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literary orms to convey human experience more ully.Conrad’s work was instrumental in this eort, particularly hisexperimentation with the use o time and non-chronologicalnarratives.
Heart of Darkness
also ts squarely into the genreo colonial literature, in which European writers portrayed thecolonialism and imperialism o European nations rom Aricato the Far East in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Related Historical Events:
During the last two decades o the19th century, European nations battled each other or wealthand power. This battle caused the “scramble or Arica,” inwhich European countries competed to colonize as much o Arica as possible. While the colonizing Europeans claimed towant to “civilize” the Arican continent, their actions spokeotherwise: they were interested solely in gaining wealth anddid not care how they did it, or who was killed. One o themost brutal o the European colonies in its treatment o thenative Aricans was the Belgian Congo, the property o theBelgian King Leopold I. In 1890, Joseph Conrad worked asa pilot on a steamship in the Belgian Congo, and
Heart of Darkness
is at least in part based on his experiences there.
Extra Credit
Heart of the Apocalypse.
Heart o Darkness is the sourceor the movie Apocalypse Now. The movie uses the primaryplot and themes o Heart o Darkness, and shits the storyrom Arica to Vietnam to explore the hypocrisy, inanity, andemptiness o the American war eort there.
Background Info
Key Facts
Full Title:
 
Heart of Darkness
Genre:
Colonial literature; Quest literature
Setting:
The Narrator tells the story rom a ship at themouth o the Thames River near London, England around1899. Marlow’s story-within-the-story is set in an unnamedEuropean city (probably Brussels) and in the Belgian Congoin Arica sometime in the early to mid 1890s, during thecolonial era.
Climax:
The conrontation between Marlow and Kurtz in the jungle
Protagonist:
Marlow
Antagonist:
Kurtz
Point of View:
First person (both Marlow and the UnnamedNarrator use rst person)
Narrator:
 
Heart of Darkness
is a ramed story: Marlow tellsthe story o his time in the Congo to an unnamed Narrator,and the Narrator describes hearing Marlow tell the story tothe reader.
Historical and Literary Context
When Published:
1899
Literary Period:
Victorianism/Modernism
Related Literary Works:
Joseph Conrad’s novels reside inthe transition period between Victorianism, with its strictconventions and ocus on polite society, and Modernism,which sought to explode old conventions and invent new
Author Bio
Full Name:
Joze Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, changed toJoseph Conrad in 1886.
Date of Birth:
1857
Place of Birth:
Berdichev, Poland (now Berdichev, Ukraine)
Date of Death:
1924
Brief Life Story:
Joze Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski was anorphan by the age o 12; his mother and ather both diedas a result o time the amily spent in exile in Siberia orplotting against the Russian Tsar. At seventeen, he traveled toMarseilles and began to work as a sailor. Eventually, he beganto sail on British ships, and became a British citizen in 1886,at the age o 29. It was about this time he changed his nameto the more British-sounding Joseph Conrad and published hisrst short stories (he wrote in English, his third language aterPolish and French). For the next eight years, Conrad continuedto work as a sailor (even spending time commanding asteamship in the Belgian Congo), and continued to write. Hepublished his rst novel (
 Almayer’s Folly 
) in 1894. In 1896,Conrad married Jessie George. He quickly won critical praise,though nancial success eluded him or many years andboth he and his wie suered serious illnesses. He wrote hisbest-known works in the years just beore and ater the turno the century:
Heart of Darkness
(1899),
Lord Jim
(1900), and
Nostromo
(1904). Conrad died in 1924.The
Narrator
describes a night spent on a ship in the moutho the Thames River in England.
Marlow
, one o the men onboard, tells o his time spent as a riverboat pilot in the BelgianCongo.With the help o his well-connected
aunt
, Marlow gets a job as pilot on a steamship on the Congo River in Arica or aEuropean business outt called the Company. First he travelsto the European city he describes as a “
whited sepulcher
”to visit the Company headquarters, and then to Arica andup the Congo to assume command o his ship. The Companyheadquarters is strangely ominous, and on his voyage to Aricahe witnesses waste, incompetence, negligence, and brutalityso extreme that it would be absurd i it weren’t so awul. Inparticular, he sees a French warship ring into a orest or nodiscernible reason and comes upon a grove where exploitedblack laborers wander o to die. While at the Company’s OuterStation, Marlow meets the Company’s
Chief Accountant
.He mentions a remarkable man named
Kurtz
, who runs theCompany’s Inner Station deep in the jungle.Marlow hikes rom the Outer Station to the Central Sta-tion, where he discovers that the steamship he’s supposedto pilot recently sank in an accident. In the three months ittakes Marlow to repair the ship, he learns that Kurtz is a mano impressive abilities and enlightened morals, and is markedor rapid advancement in the Company. He learns also that the
General Manager
who runs Central Station and his crony the
Brickmaker
ear Kurtz as a threat to their positions. Marlownds himsel almost obsessed with meeting Kurtz, who is alsorumored to be sick.Marlow nally gets the ship xed and sets o upriver withthe General Manager and a number o company agents Mar-low calls
Pilgrims
because the stas they carry resemble thestas o religious pilgrims. The trip is long and dicult: nativedrums beat through the night and snags in the river and blind-ing ogs delay them. Just beore they reach Inner Station thesteamship is attacked by natives. Marlow’s
helmsman
, a na-tive trained to steer the ship, is killed by a spear.At Inner Station, a
Russian
trader meets them on theshore. He tells them that Kurtz is alive but ill. As the GeneralManager goes to get Kurtz, Marlow talks to the Russian traderand realizes that Kurtz has made himsel into a brutal and vi-cious god to the natives. When the General Manager and hismen bring Kurtz out rom the station house on a stretcher, thenatives, including a woman who seems to be Kurtz’s
mistress
,appear ready to riot. But Kurtz calms them and they melt backinto the orest.The Russian sees that the General Manager has it in or him,and slips o into the jungle, but not beore telling Marlow thatKurtz ordered the attack on the steamship. That night, Marlowdiscovers Kurtz crawling toward the native camp. Marlow per-suades Kurtz to return to the ship by telling him he will be “ut-terly lost” i he causes the natives to attack. The steamer setso the next day. But Kurtz is too ill to survive the journey, andgives his papers to Marlow or saekeeping. His dying wordsare: “The horror! The horror!” Marlow believes Kurtz is judginghimsel and the world.Marlow also alls ill, but survives. He returns to the sepul-chral city in Europe and gives Kurtz’s papers to the relevantpeople. The last person he visits is Kurtz’s Intended (his ancé).She believes Kurtz is a great man, both talented and moral, andasks Marlow to tell her Kurtz’s last words. Marlow can’t nd itin himsel to destroy her beautiul delusions: he says Kurtz’slast words were her name.On the ship in the Thames, Marlow alls silent, and as theNarrator stares out rom the ship it seems to him that theThames leads “into the heart o an immense
darkness
.”
Plot SummaryCharacters
Marlow
— One o the ve men on the ship in the Thames.
Heart of Darkness
is mostly made up o his story about his journey into the Belgian Congo. Marlow is a seaman throughand through, and has seen the world many times over. Perhapsbecause o his journeys, perhaps because o the temperamenthe was born with, he is philosophical, passionate, and insight-ul. But Marlow is also extremely skeptical o both mankindand civilization, and, to him, nothing is simple. As the
Nar-rator
describes him: “to him the meaning o an episode wasnot inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale whichbrought it out only as a glow brings out a haze.” The one thingMarlow does seem to believe in as a source o simple moralworth is hard work.
Kurtz
— The ancé o his
Intended
, and a man o greatintellect, talent, and ambition who is warped by his time inthe Congo. Kurtz is the embodiment o all that’s noble aboutEuropean civilization, rom his talent in the arts to his ambi-tious goals o “civilizing” and helping the natives o Arica, andcan be seen as a symbol o that civilization. But in his time inArica Kurtz is transormed rom a man o moral principles toa monster who makes himsel a god among the natives, evengoing so ar as to perorm “terrible rites.” His transormationproves that or all o his talent, ambition, and moral ideas, hewas hollow at the core.
General Manager
— The head o the Company’s CentralStation on the river. Untalented and unexceptional, the GeneralManager has reached his position o power in the Companybecause o his ability to cause vague uneasiness in otherscoupled with an ability to withstand the terrible jungle diseasesyear ater year. The General Manager has no loty moral ambi-tions, and cares only about his own power and position andmaking money.
The Russian Trader
— A wanderer and trader who wearsa multi-colored patched jacket that makes him look like a har-lequin (a jester). Through some miraculous stroke o luck, hehas ended up alone in the jungle along the Congo and survived.He is naïve and innocent and believes
Kurtz
is a great manbeyond any conventional morality. He even nursed Kurtz backto health on a number o occasions though Kurtz once threat-
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Heart of Darkness
 
ened to shoot him. O all the
white
men in the Congo, only theRussian rerains rom trying to assert control over the jungle.
Narrator
— One o the ve men on the ship in the Thames,he is the one who relays to the reader
Marlow’s
story about
Kurtz
and the Congo. He is insightul, and seems to under-stand Marlow quite well, but otherwise has little personality.He does seem to be aected by Marlow’s story.
The Brickmaker
— The
General Manager’s
most trustedagent. A sly, lazy, power-hungry ellow who despite his titleseems to have never made a brick, the Brickmaker cares onlyabout his own advancement and thereore sees
Kurtz
as athreat. He also thinks that Marlow and Kurtz are somehow al-lied within the company.
Marlow
describes the Brickmaker asa “papier-mâché Mephistopheles.”
The General Manager’s Uncle
— The uncle o the
General Manager
, and the head o the Eldorado ExploringExpedition. Like his nephew, the uncle has come to Arica tomake his ortune. He is generally untalented, and his expedi-tion disappears in the jungle.
Kurtz’s Intended
— The
woman
in Europe to whom
Kurtz
 is betrothed to be married. She is incredibly idealistic aboutboth Kurtz and the colonization o Arica. She continues tomourn Kurtz as a great man even a year ater he dies.
Marlow’s Aunt
— A well-connected and idealistic
woman
,she helps
Marlow
get the job as a steamer pilot or the Compa-ny. She is extremely idealistic about the European colonizationo Arica, seeing it as a beautiul eort to civilize the savages.
Director of Companies
— One o the ve men on the shipin the Thames who listen to
Marlow’s
story.
Lawyer
— One o the ve men on the ship in the Thames wholisten to
Marlow’s
story.
Accountant
— One o the ve men on the ship in theThames who listen to
Marlow’s
story. He is
not 
the same asthe
Chief Accountant
.
Fresleven
— A steamship pilot who got into a silly argumentthat cost him his lie. His death opened the position into which
Marlow
was hired.
Doctor
— A medical man in the
sepulchral city
who isinterested in how the Congo drives men crazy.
Swede
— A steamship captain who has nothing but disdainor the “government chaps” who care only about money.
Chief Accountant
— A Company employee at the OuterStation who wins
Marlow’s
admiration simply by keepinghimsel impeccably groomed. (Do not conuse him with the
Accountant
on the ship in the Thames.)
The Foreman
— A man who helps
Marlow
repair thesteamship.
The Pilgrims
— Company agents that
Marlow
gives thederisive nickname Pilgrims because they carry long woodenstaves wherever they go.
The Helmsman
— A coastal native o Arica trained to manthe helm o a steamship. He works or
Marlow
until he’s killed.
African Woman
— A savage and stately Arican tribes-woman who seems likely to have been
Kurtz’s
lover.
The General Manager’s servant
— A native boy who hasgrown insolent because he works or the
General Manager
.
Colonialism
Marlow’s
story in
Heart of Darkness
takes place in the BelgianCongo, the most notorious European colony in Arica or itsgreed and brutalization o the native people. In its depiction o the monstrous wasteulness and casual cruelty o the colonialagents toward the Arican natives,
Heart of Darkness
revealsthe utter hypocrisy o the entire colonial eort. In Europe,colonization o Arica was justied on the grounds that notonly would it bring wealth to Europe, it would also civilize andeducate the “savage” Arican natives.
Heart of Darkness
showsthat in practice the European colonizers used the high ideals o colonization as a cover to allow them to viciously rip whateverwealth they could rom Arica.Unlike most novels that ocus on the evils o colonialism,
Heart of Darkness
pays more attention to the damage thatcolonization does to the souls o white colonizers than it doesto the physical death and devastation unleashed on the blacknatives. Though this ocus on the white colonizers makes thenovella somewhat unbalanced, it does allow
Heart of Darkness
 to extend its criticism o colonialism all the way back to its cor-rupt source, the “civilization” o Europe.
The Hollowness of Civilization
Heart of Darkness
portrays a European civilization that ishopelessly and blindly corrupt. The novella depicts Europeansociety as hollow at the core:
Marlow
describes the
white
 men he meets in Arica, rom the
General Manager
to
Kurtz
,as empty, and reers to the unnamed European city as the“
sepulchral city
” (a sepulcher is a hollow tomb). Throughoutthe novella, Marlow argues that what Europeans call “civili-zation” is supercial, a mask created by ear o the law andpublic shame that hides a
dark
heart, just as a beautiul whitesepulcher hides the decaying dead inside.Marlow, and
Heart of Darkness
, argue that in the Arican jungle—“utter solitude without a policeman”—the civilizedman is plunged into a world without supercial restrictions,and the mad desire or power comes to dominate him. In-ner strength could allow a man to push o the temptation todominate, but civilization actually saps this inner strength bymaking men think it’s unnecessary. The civilized man believeshe’s civilized through and through. So when a man like Kurtzsuddenly nds himsel in the solitude o the jungle and hearsthe whisperings o his dark impulses, he is unable to combatthem and becomes a monster.
The Lack of Truth
Heart of Darkness
plays with the genre o quest literature. In aquest, a hero passes through a series o dicult tests to nd anobject or person o importance, and in the process comes toa realization about the true nature o the world or human soul.
Marlow
seems to be on just such a quest, making his way pastabsurd and horrendous “stations” on his way up the Congo tond
Kurtz
, the shining beacon o European civilization and mo-rality in the midst o the
dark
jungle and the “fabby rapaciousolly” o the other Belgian Company agents.But Marlow’s quest is a ailure: Kurtz turns out to be thebiggest monster o all. And with that ailure Marlow learns thatat the heart o everything there lies only
darkness
. In otherwords, you can’t know other people, and you can’t even reallyknow yoursel. There is no undamental truth.
Work
In a world where truth is unknowable and men’s hearts arelled with either greed or a primitive
darkness
that threatensto overwhelm them,
Marlow
seems to nd comort only inwork. Marlow notes that he escaped the jungle’s infuence notbecause he had principles or high ideals, but because he hada job to do that kept him busy.Work is perhaps the only thing in
Heart of Darkness
thatMarlow views in an entirely positive light. In act, more thanonce Marlow will reer to work or items that are associatedwith work (like rivets) as “real,” while the rest o the jungle andthe men in it are “unreal.” Work is like a religion to him, a sourceo support to which he can cling in order to keep his human-ity. This explains why he is so horried when he sees laziness,poor work, or machines let out to rust. When other men ceaseto do honest work, Marlow knows they have sunk either intothe heart o 
darkness
or the hollow greed o civilization.
Racism
Students and critics alike oten argue about whether
Heart of Darkness
is a racist book. Some argue that the book depictsEuropeans as superior to Aricans, while others believe thenovel attacks colonialism and thereore is not racist. There isthe evidence in the book that supports both sides o the argu-ment, which is another way o saying that the book’s actualstance on the relationship between blacks and whites is notitsel black and white. 
Heart of Darkness
attacks colonialism as a deeply fawedenterprise run by corrupt and hollow white men who perpe-trate mass destruction on the native population o Arica, andthe novel seems to equate
darkness
with truth and
white-ness
with hollow trickery and lies. So
Heart of Darkness
arguesthat the Aricans are less corrupt and in that sense superior towhite people, but it’s argument or the superiority o Aricansis based on a oundation o racism.
Marlow
, and
Heart of Dark-ness
, take the rather patronizing view that the black natives areprimitive and thereore innocent while the white colonizers aresophisticated and thereore corrupt. This take on colonizationis certainly not “politically correct,” and can be legitimatelycalled racist because it treats the natives like objects ratherthan as thinking people.
 Themes
Women
Marlow
believes that women exist in a world o beautiul illu-sions that have nothing to do with truth or the real world. In thisway, women come to symbolize civilization’s ability to hide itshypocrisy and darkness behind pretty ideas.
The Sepulchral City
The
white
sepulchral city symbolizes all o European civiliza-tion. The beautiul white outside evokes the loty ideas and justications that Europeans use to justiy colonization, whilethe hidden hollow inside the sepulcher hides the hypocrisy anddesire or power and wealth that truly motivate the colonialpowers.
Dark and White
Darkness is everywhere in
Heart of Darkness
. But the novellatweaks the conventional idea o white as good and dark as evil.Evil and good don’t really apply to
Heart of Darkness
, becauseeveryone in the novella is somehow complicit in the atrocitiestaking place in Arica. Rather, whiteness, especially in the ormo the white og that surrounds the steamship, symbolizesblindness. The dark is symbolized by the huge and inscrutableArican jungle, and is associated with the unknowable andprimitive heart o all men.
Symbols
Symbols are shown in
red
text whenever they appear in the
Plot Summary 
and
 Summary and Analysis
sections o thisLitChart.In LitCharts, each theme gets its own corresponding color,which you can use to track where the themes occur in thework. There are two ways to track themes:Reer to the color-coded bars next to each plot point
•
throughout the
 Summary and Analysis
sections.Use the
•
ThemeTracker 
section to get a quick overview o where the themes appear throughout the entire work.
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Summary and Analysis
Part 1
The
Narrator
describes the scene rom the deck o aship named Nellie as it rests at anchor at the moutho the River Thames, near London. The ve menon board the ship—the
Director of Companies
,the
Lawyer
, the
Accountant
, the Narrator, and
Marlow
, old riends rom their seaaring days—settledown to await the changing o the tide. They staredown the mouth o the river into the Atlantic Ocean,a view that stretches like “the beginning o aninterminable waterway.”
The opening establishes a darktone, with its use of wordslike “interminable waterway,” and also implies that theentire world is connected by itswaterways. That the charactersin the ship are known by their  jobs and not their names hintsat the hollowness of civilization:their selves have been swal-lowed by their roles.
In silence they watch the sunset, and the
Narrator
 remembers the abled ships and men o Englishhistory who set sail rom the Thames on voyages o trade or conquest, carrying with them “The dreamso men, the seed o commonwealths, the germs o empire.”
The Narrator’s thoughts about conquest and colonialism areconventional and romantic:that great men go out with great dreams and build great empires to the greater glory of the world.
Suddenly
Marlow
interrupts the silence. “And thisalso,” Marlow says, “has been one o the
dark
placeso the earth.” He imagines England as it must haveappeared to the rst Romans sent to conquer it: asavage, mysterious place that both appalled andattracted them, that made them eel powerless andlled them with hate.
But Marlow takes an oppositeview: he sees England itself as once one of the savageplaces, and imagines how that savagery warped its conquerors.The implication is that hiddenbehind its civilization England has a “dark” heart.
Marlow
observes that none o the men on the boatwould eel just like those Romans, because the menon the boat have a “devotion to eciency,” while theRomans wanted simply to conquer.
 Marlow believes that a devotion
to efciency, a devotion to work,
protects a man from being corrupted by powerlessnessand hate.
Yet
Marlow
adds that conquest is never pretty andusually involves the powerul taking land rom thosewho look dierent and are less powerul. Conquest,Marlow says, is redeemed only by the ideas behindthem, ideas that are so beautiul men bow downbeore them.
The practice of conquest and colonialism is always ruthless.But the noble idea motivating conquest, such as civilizing thesavages, can be so beautiful it hides the ruthlessness evenfrom the conquerors.
Marlow
then reminds the other men that he onceserved as captain o a reshwater riverboat, andbegins to tell his story. As a young boy, he had apassion or maps and unknown places. As he grewolder many o those places become known, andmany he visited himsel. Yet Arica still ascinatedhim, especially its mighty river, the Congo. Ater yearso ocean voyages in which he had “always went by[his] own road and on [his] own legs,” Marlow askshis
aunt
to use her infuence help him get a job as asteamship operator or the Company, a continentalEuropean trading concern in Arica.
 Marlow makes it clear hedoesn’t usually ask people for favors, instead going by “hisown road and on his own legs” because of his belief in thehonesty and importance of work. He is not comfortablerelying on others to do his workfor him, and sees it as a pos-
sibly dangerous and denitely 
shameful thing to do.
The Company hires him immediately: it has an openposition because one o its captains, a Dane named
Fresleven
, had recently been killed. Ater some timein the jungle, the normally mild-mannered Freslevenhad started hitting the native chie o a village with acane over a disagreement regarding two black hens,and was accidentally killed by the chie’s son. Thenatives, in ear, immediately abandoned their village.
The absurd story of Fresleven’sdeath foreshadows Marlow’sabsurd experience in the jungle,where colonialist white men go insane and clash with theexploited natives, producing violence and more absurdity.
Marlow
travels to the unnamed European city wherethe Company has its headquarters. He describes thecity as a “
whited sepulcher
.”
 A sepulcher is a tomb, and hides in its heart either empti-ness or death.
At the Company’s oce,
Marlow
is let into areception area presided over by two women, one at,one slim, both o whom constantly knit black wool.There, Marlow examines a map o Arica lled in byvarious colors representing the European countriesthat colonized those areas. He briefy meets thehead o the Company (a “pale plumpness in a rockcoat”), then is directed to a
doctor
. While measuringMarlow’s head, the doctor comments that in Arica“the changes happen inside” and asks Marlow i hisamily has a history o insanity.
 More foreshadowing of what  Marlow will soon experience incolonial Africa. The women inblack seem to symbolize fateor death, the head of the Com-pany’s “plumpness” covered by a “frock coat” implies greed masked by civility, and thedoctor explicitly says that Africadrives Europeans crazy.
Marlow
has a arewell chat with his
aunt
, who seesher nephew as an “emissary o light” o to educatethe Arican natives out o their “horrid ways.” Marlowpoints out to his aunt that the company is run or prot,not missionary work, and expresses amazement tohis riends on the boat how out o touch
women
arewith the truth.
Earlier Marlow said that thebeautiful idea behind coloniza-tion masks the ruthless practiceof colonialism. Well, his aunt clearly buys the idea, and indoing so establishes women assymbols of civilization’s inability to see its hollow corruption.
Marlow
boards the steamer that will take him tothe mouth o the Congo with a sense o oreboding.To Marlow on the steamer, the orested coast o Arica looks like an impenetrable enigma, inviting andscorning him at the same time. He occasionally seescanoes paddled by native Aricans, and once seesa French ship ring its guns into the dense orest atinvisible “enemies.”
 Marlow goes to Africa becauseas a boy he had a passion for unknown places. He wanted toknow the unknown. But Africaresists being known, and makescolonialists do ridiculous, hollow things like shoot at forests.
At the mouth o the Congo,
Marlow
gets passage orthirty miles rom a small steamer piloted by a
Swede.
 The Swede mocks the “government chaps” at theshore as men who will do anything or money, andwonders what happens to such men when they geturther into the continent.
The pilot, a man who works,condemns the colonialists whocare not about work, but about money. The pilot’s questionabout what happens to suchpeople in the jungle is moreforeshadowing.
At last they reach the Company’s Outer Station, achaotic and disorganized place. Machinery rustseverywhere, black laborers blast away at a cli aceor no reason.
Marlow
comments to the men onthe Nellie that he had long known the “lusty devils”o violence and greed that drive men, but in Aricaencountered “a fabby, pretending, weak-eyed devilo a rapacious and pitiless olly.”
Note Marlow’s horror at the
inefciency of the station and 
the rusting of machinery. The“lusty devils” are the desiresthat move men to act badly,but without deception. The“pretending” devils move mento fake their noble intentions for  greedy ends.
Marlow
then stumbles upon what he calls the Groveo Death, a grove among the trees that is lled withweak and dying native laborers, who are living outtheir last moments in the shade o the ancient trees.
 Marlow sees the death of thenatives with the same horror as the rusting machinery. It’sa tragedy to him, but not a
human
tragedy.
At the station, the
Chief Accountant
impresses
Marlow
with his good grooming. One day the Chie Accountant mentions that urther up the river Marlowwill probably meet Mr.
Kurtz
, a station head whosends in as much ivory as all the others put togetherand who “will be a somebody in the [Company]Administration beore long.” He asks Marlow to tellKurtz that all is satisactory, saying he doesn’t want tosend a letter or ear that rivals at the Central Stationwill intercept it.
The Chief Accountants com-ments both introduce Kurtz asa remarkably talented fellow and also convey the backbiting and politics going on under the surface in the Company. Marlow admires the Chief  Accountant’s grooming becausesuch hygienic habits involvedisciplined work, especially inthe midst of the chaos of Outer Station.
Just then a dying native who has been put on a bed inthe accountant’s oce or lack o other space makesa noise. The
Chief Accountant
comments, “Whenone has got to make correct entries, one comes tohate these savages—hate them to death.”
Yet beneath the Chief Ac-countant’s civilized exterior,
he’s lled with the sense of 
“powerlessness and hate” that Marlow earlier described infecting the Roman conquerorsof England.
A ew days later
Marlow
joins a caravan headed thetwo hundred miles upriver to Central Station. Ater ateen-day trek through the jungle during which theonly other white man ell ill and many o the nativeporters deserted rather than carry the sick man,Marlow reaches the Station.
The absurd inefciency and 
waste of the colonial effort just keeps growing…
The color-coded bars in
 Summary and Analysis
make it easy to track the themes through thework. Each color corresponds to one o the themes explained in the Themes section. For in-stance, a bar o indicates that all ve themes apply to that part o the summary.
3
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03 / 07 / 2010This doucment made it onto the Rising List!
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