Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this section, though,
is how little actually happens. The journey up the river is full
of threatened disasters, but none of them comes to pass, thanks
to Marlow’s skill; the most explosive potential conflict arises
from an act of eavesdropping. The stillness and silence surrounding
this single steamer full of Europeans in the midst of the vast African
continent provoke in Marlow an attitude of restless watchfulness:
he feels as if he has “no time” and must constantly “discern, mostly
by inspiration, [hidden] signs.” In this way, his piloting a steamboat
along a treacherous river comes to symbolize his finding his way
through a world of conspiracies, mysteries, and inaccessible black
faces. Now that both Africa and Europe have become impenetrable
to Marlow, only the larger-than-life Kurtz seems “real.”
