SparkNotes: Heart of Darkness: Plot Overview.
Summary Essay of Heart of Darkness: The novella opens with Charles Marlow being aboard a ship named Nellie, with his fellow sailors in the River Thames near Gravesend, England. Marlow begins narrating to his fellow narrators the events that led to his appointment as the captain of a steamboat for a Belgian ivory trading company.Like Kurtz, Marlow has seen the heart of darkness within all men. Conrad first published the story of Kurtz in 1899 as “The Heart of Darkness” for Blackwood’s Magazine, but he revised it heavily for inclusion in Youth: A Narrative, And Two Other Stories in 1902. The tale has influenced writers as different as T. S.Again and again, the image of blinding sunlight becomes entangled with the image of darkness: Both conditions hamper our ability to see things clearly. Powerless, ignorant, and tragic, the African mistress and the Intended belong to this large set of false dichotomies.
Summary Plot Overview Heart of Darkness centers around Marlow, an introspective sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, reputed to be an idealistic man of great abilities. Marlow takes a job as a riverboat captain with the Company, a Belgian concern organized to trade in the Congo.Heart of Darkness, novella by Joseph Conrad, first published in 1902 with the story “Youth” and thereafter published separately. The story, written at the height of the British empire, reflects the physical and psychological shock Conrad himself experienced in 1890 when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo.
Heart of Darkness is a story that centers on a key character; Charles Marlow. He is a sailor who travels to Congo to meet the highly regarded Kurtz. Kurtz is reputable in his administrative abilities (Conrad 161). He travels as the captain of a riverboat which is used by Belgian firm to trade in Congo.
