Heart of Darkness Part I
The book opens with a dark description of London at dusk. A small boat, Nellie, is anchored at the river Thames, near London. Five men gather on board the ship; Marlow, the Lawyer, the Accountant, the Narrator, and the Director of Companies stand observing the gloomy view of the city. They settle down to await the tide to change its course. As they watch the sunset in silence, Marlow talks about the darkness of Britain, the land which has weathered savage assaults by Roman troops who arrived on its shores with the singleminded objective of pillaging for their empire. The imperial exploitation of Britain reminds Marlow of the time he was sent by a Belgian trading company to captain a steamship sailing the Congo river in Africa.
Marlow was intensely curious about unknown places on maps as a young boy. He visited many of them as he grew old, but the mighty unknowns of Africa had always fascinated him. After working and sailing in the Indian Ocean for many years, he asks his Aunt to help him secure a post as an operator on a steamboat in the Congo river. An ivory company hires him, as the former captain, Dane Fresleven, is killed in a dispute over two black hens by the locals. Marlow heads to the company’s headquarters in a Belgian city. He studies a map of Africa that denotes the colonial spheres of the various European imperial powers and notes that the Congo river seems to lie nearly in the center of Belgium’s colony. He meets the head of the company, who seems very eager to have Marlow on his way to Africa. He then undergoes a medical examination by a doctor who measures his head and asks about the incidence of insanity in his family. Finally, he secures his commission by signing a contract in which he vows to keep their trade secrets confidential. He then visits his Aunt, who is convinced that he will sever as an emissary of light for the savage natives. She bids him farewell with the belief that he will civilize the natives with European wisdom. Marlow attempts to put across his view that the company works primarily for profit, and not for altruistic missionary work.
He boards a steamer to Congo with soldiers and clerks. The forested coastline of Africa seems to invite and scorn him at the same time. He is mesmerized by the beauty of the jungle and the darkness that surrounds it. On his voyage, he sees boats being paddled by black people that are scared off by the European vessels. He observes how a french ship mindlessly fires cannons into the forests to keep the natives in terrorized control. It takes him a full month to reach the mouth of the Congo river. He boards another vessel to reach the Outer Station of the Company further upriver. This steamboat is captioned by a swede, who invites him for a conversation due to Marlow’s experience as a sailor. The Swede makes fun of the government lads as men who will be led blindingly by money and tells Marlow a story about a man who hanged himself under mysterious circumstances while working on the river.
They arrive at the Company’s Outer Station, a highly inefficient place, that seems to be filled with rusting machinery. The company is building a train network, using black slaves and explosives. He comes across a huddle of dying black slaves gathered in the shadow of a tree, all of them in various states of deprivation and disease. At the station, he meets the Company’s accountant, a well-dressed white man in impeccably clean clothing. Marlow stays there for ten days and learns about a man named Kurtz from the accountant. He mentions that Marlow might meet Kurtz, a remarkable man and a senior agent of the company who works further upriver. Kurtz is remarkably efficient in the collection of ivory and sends in more ivory than all the other agents altogether. The accountant believes that Kurtz possesses the potential to excel in this company, and rise high in the ranks. He asks Marlow to tell Kurtz “everything is satisfactory” rather than sending a letter as he fears their rivals at the central station may intercept it.
After waiting for a few days, Marlow joins a caravan of 60 men headed 200 miles through the wilderness and to the Central station. After a fifteen-day, long, tedious trek in the jungle, during which his other white companion, a fat man who had to be often carried due to his poor health. He had to be lifted on a hammock, and when the hammock broke, he was purposefully dropped by the frustrated natives. They reach the Central Station which is also in a state of severe disrepair. The first man he meets at the station delivers the news that the ship he was supposed to captain has sunk. Marlow suspects that General Manager has purposefully sunk the ship with a political agenda. He finds the Manager to be unintelligent, unskilled, and inefficient. He believes that General Manager has maintained his position because he knows how to hold his authority without asserting it and is resistant to tropical diseases, unlike most Europeans, who succumb to one disease or another within a short time. The Manager had sunk the steamship as he had attempted to reach Kurtz when he had learned the agent was severely ill. The Manager is very interested when he learns that Marlow has already heard about Kurtz. This proves the Power of Kurtz's influence on the company. Marlow begins to work on boat repairs, which takes three long months, despite Marlow’s intent to complete the repairs quickly.
Meanwhile, Marlow learns that the situation upriver is exceptionally terrible, Kurtz has fallen ill, and his station is in peril. One night, a storehouse bursts into flames, for which a worker is brutally punished as he is suspected of setting it ablaze. Marlow overhears the conversation between General Manager and a man as they discuss Kurtz. They wonder how they can take advantage of this unfortunate accident. General Manager leaves, and Marlow talks to a young brickmaker, who hasn’t yet made any bricks. The man invites Marlow for a conversation and attempts to wring information out of him tactlessly. He claims bitterly that Marlow belongs to the gang of virtue that wants to cultivate European morals in Africa. He is worried about having a bad impression of the figurehead of this movement, Kurtz. The brickmaker views Kurtz as the next Master of their company. Marlow instantly realizes he is being viewed as a threat to their self-interests. He attempts to manipulate the brickmaker by playing the role of an influential member of this gang of virtue, as he wishes to secure the materials necessary for the repair.
Marlow takes a break from telling his story explaining to the men how hard it is for them to understand his experiences but is comforted by the fact that his fellow men can at least see better than he could then. Marlow returns to the story, and he informs his foreman that the rivets will arrive soon, but they never do. Weeks pass, and a group of greedy and cowardly white pilgrims riding donkeys come in search of treasure.
Analysis
Heart of Darkness is an account of the imperial exploitation that the European powers inflicted particularly on Africa under the guise of exporting civility and morality. Marlow, the narrator, is not completely critical of British colonialism and seems even to admire it in certain aspects. However, his evaluation of the Belgian practices in Africa is perhaps more accurate. His silent listeners, aboard the ship floating on the Thames, represent the vast majority of the European population that witnesses the atrocities of colonialism without protest. The novel is structured to reveal the increasing violence of colonization as Marlow journeys up the river. Immediately upon reaching the African coasts, he observes the mindless cannon fire that the European ships inflicted on the locals. He then sees the emaciated and dying laborers at the outer station who seem to be occupied with projects that are designed to waste their labor, such as the digging of unnecessary holes in the ground. Marlow observes the deplorable conditions of the natives and feels appropriate disgust at the sight, yet he does not experience any guilt or sense of responsibility. He does not believe that he is complicit in the brutal colonization of the natives, even though he is an employee of the organization that is carrying it out.
In the Central Station, Marlow notes the incompetence and overall poor demeanor of the Europeans that are believed by many to be responsible for civilizing the natives. In the central station, the company employees seem to have a clearer understanding of the exploitative nature of their enterprise. The stories of Kurtz begin to take hold in Marlow’s mind, and he becomes determined to reach the fabled man as he struggles with sickness.
