at the heart of everything there lies only darkness. In other sections of
this LitChart.
words, you can't know other people, and you can't even really
know yourself. There is no fundamental truth. WOMEN
Marlow
believes that women exist in a world of beautiful
4 WORK illusions
that have nothing to do with truth or the real world. In
In a world where truth is unknowable and men's hearts are this way,
women come to symbolize civilization's ability to hide
filled with either greed or a primitive darkness that threatens its hypocrisy
and darkness behind pretty ideas.
to overwhelm them, Marlow seems to find comfort only in
work. Marlow notes that he escaped the jungle's influence not THE
SEPULCHRAL CITY
because he had principles or high ideals, but because he had a
job to do that kept him busy. The white
sepulchral city symbolizes all of European
civilization.
The beautiful white outside evokes the lofty ideas
Work is perhaps the only thing in Heart of Darkness that Marlow and
justifications that Europeans use to justify colonization,
views in an entirely positive light. In fact, more than once while the
hidden hollow inside the sepulcher hides the
Marlow will refer to work or items that are associated with hypocrisy and
desire for power and wealth that truly motivate
work (like rivets) as "real," while the rest of the jungle and the the colonial
powers.
men in it are "unreal." Work is like a religion to him, a source of
support to which he can cling in order to keep his humanity.
This explains why he is so horrified when he sees laziness, poor DARK AND
WHITE
work, or machines left out to rust. When other men cease to do Darkness is
everywhere in Heart of Darkness. But the novella
honest work, Marlow knows they have sunk either into the tweaks the
conventional idea of white as good and dark as evil.
heart of darkness or the hollow greed of civilization. Evil and good
don't really apply to Heart of Darkness, because
everyone in
the novella is somehow complicit in the atrocities
5 RACISM taking place
in Africa. Rather, whiteness, especially in the form
of the white
fog that surrounds the steamship, symbolizes

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blindness. The dark is symbolized by the huge and inscrutable •Mentioned
or related char
characters
acters: Kurtz
African jungle, and is associated with the unknowable and •Related
themes
themes: Colonialism, The Hollowness of Civilization,

primitive heart of all men. Racism
•Theme T
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code:
QUO
QUOTES
TES 1 2
5
The color-coded boxes under each quote below make it easy to
track the themes related to each quote. Each color corresponds
The conquest
of the earth, which mostly means the taking it
to one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this
away from
those who have a different complexion or slightly
LitChart.
flatter
noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look
into it too
much.
PART 1 QUOTES
•Speak
•Speaker
er:
Marlow
The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled at the decline
of day, after ages of good service done to the race that peopled •Related
themes

its banks, spread out in the tranquil dignity of a waterway Racism
leading to the uttermost ends of the earth... Hunters for gold or •Theme T
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acker
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code:
pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing
the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within 1 2
5
the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. What
greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the
Once, I
remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off
mystery of an unknown earth!...The dreams of men, the seed of
the coast.
There wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling
commonwealth, the germs of empires.
the bush. It
appears the French had one of their wars going on
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Narrator thereabouts.
Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of
•Related themes
themes: Colonialism the long
six-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy,
slimy swell
swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her
•Theme T
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acker
er code
code: thin masts.
In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water,
1 there she
was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop,
would go one
of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and
vanish, a
little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile
'And this also,' said Marlow suddenly, 'has been one of the dark would give a
feeble screech—and nothing happened. Nothing
places of the earth. could
happen.
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Marlow •Speak
•Speaker
er:
Marlow
•Related themes
themes: Colonialism, The Hollowness of Civilization •Related
themes
themes: Colonialism, The Hollowness of Civilization

•Theme T
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code: •Theme T
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code:
1 2 1 2
In some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had When one has
got to make correct entries, one comes to hate
closed round him—all that mysterious life of the wilderness those
savages—hate them to the death.
that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men.
•Speak
•Speaker
er:
Chief Accountant
There's no initiation either into such mysteries. He has to live in
the midst of the incomprehensible, which is detestable. And it •Related
themes
themes: The Hollowness of Civilization, Work, Racism

has a fascination, too, which goes to work upon him. The •Theme T
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code:
fascination of the abomination—you know. Imagine the growing
regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the 2
4 5
surrender, the hate.
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Marlow

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The word 'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You no doubt,
like the rest of us, found what they deserved. I did not
would think they were praying to it. A taint of imbecile rapacity inquire.
blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse. By Jove! I've
•Speak
•Speaker
er:
Marlow
never seen anything so unreal in my life. And outside, the silent
wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck •Related
themes
themes: Colonialism, The Hollowness of Civilization

me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting •Theme T
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patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion.
1 2
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Marlow
•Related themes
The Lack of Truth It was a
distinct glimpse: the dugout, four paddling savages, and
the lone
white man turning his back suddenly on the
•Theme T
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headquarters,
on relief, on thoughts of home—perhaps; setting
1 2 3 his face
towards the depth of the wilderness, towards his
empty and
desolate station.
•Speak
•Speaker
er:
Marlow
I let him run on, this papier-mache Mephistopheles, and it
seemed to me that if I tried I could poke my fore-finger through •Mentioned or
related char
characters
acters: Kurtz
him, and would find nothing inside but a little loose dirt, maybe. •Related
themes
Racism
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Marlow
•Theme T
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acker
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code:
•Mentioned or related char
characters
acters: The Brickmaker
•Related themes
themes: The Hollowness of Civilization 1 2
5
•Theme T
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2 The reaches
opened before us and closed behind, as if the
forest had
stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for
our return.
We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of
Do you see him? Do you see the story? Do you see anything? It darkness.
seems I am trying to tell you a dream—making a vain attempt,
•Speak
•Speaker
er:
Marlow
because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-
sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and •Related
themes
themes: Colonialism
bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of •Theme T
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being captured by the incredible which is the very essence of
dreams...no, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life- 1
sensation of any given epoch of one's existence—that which
makes its truth, its meaning—its subtle and penetrating
essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream—alone. It was
unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not
inhuman.
Well, you know, that was the worst of it—the
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Marlow suspicion of
their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to
characters
acters: Kurtz one. They
howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces;
but what
thrilled you was just the thought of their
•Related themes
themes: The Lack of Truth
humanity—like
yours—the thought of your remote kinship with
•Theme T
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code: this wild and
passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough;
but if you
were man enough you would admit to yourself that
3
there was in
you just the faintest trace of a response to the
terrible
frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a
PART 2 QUOTES meaning in it
which you—you so remote from the night of first
In a few days the Eldorado Expedition went into the patient ages—could
comprehend.
wilderness, that closed upon it as the sea closes over a diver. •Speak
•Speaker
er:
Marlow
Long afterwards the news came that all the donkeys were dead.
I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals. They,

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•Related themes
themes: Colonialism, The Hollowness of Civilization, •Speak
•Speaker
er:
Kurtz
Racism •Related
themes
themes: The Hollowness of Civilization, The Lack of

•Theme T
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1 2 5
2 3
It was very simple, and at the end of that moving appeal to
every altruistic sentiment it blazed at you, luminous and "Mistah Kurtz—
he dead."
terrifying like a flash of lightning in a serene sky: "Exterminate
all the brutes!" •Speak
•Speaker
er: The
General Manager's servant
•Mentioned or
related char
characters
acters: Kurtz
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Marlow, Kurtz
•Related
themes

•Related themes
The Lack of
Truth
The Lack of Truth, Work, Racism
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1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3
I was within a
hair's-breadth of the last opportunity for
"I tell you," he cried, "this man has enlarged my mind."
pronouncement,
and I found with humiliation that probably I
•Speak
•Speaker
er: The Russian Trader would have
nothing to say. This is the reason why I affirm that
characters
acters: Kurtz Kurtz was a
remarkable man. He had something to say. He said
it. . . . He
had summed up—he had judged. "The horror!" He was
•Related themes
themes: The Hollowness of Civilization
a remarkable
man.
•Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code:
•Speak
•Speaker
er:
Marlow
2 •Mentioned or
related char
characters
acters: Kurtz
•Related
themes

PART 3 QUOTES Truth
There was something wanting in him—some small matter •Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code:
which, when the pressing need arose, could not be found under
his magnificent eloquence. Whether he knew of this deficiency 2 3
himself I can't say. I think the knowledge came to him at
last—only at the very last. But the wilderness found him out
early, and had taken vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I I heard a
light sigh and then my heart stood still, stopped dead
think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did short by an
exulting and terrible cry, by the cry of inconceivable
not know, things of which he had no conception till he took triumph and of
unspeakable pain. 'I knew it—I was sure!' . . . She
counsel with this great solitude—and the whisper had proved knew. She was
sure. I heard her weeping; she had hidden her
irresistibly fascinating. It echoed loudly within him because he face in her
hands. It seemed to me that the house would
was hollow at the core. collapse
before I could escape, that the heavens would fall upon
my head. But
nothing happened. The heavens do not fall for
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Marlow such a trifle.
characters
acters: Kurtz •Speak
•Speaker
er:
Marlow, Kurtz's Intended
•Related themes
themes: Colonialism, The Hollowness of Civilization •Mentioned or
related char
characters
acters: Kurtz
•Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code: •Related
themes

1 2 Truth
•Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code:
"The horror! The horror!" 2 3

| v.S.002 Page 7
The best way to
The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the Suddenly
Marlow interrupts But Marlow takes an opposite
tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth the silence.
"And this also," view: he sees England itself as
flowed sombre under an overcast sky—seemed to lead into the Marlow says,
"has been one of once one of the savage places,
heart of an immense darkness. the dark
places of the earth." and imagines how that savagery
He imagines
England as it must warped its conquerors. The
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Narrator
have
appeared to the first implication is that hidden behind
•Related themes
themes: The Hollowness of Civilization, The Lack of Romans sent
to conquer it: a its civilization England has a
Truth savage,
mysterious place that "dark" heart.
•Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code: both
appalled and attracted
them, that
made them feel 1 2 3
2 3 powerless
and filled them with
hate.
Marlow believes that a devotion

SUMMARY & ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS Marlow
observes that none of
to efficiency, a devotion to work,

the men on
the boat would feel
The color-coded boxes under "Analysis & Themes" below make just like
those Romans, protects a man from being
it easy to track the themes throughout the work. Each color because the
men on the boat corrupted by powerlessness and
corresponds to one of the themes explained in the Themes have a
"devotion to efficiency," hate.
section of this LitChart. while the
Romans wanted
simply to
conquer. 2 4
PART 1
Yet Marlow
adds that The practice of conquest and
The Narrator describes the The opening establishes a dark
conquest is
never pretty and colonialism is always ruthless.
scene from the deck of a ship tone. Water is often a symbol of
usually
involves the powerful But the noble idea motivating
named Nellie as it rests at the unconscious, so the
taking land
from those who conquest, such as civilizing the
anchor at the mouth of the "interminable waterway"
look
different and are less savages, can be so beautiful it
River Thames, near London. connecting civilized England to
powerful.
Conquest, Marlow hides the ruthlessness even from
The five men on board the the rest of the world implies that
says, is
redeemed only by the the conquerors.
ship—the Director of England's civilization is just a
ideas behind
them, ideas that
Companies, the Lawyer, the veneer over the dark heart all
1 2 5
are so
beautiful men bow
Accountant, the Narrator, and men share. That the characters
down before
them.
Marlow, old friends from their in the ship are known by their
seafaring days—settle down to jobs and not their names hints at Marlow then
reminds the Marlow makes it clear he doesn't
await the changing of the tide. the hollowness of civilization: other men
that he once served usually ask people for favors,
They stare down the mouth of their selves have been swallowed as captain
of a freshwater instead going by "his own road
the river into the Atlantic by their roles. riverboat,
and begins to tell his and on his own legs" because of
Ocean, a view that stretches story. As a
young boy, he had a his belief in the honesty and
like "the beginning of an 2 4 passion for
maps and unknown importance of work. He is not
interminable waterway." places. As
he grew older many comfortable relying on others to
of those
places become known, do his work for him, and sees it as
In silence they watch the The Narrator's thoughts about
and many he
visited himself. a possibly dangerous and
sunset, and the Narrator conquest and colonialism are
Yet Africa
still fascinated him, definitely shameful thing to do.
remembers the fabled ships conventional and romantic: that
especially
its mighty river, the
and men of English history great men go out with great
4
Congo. After
years of ocean
who set sail from the Thames dreams and build great empires
voyages in
which he had
on voyages of trade or to the greater glory of the world.
"always went
by [his] own road
conquest, carrying with them
1 and on [his]
own legs," Marlow
"The dreams of men, the seed
asks his
aunt to use her
of commonwealths, the germs
influence
help him get a job as
of empire."
a steamship
operator for the
Company, a
continental
European
trading concern in
Africa.

| v.S.002 Page 8
The best way to
The Company hires him The absurd story of Fresleven's Marlow
has a farewell chat Earlier Marlow said that the
immediately: it has an open death foreshadows Marlow's with his
aunt, who sees her beautiful idea behind
position because one of its absurd experience in the jungle, nephew as
an "emissary of colonization masks the ruthless
captains, a Dane named where colonialist white men go light"
off to educate the practice of colonialism. Well, his
Fresleven, had recently been insane and clash with the African
natives out of their aunt clearly buys the idea, and in
killed. After some time in the exploited natives, producing "horrid
ways." Marlow points doing so establishes women as
jungle, the normally mild- violence and more absurdity. out to
his aunt that the symbols of civilization's inability
mannered Fresleven had company
is run for profit, not to see its hollow corruption.
started hitting the native chief 1 2 5
missionary work, and
of a village with a cane over a expresses
amazement to his 1 2 3 5
disagreement regarding two friends
on the boat how out of
black hens, and was touch
women are with the
accidentally killed by the truth.
chief's son. The natives, in fear,
Marlow
boards the steamer Marlow goes to Africa because as
immediately abandoned their
that will
take him to the mouth a boy he had a passion for
village.
of the
Congo with a sense of unknown places. He wanted to
Marlow travels to the A sepulcher is a tomb, and hides
foreboding. To Marlow on the know the unknown. But Africa
unnamed European city where in its heart either emptiness or steamer,
the forested coast of resists being known, and makes
the Company has its death. Africa
looks like an colonialists do ridiculous, hollow
headquarters. He describes
impenetrable enigma, inviting things like shoot at forests.
the city as a "whited 2 and
scorning him at the same
sepulcher." time. He
occasionally sees 1 2 3
canoes
paddled by native
At the Company's office, More foreshadowing of what
Africans,
and once sees a
Marlow is let into a reception Marlow will soon experience in
French
ship firing its guns into
area presided over by two colonial Africa. The women in
the dense
forest at invisible
women, one fat, one slim, both black seem to symbolize fate or
"enemies."
of whom constantly knit black death, the head of the
wool. There, Marlow examines Company's "plumpness" covered At the
mouth of the Congo, The pilot, a man who works,
a map of Africa filled in by by a "frock coat" implies greed Marlow
gets passage for thirty condemns the colonialists who
various colors representing masked by civility, and the doctor miles
from a small steamer care not about work, but about
the European countries that explicitly says that Africa drives piloted
by a Swede. The Swede money. The pilot's question
colonized those areas. He Europeans crazy. mocks the
"government chaps" about what happens to such
briefly meets the head of the at the
shore as men who will people in the jungle is more
Company (a "pale plumpness 1 2 do
anything for money, and foreshadowing.
in a frock coat"), then is wonders
what happens to such
directed to a doctor. While men when
they get further 1 2 4
measuring Marlow's head, the into the
continent.
doctor comments that in
At last
they reach the Note Marlow's horror at the
Africa "the changes happen
Company's
Outer Station, a inefficiency of the station and the
inside" and asks Marlow if his
chaotic
and disorganized place. rusting of machinery. The "lusty
family has a history of insanity.
Machinery
rusts everywhere, devils" are the desires that move
black
laborers blast away at a men to act badly, but without
cliff
face for no reason. deception. The "pretending"
Marlow
comments to the men devils move men to fake their
on the
Nellie that he had long noble intentions for greedy ends.
known the
"lusty devils" of
violence
and greed that drive 1 2 4
men, but
in Africa encountered
"a
flabby, pretending, weak-
eyed
devil of a rapacious and
pitiless
folly."
©2015 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com | Follow us:

@litcharts | v.S.002 Page 9
The best way to
Marlow then stumbles upon Marlow sees the death of the At the
station, Marlow is ...and growing... until it's clear
what he calls the Grove of natives with the same horror as greeted by
the first man he that the colonial effort isn't
Death, a grove among the the rusting machinery. It's a sees with
news that the ship he about building anything, and isn't
trees that is filled with weak tragedy to him, but not a human was
supposed to pilot has motivated by a central civilized
and dying native laborers, who tragedy. sunk.
Apparently, the General idea. It's motivated by greed,
are living out their last Manager had
suddenly which is bound to produce
moments in the shade of the 1 2 5 decided to
try to reach Kurtz inefficiency and waste.
ancient trees. at the
Inner Station with an
inexperienced pilot at the helm 1 2 3

At the station, the Chief The Chief Accountants
comments both introduce Kurtz of the
steamship. The
Accountant impresses
as a remarkably talented fellow steamship
promptly sank.
Marlow with his good
grooming. One day the Chief and also convey the backbiting Marlow, on
the Nellie, says Marlow's guess foreshadows the
Accountant mentions that and politics going on under the that though
he can't be sure, General Manager's negative
further up the river Marlow surface in the Company. Marlow he suspects
that it's possible feelings about Kurtz.
will probably meet Mr. Kurtz, a admires the Chief Accountant's the General
Manager wanted
station head who sends in as grooming because such hygienic the
steamship to sink. 1 2
much ivory as all the others habits involve disciplined work,
Marlow is
immediately taken The General Manager is the
put together and who "will be a especially in the midst of the
to see this
General Manager, embodiment of the "pretending"
somebody in the [Company] chaos of Outer Station.
who is
thoroughly devils Marlow mentioned earlier.
Administration before long."
1 2 3 4
unremarkable in intelligence, His main trait is that he doesn't
He asks Marlow to tell Kurtz
leadership,
and unskilled at die! He's defined by his lack of
that all is satisfactory, saying
even
maintaining order. identity. In other words, he's
he doesn't want to send a
Marlow
believes the General hollow.
letter for fear that rivals at the
Manager
holds his position
Central Station will intercept
1 2
through two
traits: he inspires
it.
vague
uneasiness in others,
Just then a dying "agent' from Yet beneath the Chief and unlike
any other
up country" is brought into the Accountant's civilized exterior, Europeans
he's resistant to all
Chief Accountants quarters he's filled with the sense of the
tropical diseases.
for lack of other space, which "powerlessness and hate" that
The General
Manager explains The General Manager's interest
gently annoys the accountant. Marlow earlier described
why he took
the steamship that Marlow had earlier heard of
When, a while later, there is a infecting the Roman conquerors
onto the
river before Marlow, Kurtz implies the Manager's
"tumult" of noise as a caravan of England.
its pilot,
arrived: Kurtz, the concern at Kurtz influence and
of pilgrims and natives comes
1 2 5 Company's
best agent, is sick. power in the Company. The
into the station, the Chief
The General
Manager takes Manager's perfect guess about
Accountant comments, "When
special
interest when Marlow the time needed to fix the ship
one has got to make correct
mentions he
heard Kurtz's implies he did purposely sink it.
entries, one comes to hate
name
mentioned on the coast.
these savages—hate them to
1 2
The General
Manager
death."
estimates
that it will take three
A few days later Marlow joins The absurd inefficiency and months to
repair the ship, and
a caravan headed the two waste of the colonial effort just turns out
to be almost exactly
hundred miles upriver to keeps growing... right.
Central Station. After a fifteen-
day trek through the jungle 1 2 4
during which the only other
white man fell ill and many of
the native porters deserted
rather than carry the sick man,
Marlow reaches the Station.

The best way to
Marlow sets to work fixing the Men who do no work strike The
Brickmaker, whom Mephistopheles is a devil. Papier-
ship and watches the absurd Marlow as "unreal" and without Marlow now
calls a "papier- mâché is a craft that produces
happenings of Central Station, substance. Work provides a mâché
Mephistopheles," hollow structures. A "papier-
where the various company reality one can cling to. continues
to speak about mâché Mephistopheles" is
agents (employees) do no Kurtz, and
asks Marlow not to therefore a hollow devil, and a
work, stroll about aimlessly, 1 2 4 give Kurtz
a wrong impression heck of an insult.
and dream of ivory and wealth. of him.
Marlow realizes that
Marlow describes the place as both the
General Manager 2
"unreal." and the
Brickmaker see Kurtz
as a threat
to their dreams of
One night a shed bursts into The General Manager's concern
advancement.
flame. As Marlow approaches for Kurtz is obviously faked. He
he sees a laborer being beaten has to try to save the sick Kurtz Though he
hates lies because By doing the thing he hates most
for setting the blaze and because it would look bad if he they have a
"taint of death" in the world—lying—in order to
overhears the General didn't, but as long as he has an and telling
them is like "biting faster fix the steamboat and get
Manager talking with another excuse (the sunken steamship) to something
rotten," Marlow to Kurtz, Marlow shows a sudden
man about Kurtz, saying they avoid helping Kurtz, he'll take it. pretends to
have as much sense of allegiance to the moral
should try to "take advantage The Brickmaker has a job he influence
in Europe as the Kurtz. Marlow's lie also
of this unfortunate accident." never does: the essence of Brickmaker
thinks he has in foreshadows a lie he will tell later
The General Manager departs, hollowness, hypocrisy, and order to
get the Brickmaker to to Kurtz's Intended.
and Marlow ends up in a inefficiency. speed up
the arrival of the
conversation with the other rivets
needed to fix the 3
man, a young "agent" whose 1 2 3 4 steamship.
Marlow has an idea
responsibility it is to make that the
faster the steamship is
bricks (which he never does) fixed the
better it will be for
and whom the other agents Kurtz.
think is the General Manager's
Suddenly,
Marlow breaks off Marlow despairs about the
spy.
telling his
story in order to try inability for one man to explain
Marlow follows the The revelation that Kurtz is to explain
to the men sitting on himself to another. The novel
Brickmaker back to his backed by the same people who the ship in
the Thames how emphasizes this point ironically:
quarters, which are much nicer are close to Marlow's Aunt hard it is
to get across his when Marlow takes comfort that
than any but the General indicate that Kurtz isn't like the
experiences, though he is at least the men on the Nellie
Manager's. As they talk, other agents. Rather than hide comforted
by the fact that his know and see him, the fact is
Marlow realizes the his greed behind false civility, fellows on
the ship, men who that the men actually can't see
Brickmaker is trying to get Kurtz seems actually to be a man see and
know him, can at least him at all..
information from him because profoundly dedicated to ethics "see more
than I could then."
Marlow's Aunt's contacts in and morality. Marlow begins to The
Narrator observes that it 3
the Company are the same see Kurtz as an antidote to the was now so
dark they couldn't
people who sent Kurtz to evils and hollowness of see Marlow
at all.
Africa. The Brickmaker bitterly civilization.
says that Marlow and Kurtz
are both "of the new gang—the 1 2 3
gang of virtue" meant to bring
proper morals and European
enlightenment to the colonial
activities in Africa.

| v.S.002 Page 11
The best way to
Marlow resumes his story. Here Marlow explicitly describes They next
discuss the rumors The General Manager here
When the Brickmaker leaves, why he values work. Note that that
Kurtz is sick. Kurtz was exposes his own disregard, and
Marlow boards his broken the "reality" and "chance to find supposed
to return to the Kurtz's support, for any of the
steamship, which he has come yourself" that work provides Central
Station along with his moral reasons for colonization,
to love after putting in so much directly address Marlow's latest
batch of ivory, but such as civilizing the natives
hard work to rebuild it. discomfort with the lack of truth
apparently came halfway down given by Europeans. (Of course,
Marlow says of work: "I don't in the world and his growing the river
and then turned back. the condescending idea that the
like work... but I like what is in sense of the hollowness of The
General Manager angrily natives needed to be civilized by
the work—the chance to find civilization. mentions
Kurtz's conviction Europeans at all would be
yourself. Your own reality." that the
stations should be considered racist today).
Marlow tells his foreman 2 3 4 focused
as much on
they'll soon have rivets. The
humanizing and civilizing the 1 2 5
two of them do a little dance of savages
as on trade. The
joy. General
Manager's uncle
replies
that the General
But weeks pass and the rivets It's no coincidence the Eldorado
Manager
should trust the
don't come. Instead, a group of Expedition is named after a
jungle,
implying that tropical
"pilgrims" calling itself the mythical city made of gold. In
disease
will eventually kill
Eldorado Exploring Expedition Marlow's eyes, the pilgrims
Kurtz.
arrives, led by the General themselves are unreal, just
Manager's uncle. They are all hollow vessels for their greed. A few
days later the General Marlow isn't just bitter: he really
greedy, cowardly, and without Manager's
uncle and his thinks the donkeys are more
any sort of foresight or 1 2 Eldorado
Expedition head into valuable. Donkeys work and
understanding of work. the
jungle. Marlow later heard aren't hollow, as opposed to the
that all
their donkeys died, but Eldorado men.
Without rivets, Marlow can't What he's heard of Kurtz makes
never
heard what happened to
do any work either. He has lots Marlow ponder if perhaps
2 4
the "less
valuable
of time to think, and begins to civilization isn't hollow, if
animals"—
the men.
wonder about Kurtz's morals, perhaps there is some truth, if
and about how Kurtz would maybe colonialism can match After
three months of work, Marlow prefers the cannibals for
act if he did become general the beautiful idea behind it. Marlow
finishes repairing the the same reason he prefers the
manager. ship. He
immediately sets off donkeys: they're primitive and
1 2 3 4 upriver
with the General simple, so they aren't hollow.
Manager,
a few pilgrims, and (Though the depiction of the
PART 2
cannibals as simple is racist and
thirty
cannibals as crew.
Some time later, as Marlow The Uncle's advice that the Marlow
prefers the cannibals, condescending.)
rests on his steamship, he General Manager just hang the who don't
actually eat each
overhears the General trader since there are no other and
of whom he says, 1 2 4 5
Manager talking with his authorities around is the "They
were men I could work
Uncle about Kurtz. They are ultimate sign that civilization is with."
annoyed that Kurtz has so hollow. The Uncle is saying that
much influence in the acting in a civilized way isn't a
Company and sends back so deeply held conviction or
much ivory. The General inherent human characteristic,
Manager also mentions a but rather just an act designed to
trader who lives near Kurtz avoid punishment.
and is apparently stealing
Company profits. The uncle 2
advises the General Manager
to take advantage of the fact
that there's no authority
around and just hang the
trader.

The best way to
The trip is long and difficult. By commenting on his own sense Eight
miles from the Inner Marlow's desire to continue
Marlow describes the jungle of kinship with the "primitive"
Station, the General Manager shows his obsession with finding
as a "thing monstrous and natives, Marlow is implying that orders
Marlow to anchor the Kurtz. Like other seekers in other
free" and the natives as beings all men have aspects of the ship
in the middle of the river quests, Marlow believes that
"who howled and leapt and primitive within them. He for
the night. Marlow wants to Kurtz will have (or be) some sort
made horrid faces." Yet believes that work provides
continue on to meet Kurtz, but of answer.
Marlow feels some connection escape from this "inner truth." knows
that stopping is the
to the "terrible frankness" of safer
thing to do. 3
the natives, knowing that he 2 3 4 5
The
morning reveals a thick The white fog surrounding and
has some of that primitiveness
white
blinding fog enveloping blinding the steamship while
in his own heart. He is thankful
the
ship. A roar of screaming natives scream outside is a
that his work keeping the ship
natives breaks the silence, marvelous symbol. The white fog

afloat occupies his attention
then
cuts off. Frightened hides from view the dark jungle
most of the time, and hides the
pilgrims hold their rifles at the and black natives screaming

"inner truth."
ready,
but can't see anything. outside, just as the "whited
Still, Marlow tells the other By saying the distinguished men The
cannibals want to catch sepulcher" of civilization blinds
men on the Nellie, he often has on the Nellie perform "monkey and
eat the men on the itself from the primitive darkness
a sense of the "mysterious tricks," Marlow is saying that
riverbank. Marlow realizes the at its own heart.
stillness" watching him at his primitivism also exists in the
cannibals must be incredibly
"monkey tricks, just as it heart of civilization. When the
hungry, and marvels at their 1 2 3 5
watches you fellows man tells Marlow to be "civil,"
restraint in not turning on the
performing on your respective Heart of Darkness makes the white
men on the ship. The
tight-ropes for—what is it? half point that civilization prefers the
General Manager authorizes
a crown a tumble?" One of the mask of proper behavior to the Marlow
to take all risks in
men on the Nellie warns truth. This self-deception is what going
upstream, knowing full
Marlow to "try to be civil." makes civilization hollow. well
that Marlow will refuse to
Marlow responds, "I beg your take
any. After two hours, the
pardon. I forgot the heartache 2 3 fog
lifts and the steamship
that makes up the rest of the
continue upstream.
price." Then he continues with
A
little over a mile from Inner The conflict between conquerors
his story.
Station, a tiny island in the and conquered masked by the

Fifty miles from Kurtz's The book is "real" to Marlow in a middle
of the river forces beautiful ideas motivating
headquarters at Inner Station, way that nothing else is because Marlow
to choose the western colonialism erupts into full view,
the ship comes upon a hut with to produce what he takes to be or
eastern fork of the river. He as natives and Europeans fight to
a stack of firewood outside. the code must have taken great
chooses the western, which kill.
They stop to collect the and concentrated effort. It must turns
out to be quite narrow.
firewood, and discover a note have taken work. Everything else Just
as Marlow spots snags 1
that says "Wood for you. is absurd to the point of ahead
that could rip the
Hurry up. Approach meaninglessness: "Hurry up. bottom
out of the boat, arrows
cautiously." It is signed illegibly, Approach cautiously." Those shoot
toward the steamship
but with a name too long to be commands are mutually from
the jungle. Marlow
"Kurtz." The General Manager exclusive. orders
his helmsman, a
concludes the hut must belong
tribesman from the coast, to
to the trader he wants to hang. 2 4 steer
straight.
Inside the hut, Marlow
The
pilgrims open fire into the The "civilized" colonists blind
discovers a technical book on
bush,
putting out smoke that themselves.
sailing that seems to have code
blocks
Marlow's vision.
written on it. He is astonished,
1 2 3
and calls the book
"unmistakably real."

The best way to
A shotgun blasts just behind Even in the battle, the absurdity After a
long silence, Marlow Kurtz is alive! Awesome! Right?
Marlow: the helmsman has of the colonial effort is always says
that Kurtz wasn't dead, Wrong. Had Kurtz just died,
dropped the wheel and started visible: here it's in the African and
launches into a series of Marlow's quest would have
shooting out the window. helmsman fighting against other thoughts
about him. Marlow ended, but his hope for an
Marlow jumps to take the Africans, and neglecting his job says
Kurtz saw everything, answer would have lived on. But
wheel and avoid the snag to do it. The disaster of
including his Intended (his Marlow makes it clear that Kurtz
ahead. The helmsman falls colonialism is also always near fiancé)
as a personal didn't just live, he abandoned his
back from the window, a spear the surface, as in death the
possession. Marlow explains morals and became a monster
in his side. Blood fills the ridiculous helmsman suddenly that
Kurtz, in the solitude of (as shown in his scrawl across his
pilothouse, soaking Marlow's becomes a tragic figure. the
jungle, transformed from a idealistic treatise). In other
shoes. Marlow pulls the ship's man of
European words, Marlow looked to Kurtz to
steam whistle, which terrifies 1 2 3
enlightenment to a man who provide an answer, and the
the attacking natives and presided
over "unspeakable answer Kurtz provided is that all
drives them off. A pilgrim rites"
and accepted sacrifices men have darkness in their
wearing "pink pyjamas" comes made in
his honor. Marlow hearts.
with a message from the recalls
a magnificent, if
General Manager and is
impractical, treatise that Kurtz 1 2 3 5
aghast to see the dead wrote
called On the
helmsman.
Suppression of Savage Customs
With Kurtz dead, Marlow's quest in which
Kurtz argues that
Marlow realizes Kurtz is
for truth and a civilization that white
men, as veritable gods
probably dead and feels an
next to
the natives, have the
intense disappointment at the isn't hollow is likely over.
responsibility to help them.

thought. Marlow then tells the
2 3 Later,
though, across this
pilgrim to steer and flings his
treatise
calling for idealism and
bloody shoes overboard.
altruism, Kurtz scrawled
Suddenly, Marlow once again The men on the ship live in
"Exterminate all the brutes."
cuts short his story in order to civilization, and so are blind to
Marlow
returns to the dead Marlow mourns the helmsman
address the men who are on the meaninglessness and
helmsman, saying that Kurtz as a fellow worker.

the Nellie in the Thames. He hollowness at its heart. The loss
of Kurtz, to them, is nothing, was a
remarkable man, but
tells them they couldn't hope
4
because they have no idea what wasn't
worth the lives they lost
to understand his despair at
that loss entails: the possibility of in
trying to find him. Marlow
thinking he would never get to
meaning and wholeness. mourns
his helmsman deeply.
meet Kurtz, since they live in
The man
had "done something,
civilization with "a butcher
round one corner, a policeman 2 3 4 he had
steered."
round another." Everyone
on board assumes The absurdity and incompetence
the
Inner Station has been of the colonial agents
overrun
and Kurtz killed. The immediately resurfaces.
pilgrims
are happy, though,
that
they probably killed so 1
many
savages with their rifles.
Marlow,
however, is certain all
the
pilgrims shot too high, and
killed
no one.

The best way to
When they arrive at Inner Some critics have argued that Meanwhile,
the Russian begs Kurtz talked of "everything." Of
Station, Marlow and the other the Russian serves little purpose Marlow to
take Kurtz away course, talking of everything is a
men on the ship are amazed to in Heart of Darkness beyond quickly. He
tells of his first lot like talking of "nothing." Note
discover it in perfect shape. telling Marlow what happened to meeting
with Kurtz, in which that the color white, the color of
They are met onshore by a Kurtz. However, the Russian's Kurtz
"talked of everything" blindness in Heart of Darkness, is
white man wearing clothes multicolored and patched and the
Russian only listened. the result of every color brought
covered in colorful patches. harlequin jacket bears a striking Since then,
he says he's nursed together into one.
Marlow thinks the man looks resemblance to the map of Africa Kurtz
through two illnesses,
like a harlequin (a clown or Marlow saw in the Company's even though
Kurtz had once 2 3
jester). The man knows that headquarters. And the fact that threatened
to shoot him over
the steamship has been he's worked for various colonial some ivory.
attacked, but says, "it's all powers and survived years in the
Kurtz, the
Russian says, is a Here is Marlow's first solid
right" now. As the General jungle alone also signals a kind of
god to the
local tribesman, evidence that Kurtz has
Manager and pilgrims go to connection to and comfort with
who adore
him. They help him abandoned his morals. (When
get Kurtz, the harlequin comes colonial Africa.
as he raids
the jungle and Marlow earlier told the men on
on board and speaks with
1 other
tribes for ivory. This the Nellie that Kurtz became a
Marlow. The man explains that
comes as
troubling news to monster, he was flashing forward
he's a twenty-five year old
Marlow, who
had expected in his narrative.)
Russian sailor who deserted
that Kurtz,
with his morals,
and through a series of
3
would trade
for ivory, not take
adventures working for
it by
force.
various colonial powers ended
up wandering through the The Russian
says that Kurtz When he described the Roman
Congo alone for two years. can't be
judged as other men conquerors in England at the
are. He
adds that Kurtz beginning of Heart of Darkness,
When the Russian says that Both the Russian and the
"suffered
too much. He hated Marlow imagined them as
the hut with the stacked wood Natives seem to adore and revere
all this
and somehow couldn't appalled and attracted by its
was his old house, Marlow Kurtz. The question, of course, is
get away."
Marlow, meanwhile, savagery. The same is true for
returns the book about sailing why? It's not clear yet, but
lifts
binoculars to his eyes and Kurtz, who both "hated all this"
to him. The Russian in his joy Kurtz's eloquence connects to
looks at
the building where he and spiked heads to stakes. His
tells Marlow that the natives the hollowness of civilization.
thinks
Kurtz is lying ill. He's hollow civilized core, for all its
attacked the ship because they Eloquence is a talent for speech,
startled to
see that what he outward beauty, couldn't hold
don't want Kurtz to leave. It's but one can speak about
thought
were fence posts are out against the jungle's "inner
soon clear to Marlow that the anything, whether noble or
actually
spiked human heads. truth."
Russian also has fallen under monstrous.
Marlow
tells the men on the
the spell of Kurtz's amazing
2 3
2 3 Nellie that
for all Kurtz's
eloquence. The Russian says
magnificent
talent, eloquence,
about Kurtz: "This man has
and
learning, he was hollow at
enlarged my mind."
the core,
and the jungle filled
PART 3 that
hollowness.
Marlow stares at the Russian Here's the Russian's secret. He's The Russian
mentions that Here's another instance of
in astonishment, and thinks the only white man in colonial when the
native chiefs came to Marlow's condescending
that the Russian "surely wants Africa not looking for money or see Kurtz
they crawled up to preference for the simplicity of
nothing from the wilderness power. Without the will to him. This
information disgusts the "savage" natives to the
but space to breathe in" and dominate, he seems safe from Marlow, who
comments that corrupt and complicated civilized
that "if the absolutely pure, corruption. in contrast
"uncomplicated men.
uncalculating, unpractical savagery
was a positive relief,
spirit of adventure had ever 1 2 3 being
something that had the 1 2 3 5
ruled a human being, it ruled right to
exist—obviously—in
this ... youth." the
sunshine."

| v.S.002 Page 15
The Russian can't understand The naïve Russian can't see past The General
Manager exits Marlow has a choice to make
Marlow's scorn at Kurtz's Kurtz's eloquence to the from the
cabin. He tells between the General Manager's
savage actions. He says that hollowness within. Marlow that
Kurtz is very ill "pretending" devil of false civility,
the Company abandoned and that
Kurtz's "unsound and Kurtz's "lusty" devil of
Kurtz, who had such 2 3 methods"
ruined the district monstrous domination. He
wonderful ideas. for the
company. Marlow chooses Kurtz, perhaps for the
comments that
Kurtz's same reason he prefers donkeys
The pilgrims come out of the Kurtz, the epitome of civilized
methods
couldn't be and savages to Europeans. In
house bearing Kurtz on a man, has transformed himself
"unsound"
because he seemed Kurtz, though there was
stretcher. Marlow describes into a god to the natives. He even
to have had
"no method at all." monstrousness, there was no lie.
Kurtz as looking like "an looks like a god: "an image of
Yet Marlow is
more disgusted The jungle filled Kurtz's
animated image of death death carved out of ivory." The
by the
General Manager's fake hollowness, but not the General
carved out of ivory." The lure of power and domination
show of
sadness at Kurtz's Manager's.
natives swarm forward. The was too great for him too resist.
demise than
with Kurtz's
Russian whispers to Marlow
2 3
2 3 atrocities,
and says that Kurtz
that if Kurtz says the word,
is still a
remarkable man. This
they'll all be killed. Kurtz
loses Marlow
whatever favor
speaks (Marlow can't hear him
he'd held in
the General
from so far away), and the
Manager's
eyes.
natives melt back into the
jungle. When Marlow
is alone, the The Russian disappears into the
Russian
approaches. He has jungle, going off alone as no other
Along the shore of the river Kurtz was so transformed by the
decided to
slip away, correctly European colonist would. That
near the ship the natives jungle he even betrayed his
sensing that
he's in danger European, though, would be
gather. Among them, next to Intended.
from the
General Manager thinking of himself as in conflict
the ship a "savage and superb"
2 3 and his men,
and seeing with the jungle because, as a
African woman paces back and
nothing more
that he can do colonist, his goal is to dominate
forth. The Russian's comments
for Kurtz.
But before and subdue the jungle. But the
about her imply that she was
departing he
tells Marlow that Russian has no such dreams, and
Kurtz's mistress.
it was Kurtz
who ordered the so is safe and unafraid.
Inside the cabin, an argument Somehow Kurtz still sees himself native attack
on the steamship
erupts between Kurtz and the as a man of great ideas, just as in order to
scare the General 1
General Manager. Kurtz civilized Europeans continue to Manager away
and thereby be
accuses the General Manager see colonialism as noble while it allowed to
remain at his
of caring less about Kurtz abuses the Africans and steals station. The
Russian gets
himself than about the ivory their wealth. Marlow to
give him some
Kurtz has, and also says the supplies and
disappears into
General Manager with his 1 2 3 the night.
"piddling notions" is
interfering with Kurtz's grand
plans.

| v.S.002 Page 16
The best way to
Marlow goes to sleep, but This is the climax of Heart of The
steamship soon breaks In Kurtz, an enlightened
wakes suddenly just after Darkness. With the words "You down,
which doesn't surprise European surrounded by the
midnight. As he looks around will be lost," Marlow forces Kurtz Marlow.
But Kurtz becomes brutal primitivism of the natives
he notices Kurtz has to battle in his own soul, to concerned
he won't live to see and the greed of the Company
disappeared. On the bank of choose between his savage Europe.
He gives Marlow his agents, Marlow saw the
the river, Marlow finds a trail monstrousness and his civilized papers,
fearful that the possibility of an answer to his
through the grass and realizes dreams of advancement and General
Manager might try to own despair about the darkness
Kurtz must be crawling. He accomplishment. Kurtz pry into
them, and one day of men's hearts on one side and
catches up to Kurtz just before ultimately chooses civilization. tells
Marlow that he is "waiting the hollowness of civilization on
he reaches the native camp. He chooses the impractical and for
death." Marlow is pierced the other. And Kurtz does
Marlow realizes that though idealism of his treatise "On the by the
expression on Kurtz's provide an answer, of sorts: there
he's stronger than Kurtz, all Suppression of Savage Customs" face "of
somber pride, of is no answer, only despair, only
Kurtz has to do is call out and over his later brutish scrawl, ruthless
power, of craven horror.
the natives will attack. Kurtz, "Exterminate all the brutes." terror—of
an intense and
realizing the same thing, tells hopeless
despair." Suddenly 2 3
him to hide. Marlow says, "You 1 2 3 Kurtz
cries out in a voice not
will be lost, utterly lost." Kurtz much more
than a breath: "The
pauses, struggling with himself. horror!
The horror!" A short
Marlow watches him, and while
later, the General
realizes that Kurtz is perfectly Manager's
servant appears
sane in his mind, but his soul is and
informs everyone: "Mistah
mad. Kurtz's soul, Marlow Kurtz—he
dead."
says, "knew no restraint, no
Soon
after, Marlow himself Marlow's esteem for Kurtz's
faith, and no fear." Yet in the
falls
ill. He calls his struggle statement is part of his general
end Kurtz allows Marlow to
with
death "the most respect for work. Through the
support him back to the ship.
unexciting contest you can corruption of his ideals, Kurtz

The next day the ship departs. The pilgrim's pointless gunfire, a imagine,"
and is embarrassed saw the world as it was. And like
Kurtz, in the pilothouse with product of their colonialist greed to
discover that on his the helmsman who "had done
Marlow, watches the natives and the savage desire to hurt and deathbed
he could think of something, he had steered,"
and his mistress come to the dominate, puts out a smoke as nothing
to say. That's why he Kurtz did something, he judged:
shore. Marlow spots the blinding as the white fog. admires
Kurtz. The man had the horror!
pilgrims getting their rifles and Civilization continues to blind something
to say: "The
pulls the steam whistle. All the itself. horror!"
Marlow's describes 2 3 4
natives but the woman Kurtz's
statement as a moral
disperse. The pilgrims open 1 2 3 5 victory
paid for by "abominable
fire, blocking Marlow's vision terrors"
and "abominable
with the smoke.
satisfactions."
As they travel swiftly Another example of false civility: Marlow
returns to the The people in the city, who have
downstream, the General the General Manager doesn't
"sepulchral city" in Europe, never seen the jungle, can't see
Manager is pleased. After all, care that Kurtz is going to die as where his
aunt nurses him the hollowness of their
soon Kurtz will be dead and long as he can't be blamed for it. back to
health but can't soothe civilization. They can't see the
the General Manager will be Kurtz, meanwhile, wavers his mind.
The people of the city horror.
secure in his position without between monstrous savagery seem to
him petty and silly.
having to do a thing. Marlow is and belief in the ideals of
2 3
often left alone with Kurtz, civilization that his actions have
who speaks in his magnificent proved hollow.
voice and with his magnificent
eloquence about his moral 2 3
ideas, his hopes for fame in
Europe, and his desire to
"wring the heart" of the jungle.

The best way to
A representative of the The same greed visible in the Marlow,
full of pity, does not Though Marlow knows Kurtz's
Company comes to get Kurtz's Company agents is visible in the dispute her
claims. Finally, the triumph lay in his understanding
papers from Marlow, who Company representative. Note Intended
asks to hear Kurtz's of men's pretty delusions about
offers him only On the how Marlow protects Kurtz's last words.
This is the question themselves, he can't bring
Suppression of Savage Customs reputation. Marlow's
been dreading. He himself to make Kurtz's Intended
(with the scrawled pauses,
then tells her that see the dark reality. And Marlow
"exterminate all the brutes 1 2 3 Kurtz's
last words were her knows that if he, who sees
torn off" torn off). The name. She
cries out that she civilization's hollowness, can't
representative wanting more, knew it and
begins to weep. bring himself to reveal the
wanting something more Marlow
feels only despair, darkness beneath, then
profitable, storms off. knowing he
failed to give Kurtz civilization's blindness is
the justice
he deserved. But he complete.
Kurtz's cousin soon shows up. Kurtz seems to have just
just
couldn't get himself to tell
The cousin, a musician, tells reflected people back at
3
the
Intended the truth—it
Marlow that Kurtz was himself themselves. Another indication
would have
been too dark.
a great musician, then leaves that he was more surface than
with some family letters self. Marlow, on
the Nellie still at Marlow's story, though, forces
Marlow gives him. anchor in
the Thames, goes the Narrator to see civilization's
2 3 quiet. The
Narrator looks off dark heart. The Narrator's
Soon after, a journalist stops The journalist's assertion that into the
distance, and says that connection of that darkness to
by. He says Kurtz wasn't a Kurtz could convince himself of the Thames
seems to lead to the Thames indicates he now
great writer, but was a great anything further supports the the
"uttermost ends of the realizes his former romantic
speaker. He could have been a idea of Kurtz's hollowness. He earth,"
seems to lead "into the ideas of colonialism were
great radical political didn't care what his ideals were, heart of an
immense darkness." symptoms of civilization's self-
leader—he could electrify a as long as he was passionate
delusion.
crowd. Marlow asks what about them.
1 2 3
party Kurtz would have
belonged to. The journalist 2 3
says any party: Kurtz could
HOW T
TO
O CITE
convince himself of anything.
He takes On the Suppression of It's easy
to cite LitCharts for use in academic papers
Savage Customs for publication. and
reports.
At last, Marlow works up the Marlow's aunt established
nerve to go to see Kurtz's women in H of D as symbols of MLA CIT
CITA
ATION
Intended and give her the last society's blindness to its own Ben Florman
and Justin Kestler, LitCharts Editors.
of his letters. When she lets hollowness. Kurtz's Intended "LitChart
on Heart of Darkness." LitCharts.com. 16
Marlow into her house he further supports this symbolism:
Nov 2015.
notices that though it's a year she is completely clueless about
after Kurtz's death, she is still Kurtz's true nature.
dressed in mourning black. She CHICA
CHICAGO
GO
MANU
MANUAL
AL CIT
CITA
ATION
praises Kurtz as the best of all 2 3
Ben Florman
and Justin Kestler, LitCharts Editors.
men. "LitChart
on Heart of Darkness." LitCharts.com. 2015.
http://www.litcharts.com/lit/heart-of-darkness.
AP
APA
A CIT
CITA
ATION
Ben Florman
and Justin Kestler, LitCharts Editors
2015.
LitChart on Heart of Darkness. Retrieved
November
16, 2015 from http://www.litcharts.com/lit/
heart-of-
darkness.

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The best way to study,

teach, and learn about books.

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themes: Colonialism, The Hollowness of Civilization,

themes: Colonialism, The Hollowness of Civilization,

themes: Colonialism, The Hollowness of Civilization

themes: The Hollowness of Civilization, Work, Racism

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themes: Colonialism, The Hollowness of Civilization

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themes: The Hollowness of Civilization, The Lack of

themes: Colonialism, The Hollowness of Civilization,

themes: The Hollowness of Civilization, The Lack of

themes: The Hollowness of Civilization, The Lack of

"The horror! The horror!" 2 3

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Marlow believes that a devotion

to efficiency, a devotion to work,

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inexperienced pilot at the helm 1 2 3

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natives breaks the silence, marvelous symbol. The white fog

pilgrims hold their rifles at the and black natives screaming

Station, a tiny island in the and conquered masked by the

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responsibility to help them.

helmsman, saying that Kurtz as a fellow worker.

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unexciting contest you can corruption of his ideals, Kurtz

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