The Heart of Darkness, also known just as Heart of Darkness, is a novella by Joseph Conrad. It was originally published as a three-part series in Blackwood’s magazine, then later printed as a single work in 1903. This story is told as a frame narrative, recounted by the main character to a group of men aboard a ship in the Thames. During the course of the narration, the sky darkens, paralleling the darker nature of the events in the story itself.
The main character of Heart of Darkness is Charles Marlow, an English riverboat captain employed by a Belgian trading company in central Africa. His trip to transport ivory down a large river, probably the Congo, takes him through dangerous areas and exposes the dark side of Belgian colonialism. The Heart of Darkness is normally considered to include three different levels of symbolic darkness: the literal darkness of the wilderness in the Belgian Congo, the metaphorical darkness in the cruelty of Europeans toward African natives and the universal darkness in the heart of every human who commits evil acts.
In the story, Marlow dislikes and distrusts the other white men he meats. He is sent to trade ivory, and also to recover a white ivory trader called Kurtz, who works outside the rules and is to be brought back to civilization. Other characters simultaneously idolize and fear Kurtz. Rumors suggest that the man may also be seriously ill.
As Marlow’s steamship nears its destination, the crew encounters a hut full of stacked firewood, including a note that says they should take the firewood but proceed carefully. Shortly thereafter, a band of natives attack the ship in a dense fog, killing one of the black crew members. This incident accompanies a sentimental, sympathetic description of the death, which seems to bring Marlow great sadness.
The ship eventually reaches Kurtz’s station, which to Marlow’s surprise has not been destroyed by natives. Instead, it is surrounded by severed African heads on poles. Marlow encounters a Russian traveler who tells them he is the one who left them the firewood, having come across Kurtz’s station and become the ivory trader’s disciple. Marlow also discovers that Kurtz has convinced the people living in the area to treat him like a god, leading raids into the surrounding region in order to pilfer ivory. The Russian flees the station after admitting that Kurtz ordered the attack on the boat to prevent Marlow from taking him away.
Despite Kurtz’s effort, Marlow and his crew successfully take him on board their ship and leave. Kurtz spends a lot of time talking to Marlow, eventually entrusting him with a set of papers and a photograph of his fiancee to keep safe. Kurtz’s condition steadily worsens, and he eventually dies in Marlow’s company. His last words, “The horror! The horror!” indicate that he has finally realized the evil of his past behavior. This is the most famous passage in the book.
Marlow returns to Europe, encountering many people who want word or souvenirs of Kurtz, including the man’s fiancee, who is in mourning a year later. The fiancee insists that Kurtz was a noble, virtuous man and refuses to believe anything about his true behavior. Marlow is unable to tell her the truth about her intended, and invents a more palatable death to avoid distressing her. The story concludes in darkness in the boat on the Thames.
Important themes in Heart of Darkness include the duality of human nature: savage versus civilized and good versus evil. Europeans, especially women, are shown as naive and unaware of the world around them and the abuses that people can engage in. The struggle between good and evil in the book is largely internal, occurring within the major characters, rather than a physical battle. The novel has been criticized for dehumanizing native Africans and treating them as nothing more than animals or an extension of the dangerous wilderness the steamboat travels through.