Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness

Joseph Conrad

The background for this novel was provided by Conrad’s voyage up the River Congo in 1890. The narrator, Marlow, who also appears in Lord Jim, tells the story. He is sent by a European trading company to command one of their river streamers in Africa. It is a rather dangerous job because in this particular area there is conflict between the white company officials and traders and the natives.

Marlow hears strange stories of a European trader called Kurtz who is in charge of the most distant trading post, and he is keen to meet him. The situation appears even more dangerous as Marlow’s ship approaches Kurtz’s trading station.

Towards the evening of the second day, we judged ourselves about eight miles from Kurtz’s station. I wanted to push on; but the manager looked grave, and told me the navigation up there was so dangerous that it would be advisable, the sun being very low already, to wait where we were till the next morning. Moreover, he pointed out that if the warning to approach cautiously (line 5) were to be followed, we must approach in daylight not at dusk, or in the dark. This was sensible enough. Eight miles meant nearly three hours’ steaming for us, and I could also see suspicious ripples at the upper end of the reach. Nevertheless, I was annoyed beyond expression at the delay, and most unreasonably, too, since one night more could not matter much after so many months.

As we had plenty of wood and caution was the word, I brought up in the middle of the stream. The reach was narrow, straight, with high sides like a railway cutting. The dusk came gliding into it long before the sun had set. The current ran smooth and swift, but a dumb immobility sat on the banks. The living trees, lashed together by the creepers and every living bush of the undergrowth, might have been changed into stone, even to the slenderest twig, to the lightest leaf.

It was not sleep – it seemed unnatural, like a state of trance. Not the faintest sound of any kind could be heard. You looked on amazed, and began to suspect yourself of being deaf – then the night came suddenly and struck you blind as well. About three in the morning some large fish leaped, and the loud splash made me jump as though a gun had been fired.

When the sun rose there was a white fog, very warm and clammy, and more blinding than the night. It did not shift or drive; it was just there, standing all round you like something solid. At eight or nine, perhaps, it lifted as a shutter lifts. We had a glimpse of the towering multitude of trees, of the immense matted jungle, with the blazing little ball of the sun hanging over it – all perfectly still – and then the white shutter came down again, smoothly, as if sliding in greased grooves. I ordered the chain, which we had begun to heave in, to be paid out again. Before it stopped running with a muffled rattle, a cry, a very loud cry, as of infinite desolation, soared slowly in the opaque air. It ceased.

. . . . .

The sheer unexpectedness of it made my hair stir under my cap. I don’t know how it struck the others: to me, it seemed as though the mist itself had screamed.

. . . . .

What we could see was just the steamer we were on, her outlines blurred as though she had been on the point of dissolving, and a misty strip of water, perhaps two feet broad, around her – and that was all. The rest of the world was nowhere, as far as our eyes and ears were concerned. Just nowhere. Gone, disappeared; swept off without leaving a whisper or a shadow behind.

Answer these questions 

Q 1: Why is Marlow, the narrator, keen to continue the journey?

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Q 2: Why does the manager think it would be dangerous to continue immediately?

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Q 3: Who do you think gave ‘the warning to approach cautiously’(line 5)?

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Q 4: What are the possible dangers? What might Marlow be afraid of, when he mentions the ‘suspicious ripples’?

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Q 5: Why do they need ‘plenty of wood’?

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Q 6: Where do they decide to spend the night?

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Q 7: What is unpleasant about the scenery around them?

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Q 8: What is the weather like in the morning?

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Q 9: What happens as the anchor chain is being let down into the water?

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Q 10: What is so horrifying about the cry they hear?

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Q 11: How does the thick fog make the people on the boat feel?

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