Beginning through Marlow’s being hired as a steamboat
captain.
Summary: Part 1
At sundown, a pleasure ship called the Nellie lies
anchored at the mouth of the Thames, waiting for the tide to go
out. Five men relax on the deck of the ship: the Director of Companies,
who is also the captain and host, the Lawyer, the Accountant, Marlow,
and the unnamed Narrator. The five men, old friends held together
by “the bond of the sea,” are restless yet meditative, as if waiting
for something to happen. As darkness begins to fall, and the scene
becomes “less brilliant but more profound,” the men recall the great
men and ships that have set forth from the Thames on voyages of
trade and exploration, frequently never to return. Suddenly Marlow
remarks that this very spot was once “one of the dark places of
the earth.” He notes that when the Romans first came to England,
it was a great, savage wilderness to them. He imagines what it must
have been like for a young Roman captain or soldier to come to a
place so far from home and lacking in comforts.
This train of thought reminds Marlow of his sole experience
as a “fresh-water sailor,” when as a young man he captained a steamship going
up the Congo River. He recounts that he first got the idea when,
after returning from a six-year voyage through Asia, he came across
a map of Africa in a London shop window, which reinvigorated his
childhood fantasies about the “blank spaces” on the map.
Marlow recounts how he obtained a job with the Belgian
“Company” that trades on the Congo River (the Congo was then a Belgian territory)
through the influence of an aunt who had friends in the Company’s
administration. The Company was eager to send Marlow to Africa,
because one of the Company’s steamer captains had recently been
killed in a scuffle with the natives.
Read a translation of
Part 1 →
Analysis
Marlow’s story of a voyage up the Congo River that he
took as a young man is the main narrative of Heart of Darkness.
Marlow’s narrative is framed by another narrative, in which one
of the listeners to Marlow’s story explains the circumstances in
which Marlow tells it. The narrator who begins Heart of
Darkness is unnamed, as are the other three listeners,
who are identified only by their professional occupations. Moreover,
the narrator usually speaks in the first-person plural, describing
what all four of Marlow’s listeners think and feel. The unanimity
and anonymity of Marlow’s listeners combine to create the impression
that they represent conventional perspectives and values of the
British establishment.
For the narrator and his fellow travelers, the Thames
conjures up images of famous British explorers who have set out
from that river on glorious voyages. The narrator recounts the achievements
of these explorers in a celebratory tone, calling them “knight-errants” of
the sea, implying that such voyages served a sacred, higher purpose.
The narrator’s attitude is that these men promoted the glory of Great
Britain, expanded knowledge of the globe, and contributed to the
civilization and enlightenment of the rest of the planet.
At the time Heart of Darkness was written,
the British Empire was at its peak, and Britain controlled colonies
and dependencies all over the planet. The popular saying that “the
sun never sets on the British Empire” was literally true. The main
topic of Heart of Darkness is imperialism, a nation’s
policy of exerting influence over other areas through military,
political, and economic coercion. The narrator expresses the mainstream
belief that imperialism is a glorious and worthy enterprise. Indeed,
in Conrad’s time, “empire” was one of the central values of British
subjects, the fundamental term through which Britain defined its
identity and sense of purpose.