Heart of Darkness is a novel that depicts the adventure of one man. The reader views the immense change that takes place in the protagonist as he journeys deep into Africa. This novel forces one to examine his/her definitions of savagery and civilization. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is a tale that can be read as an adventure story about the jungle, or, on a deeper level, a story that examines the evils of society.
The novel begins on board the Nellie, a small European ship on the Thames River. The scene is that of a calm, quiet day with the crew lounging on the deck. The people on board are the anonymous narrator, Marlow, the Director of Companies, a lawyer, and an accountant. As the men sit in peaceful conversation, Marlow begins his story about the time he ventured deep into Africa. The story is relayed to the reader through the narrator.
Marlow starts his tale by expressing his fascination with becoming an explorer, which led him to seek a job working for the Company. The Company was an organization that extracted valuable ivory out of Africa to sell for a profit. Marlow, with a great deal of help from a loving aunt, obtained a job as a skipper for one of their boats.
As Marlow goes to the Company's headquarters to formalize his job with the Company, he feels uneasy about his decision. The people Marlow encounters are all very impersonal characters. The young lady who leads him to the Company's director never even looks up from her knitting. His employer talks with him less than a minute, and the examination by the Company's doctor leave him with ideas of impending madness and death. Marlow finds passage on a steamboat that will take him to the place he is to board his own steamer. Marlow hears stories of men going crazy and killing themselves. He begins to wander what the jungle contains that has this power over intelligent, civilized men. Eventually, the steamer brings him to the Company's Outer Station where he is to join a caravan to conduct him to the Central Station.
