Beginning through Marlows being hired as a steamboat captain.

SUMMARY
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 aw!er, the Accountant, "arlow, and the unnamed Narrator. The five men, old friends held together #! $the #ond of the sea,% are restless !et meditative, as if waiting for something to happen. As darkness #egins to fall, and the scene #ecomes $less #rilliant #ut more profound,% the men recall the great men and ships that have set forth from the Thames on vo!ages of trade and exploration, fre&uentl! never to return. 'uddenl! "arlow remarks that this ver! spot was once $one of the dark places of the earth.% (e notes that when the )omans first came to *ngland, it was a great, savage wilderness to them. (e imagines what it must have #een like for a !oung )oman captain or soldier to come to a place so far from home and lacking in comforts.

This train of thought reminds "arlow of his sole experience as a $fresh+water sailor,% when as a !oung man he captained a steamship going up the Congo )iver. (e recounts that he first got the idea when, after returning from a six+!ear vo!age through Asia, he came across a map of Africa in a ondon shop window, which reinvigorated his childhood fantasies a#out the $#lank spaces% on the map.

"arlow recounts how he o#tained a ,o# with the -elgian $Compan!% that trades on the Congo )iver .the Congo was then a -elgian territor!/ through the influence of an aunt who had friends in the Compan!0s administration. The Compan! was eager to send "arlow to Africa, #ecause one of the Compan!0s steamer captains had recentl! #een killed in a scuffle with the natives.

ANALYSIS

"arlow0s stor! of a vo!age up the Congo )iver that he took as a !oung man is the main narrative of (eart of Darkness. "arlow0s narrative is framed #! another narrative, in which one of the listeners to "arlow0s stor! explains the circumstances in which "arlow tells it. The narrator who #egins (eart of Darknessis unnamed, as are the other three listeners, who are identified onl! #! their professional occupations. "oreover, the narrator usuall! speaks in the first+person plural, descri#ing what all four of "arlow0s listeners think and feel. The unanimit! and anon!mit! of "arlow0s listeners com#ine to create the impression that the! represent conventional perspectives and values of the -ritish esta#lishment.

For the narrator and his fellow travelers, the Thames con,ures up images of famous -ritish explorers who have set out from that river on glorious vo!ages. The narrator recounts the achievements of these explorers in a cele#rator! tone, calling them $knight+errants% of the sea, impl!ing that such vo!ages served a sacred, higher purpose. The narrator0s attitude is that these men promoted the glor! of 1reat -ritain, expanded knowledge of the glo#e, and contri#uted to the civili2ation and enlightenment of the rest of the planet.

At the time (eart of Darkness was written, the -ritish *mpire was at its peak, and -ritain controlled colonies and dependencies all over the planet. The popular sa!ing that $the sun never sets on the -ritish *mpire% was literall! true. The main topic of (eart of Darkness is imperialism, a nation0s polic! of exerting influence over other areas through militar!, political, and economic coercion. The narrator expresses the mainstream #elief that imperialism is a glorious and worth! enterprise. 3ndeed, in Conrad0s time, $empire% was one of the central values of -ritish su#,ects, the fundamental term through which -ritain defined its identit! and sense of purpose.

From the moment "arlow opens his mouth, he sets himself apart from his fellow passengers #! con,uring up a past in which -ritain was not the heart of civili2ation

#ut the savage $end of the world.% ikewise, the Thames was not the source of glorious ,ourne!s outward #ut the ominous #eginning of a ,ourne! inward, into the heart of the wilderness. This is t!pical of "arlow as a stor!teller: he narrates in an ironic tone, giving the impression that his audience0s assumptions are wrong, #ut not presenting a clear alternative to those assumptions. Throughout his stor!, distinctions such as inward and outward, civili2ed and savage, dark and light, are called into &uestion. -ut the iron! of "arlow0s stor! is not as pronounced as in a satire, and "arlow0s and Conrad0s attitudes regarding imperialism are never entirel! clear.

From the wa! "arlow tells his stor!, it is clear that he is extremel! critical of imperialism, #ut his reasons apparentl! have less to do with what imperialism does to coloni2ed peoples than with what it does to *uropeans. "arlow suggests, in the first place, that participation in imperial enterprises degrades *uropeans #! removing them from the $civili2ing% context of *uropean societ!, while simultaneousl! tempting them into violent #ehavior #ecause of the hostilit! and lawlessness of the environment. "oreover, "arlow suggests that the mission of $civili2ing% and $enlightening% native peoples is misguided, not #ecause he #elieves that the! have a via#le civili2ation and culture alread!, #ut #ecause the! are so savage that the pro,ect is overwhelming and hopeless. "arlow expresses horror when he witnesses the violent maltreatment of the natives, and he argues that a kinship exists #etween #lack Africans and *uropeans, #ut in the same #reath he states that this kinship is $ugl!% and horrif!ing, and that the kinship is extremel! distant. Nevertheless, it is not a simple matter to evaluate whether "arlow0s attitudes are conservative or progressive, racist or $enlightened.% 3n the first place, one would have to decide in relation to whom "arlow was conservative or progressive. Clearl!, "arlow0s stor! is shaped #! the audience to whom he tells it. The anon!mous narrator states that "arlow is unconventional in his ideas, and his listeners0 derisive grunts and murmurs suggest that the! are less inclined to &uestion colonialism or to view Africans as human #eings than he is. (is

criticisms of colonialism, #oth implicit and explicit, are pitched to an audience that is far more s!mpathetic toward the colonial enterprise than an! twent!+first+centur! reader could #e. The framing narrative puts a certain amount of distance #etween "arlow0s narrative and Conrad himself. This framework suggests that the reader should regard "arlow ironicall!, #ut there are few cues within the text to suggest an alternative to "arlow0s point of view