An overall sketch

1. Heart of Darkness
By
Joseph Conrad

2. JOSEPH CONRAD (3 DECEMBER 1857 – 3 AUGUST 1924)
Polish-British writer
MAJOR NOVELS
• Almayer's Folly (1895)
• The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' (1897)
• Heart of Darkness (1899)
• Lord Jim (1900)
• The Inheritors(1901)
• Typhoon (1902, begun 1899)
• Nostromo (1904)
• The Shadow Line (1917)
• The Arrow of Gold (1919)
• The Rover (1923)
• Suspense: A Napoleonic Novel (1925; unfinished, published posthumously)

3. HISTORICAL CONTEXT
• Imperialism and European conquest
• Discovery of Congo river in 1482
• Leopold II of Belgium ordered to explore river Congo
• English born American explorer Henry Morton Stanley
explored Congo river in 1878
• Matadi and Kinshasa
• Ivory Trade

4. Type : Novella
Genre : Symbolist, Colonial Literature, Adventure Tale
First published : As a serial in London’s Blackwood Magazine in 1899
Protagonist : Charlie Marlowe
Narrator : 2 narrators
(1) An anonymous passenger on a pleasure ship who listen
to Marlowe’s story.
(2) Marlowe, a middle aged captain

5. HEART OF DARKNESS
Setting: Opens on the Thames River outside London
where Marlow is telling the story that makes up
Heart of Darkness. The events of the story take
place in Brussels at the Company office and in the
Congo, a Belgian territory.
Time: Probably between 1876 and 1892

6. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TITLE
• Literally refers to the dark continent of Africa
• Conrad visited Congo in 1890-His experiences of interior regions
• Natives/Savages belongs to the heart of darkness
• Attack on the steamer shows their backwardness/savagery
• Civilized Kurtz has himself become a barbarian
• Exploration of Mind-human mind as a dark continent
• Marlow’s journey into mind

7. DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS
1. Marlow’s job and journey to Company Outer Station
and Central Station
2. Journey to Kurtz’ Inner Station and initial encounter with
Kurtz
3. Kurtz’ death and return of Marlow towards civilization

8. Nellie the pleasure ship
anchored at the mouth of the Thames
1. Starts with the conversation of 5 men on Nellie’s deck-The
Director of the company, Captain, Host, Accountant
Marlow, Unnamed Narrator
2. Marlow’s note on Romans as Conquerors and English as
Colonist
3. Marlow recounts his experience as a “fresh-water-sailor”-
As a captain of steamer up the Congo river, replacing
Fresleven, the captain recently killed by the natives
Part 1

9. PART 1
4. Marlow’s job in Belgian company that trades on Congo
river
5. Visit to company head quarters and medical check up-
parting with his aunt
6. French War-ship
7. Reached Outer Station
8. Met Station Accountant and stayed 10 days
PART 1

10. PART 1
9. Marlowe’s journey towards Central station “grove of
death”
10. Station manager- boat repairing , a hut on fire.
11. Meeting brick marker- Painting of a woman with a
torch.
12. Eldorado exploration expedition

11. PART 2 HEART OF DARKNESS
1. Manager as a symbol of inhumanity
2. Kurtz isolation and delay in ivory procurement
3. Marlow’s journey to Kurtz station
4. Visit of a strange hut and notes and signature(not Kurtz’)
5. Boat in fog and under attack – the Helmsman’s death
6. Meeting Russian trader.

12. PART 3 HEART OF DARKNSS
1. Russian traders description of Kurtz
2. Kurtz as a symbol
3. Natives arrival in the evening , Kurtz unwilling return
4. Natives protest and rapid journey in return
5. Kurtz death “the horror , the horror!”
6. Last words , his fiancé name

13. MAJOR THEMES
Imperialism
Colonization
Exploitation
Racial Discrimination
Moral Corruption
Existentialism

14. THANK YOU
Prepared by
Juby Joy C
Asst. Professor
PG Department of English
Ansar Women’s College
jubysooraj@gmail.com