He recounts that he first got the idea when, after returning from a six-year voyage through Asia, he came across a map of Africa in a London shop window, which reinvigorated his childhood fantasies about the вЂњblank spacesвЂќ on the map.Marlows sitting position and his state of mind suggests that he holds a state of enlightenment, or that he is changed in some way for having gone into the heart of darkness. The air is 'dark' and 'condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless.'This train of thought reminds Marlow of his sole experience as a вЂњfresh-water sailor,вЂќ when as a young man he captained a steamship going up the Congo River. In Part 1 of Heart of Darkness, what mood is created through the narrators description of the tide, river, and ships The Nellie is at rest because the men are waiting for the tide to turn and begin to ebb, which will enable them to easily sail out to sea.

A secretary takes him into the inner office for a cursory meeting with the head of the Company. The flood had made 2, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only Arriving at the CompanyвЂ™s offices, Marlow finds two sinister women there knitting black wool, one of whom admits him to a waiting room, where he looks at a map of Africa color-coded by colonial powers. The Nellie, a cruising yawl 1, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. Heart of Darkness: Chapter 1. Marlow notes that he never did find out what became of the hens.Heart of Darkness chapter 1. He was left there to die, and the superstitious natives immediately abandoned the village.

He has one white companion who falls ill and must be carried by the native bearers, who start to desert because of the added burden. Before boarding the French steamer that is to take him to Africa, Marlow has a brief but strange feeling about his journey: the feeling that he is setting off for the center of the earth.Marlow travels overland for two hundred miles with a caravan of sixty men. More important, the doctor tells Marlow, вЂњthe changes take place inside.вЂќThe doctor is interested in learning anything that may give Belgians an advantage in colonial situations.With all formalities completed, Marlow stops off to say goodbye to his aunt, who expresses her hope that he will aid in the civilization of savages during his service to the Company, вЂњweaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways.вЂќ Well aware that the Company operates for profit and not for the good of humanity, and bothered by his auntвЂ™s naГЇvetГ©, Marlow takes his leave of her. The doctor takes measurements of his skull, remarking that he unfortunately doesnвЂ™t get to see those men who make it back from Africa.

The manager tells Marlow that he took the boat out in a hurry to relieve the inner stations, especially the one belonging to Kurtz, who is rumored to be ill. Marlow soon meets with the general manager, who strikes him as an altogether average man who leads by inspiring an odd uneasiness in those around him and whose authority derives merely from his resistance to tropical disease. In light of what he later learns, Marlow suspects the damage to the steamer may have been intentional, to keep him from reaching Kurtz. The general manager of the Central Station had taken the boat out two days before under the charge of a volunteer skipper, and they had torn the bottom out on some rocks. Marlow finds that the steamer he was to command has sunk.

One of the natives is accused of causing the fire and is beaten severely he disappears into the forest after he recovers. One day during this time, a grass shed housing some trade goods burns down, and the native laborers dance delightedly as it burns. You would think they were praying to it.'Marlow sets to work dredging his ship out of the river and repairing it, which ends up taking three months.

They go outside, and the brickmaker tries to get himself into MarlowвЂ™s good gracesвЂ”and KurtzвЂ™s by proxy, since he believes Marlow is allied with Kurtz. He also reveals that he has seen confidential correspondence dealing with MarlowвЂ™s appointment, from which he has construed that Marlow is also a favorite of the administration. The brickmaker tells Marlow that Kurtz is a prodigy, sent as a special emissary of Western ideals by the CompanyвЂ™s directors and bound for quick advancement. Marlow notices an unusual painting on the wall, of a blindfolded woman with a lighted torch when he asks about it, the brickmaker reveals that it is KurtzвЂ™s work. Marlow realizes after a while that the brickmaker is pumping him for information about the intentions of the CompanyвЂ™s board of directors in Europe, about which, of course, Marlow knows nothing. He enters into conversation with the brickmaker after the manager leaves, and ends up accompanying the man back to his quarters, which are noticeably more luxurious than those of the other agents.

Instead, the Eldorado Exploring Expedition, a group of white men intent on вЂњtear treasure out of the bowels of the land,вЂќ arrives, led by the managerвЂ™s uncle, who spends his entire time at the station talking conspiratorially with his nephew. The rivets do not come, however. Marlow finds his foreman sitting on the deck of the ship and tells him that they will have rivets in three weeks, and they both dance around exuberantly. The brickmaker leaves him with a veiled threat on his life, but Marlow enjoys his obvious distress and confusion. Seeing an opportunity to use the brickmakerвЂ™s influence to his own ends, Marlow lets the man believe he really does have influence in Europe and tells him that he wants a quantity of rivets from the coast to repair his ship.

The narratorвЂ™s attitude is that these men promoted the glory of Great Britain, expanded knowledge of the globe, and contributed to the civilization and enlightenment of the rest of the planet.At the time Heart of Darkness was written, the British Empire was at its peak, and Britain controlled colonies and dependencies all over the planet. The narrator recounts the achievements of these explorers in a celebratory tone, calling them вЂњknight-errantsвЂќ of the sea, implying that such voyages served a sacred, higher purpose. The unanimity and anonymity of MarlowвЂ™s listeners combine to create the impression that they represent conventional perspectives and values of the British establishment.For the narrator and his fellow travelers, the Thames conjures up images of famous British explorers who have set out from that river on glorious voyages. Moreover, the narrator usually speaks in the first-person plural, describing what all four of MarlowвЂ™s listeners think and feel. The narrator who begins Heart of Darkness is unnamed, as are the other three listeners, who are identified only by their professional occupations. MarlowвЂ™s narrative is framed by another narrative, in which one of the listeners to MarlowвЂ™s story explains the circumstancesВ as Marlow tells it.

This is typical of Marlow as a storyteller: he narrates in an ironic tone, giving the impression that his audienceвЂ™s assumptions are wrong, but not presenting a clear alternative to those assumptions. Indeed, in ConradвЂ™s time, вЂњempireвЂќ was one of the central values of British subjects, the fundamental term through which Britain defined its identity and sense of purpose.From the moment Marlow opens his mouth, he sets himself apart from his fellow passengers by conjuring up a past in which Britain was not the heart of civilization but the savage вЂњend of the world.вЂќ Likewise, the Thames was not the source of glorious journeys outward but the ominous beginning of a journey inward, into the heart of the wilderness. The narrator expresses the mainstream belief that imperialism is a glorious and worthy enterprise. The main topic of Heart of Darkness is imperialism, a nationвЂ™s policy of exerting influence over other areas through military, political, and economic coercion.

Marlow suggests, in the first place, that participation in imperial enterprises degrades Europeans by removing them from the вЂњcivilizingвЂќ context of European society, while simultaneously tempting them into violent behavior because of the hostility and lawlessness of the environment. But the irony of MarlowвЂ™s story is not as pronounced as in a satire, and MarlowвЂ™s and ConradвЂ™s attitudes regarding imperialism are never entirely clear.From the way Marlow tells his story, it is clear that he is extremely critical of imperialism, but his reasons apparently have less to do with what imperialism does to colonized peoples than with what it does to Europeans.

Heart Of Darkness Chapter 1