Summary
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness remains one of the most analyzed and controversial works of English literature more than a century after its 1899 debut. The story follows Charles Marlow's harrowing journey up the Congo River in search of the mysterious ivory trader Kurtz. Through Marlow's narration, Conrad offers a searing critique of European colonialism in Africa while exploring themes of power, morality, and the darkness within human nature. This chilling novella was the basis for Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film Apocalypse Now, which transplants the story to the Vietnam War.
Plot
In Heart of Darkness, the narrator Charles Marlow recounts his journey up the Congo River as captain of a steamboat for an ivory trading company. Marlow becomes fascinated with the mysterious figure of Kurtz, a highly successful ivory trader who has supposedly gone mad in the African jungle. As Marlow travels deeper into the continent, he encounters scenes of brutal exploitation of the native Africans by European colonizers.
When Marlow finally reaches Kurtz's remote outpost, he finds that Kurtz has set himself up as a godlike figure among the local natives, surrounding his house with severed heads on stakes. Kurtz is severely ill, and Marlow takes him aboard the steamboat to return downriver. On the journey back, Kurtz entrusts Marlow with a packet of personal documents, including a report he had written for “The Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs.” Kurtz dies on the boat, uttering his final words: “The horror! The horror!"
Upon returning to Europe, Marlow is left deeply disturbed by his experiences. When he visits Kurtz's fiancée, who is still in mourning a year after his death, Marlow lies and tells her that Kurtz's last words were her name.
Themes
Colonialism and imperialism
Darkness and light as symbols
Racism and dehumanization
Madness and obsession
Morality and ethics in extreme conditions
The nature of good and evil
Alienation and isolation
Setting
Heart of Darkness is set in the late 19th century during the height of European colonialism in Africa. The story takes place primarily along the Congo River in what was then known as the Congo Free State, a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II.
The novella begins and ends in London, with the bulk of the story recounting Marlow's journey deep into Africa. Marlow travels up the Congo River by steamboat, passing through several European trading posts before reaching Kurtz's Inner Station near the heart of the Congo. The increasingly wild and “uncivilized” landscape mirrors Marlow's psychological journey into the darkness of human nature.
Conrad vividly depicts the brutality of colonial exploitation, contrasting the lush African wilderness with the degradation of both the native inhabitants and the European colonizers. The setting serves as both a physical backdrop and a metaphorical representation of the moral decay that Marlow encounters. Through this African setting, Conrad explores themes of imperialism, racism, and the vulnerability of civilization.
Characters
Charles Marlow: The protagonist and narrator, a thoughtful sailor who recounts his journey up the Congo River.
Kurtz: An enigmatic ivory trader who has established himself as a demigod among the natives.
The Accountant: A company official Marlow meets, who first tells him about Kurtz.
The Manager: The chief agent at the Central Station, who views Kurtz as a rival.
The Brickmaker: An official at the Central Station who seems to be a company spy.
The Helmsman: An African crew member killed during an attack on the steamboat.
The Russian: A wanderer who has fallen under Kurtz's spell.
Kurtz's Intended: Kurtz's fiancée in Brussels, whom Marlow visits after Kurtz's death.
The Aunt: Marlow's aunt who helps him secure his position with the Company.
The Doctor: A man in Brussels who examines Marlow before his journey and measures his skull.
Quick facts
Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness was originally published as a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899.
The story is based on Conrad's own experiences as a steamboat captain on the Congo River in 1890.
The character of Kurtz was likely inspired by several real-life figures, including a Belgian trader named Léon Rom.
Heart of Darkness is considered an important work of early modernist literature and a critique of European colonialism in Africa.
Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film Apocalypse Now was loosely based on Heart of Darkness, changing the setting of the story to the Vietnam War.
The famous line “The horror! The horror!” uttered by Kurtz has become one of the most recognizable quotes in English literature.
Nigerian author Chinua Achebe famously criticized the novella as racist in his 1975 lecture “An Image of Africa."
T.S. Eliot references Heart of Darkness in his poem “The Hollow Men,” using the line “Mistah Kurtz—he dead” as an epigraph.
The audiobook is narrated by acclaimed actor Kenneth Branagh, who has been nominated for five Academy Awards.
About the Author
Joseph Conrad is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of fiction in the English language. Along with his narrative experimentation, he is known for his insightful explorations of the complexities of moral choice, the psychological toll of isolation, and man’s capacity for evil. His works include the novels Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), and The Secret Agent (1907) as well as the novella Heart of Darkness (1899), which inspired Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film Apocalypse Now and continues to be analyzed and debated more than a century after its publication.
Born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in 1857 in Russian-controlled Ukraine, Conrad left his native Poland as a young man and spent years as a sailor in the French and British merchant marines before settling in England and embarking on a literary career. He garnered critical acclaim for the richness of his prose, despite English being his third language after Polish and French. Along with drawing on his experiences at sea, his novels and short stories reflect his fascination with the hidden sides of human nature and often feature themes of imperialism, alienation, and corruption, both individual and societal.
For most of his life as an author, Conrad was plagued by poor health and financial struggles. He died in 1924 at his home in the southeast corner of England.
