*London

*London. Capital and largest city of Great Britain. The story opens with five men on a cruising yawl on the River Thames on a hazy evening at sundown. One of the men present is named Marlow. He is the only one of the men who is still active as a sailor or naval officer. Marlow begins telling a long story by remarking that the Thames has a dark history. He is referring to ancient times when the Romans first colonized England. At that time, London was an uncivilized place for the relatively sophisticated Romans to be entering.

*Brussels

*Brussels. Capital city of Belgium. Marlow tells a story concerning his voyage to the heart of the African continent. The company that has hired Marlow to fix a river steamer and become its captain is headquartered in Brussels. At the time of the story, the 1890’s, Belgium was a colonial power in control of a large portion of central Africa. Marlow must visit the company offices to obtain his commission and get orders concerning his new job. The people who work at the company headquarters treat him as though they do not expect him to return. The entire story Marlow tells shows that he has strong contempt for the way the Belgians have managed the country. He compares the city to a sepulcher—white on the outside but full of rotting bones.

*Congo River

*Congo River. Greatest waterway in Central Africa. Joseph Conrad never names these places by their proper names, but it is obvious from his descriptions of them and their place on the map of Africa that he is referring to Congo Free State and to the lengthy Congo River. Marlow also discusses the company’s lower station and a central station, analogous to Stanley Falls, far up the Congo River in the center of Africa. The trip that the steamer, captained by Marlow, makes up the Congo River to relieve Kurtz is eventful and dangerous both because of African attacks and because of tropical diseases. The journey into the heart of the dark rain forest is symbolic of the journey into the dark depths of the human soul.

Conrad employs various techniques to propel his narrative and infuse it with a parable-like quality, drawing universal experiences from specific events. The narrative frame technique, though not unique to Conrad and common in medieval storytelling by authors like Chaucer and Boccaccio, became a refined tool in his hands. This technique serves both to distance events from the narrator and to immerse the narrator within them. Often, Conrad's story is recounted by an unnamed narrator who identifies so closely with Marlow that their identities become almost indistinguishable. Typically, this anonymous narrator describes Marlow's recent experiences, such as a journey into the heart of Africa. However, Marlow's character is far more intricate than the anonymous narrator realizes, necessitating Marlow to narrate his distant past—an era unknown to the anonymous narrator. This interplay between the narrator's perception of Marlow's journey and Marlow's own recounting creates irony in both perspective and narrative voice.

Another key technique is Conrad's richly expressive and occasionally poetic language, along with his use of light and shadow, color, and chiaroscuro in vividly descriptive passages. This language accentuates the concrete details of observation and reveals a spectrum of emotions evoked in both the narrators and the reader. Moreover, his language not only provides a clear sense of physical setting but also subtly suggests the impact of the external landscape on the internal landscape, articulated through a carefully crafted polyphonic counterpoint.

Conrad employs various techniques to propel his narrative and give it a universal quality, much like a parable, derived from specific experiences. The narrative frame technique, common in the medieval storytelling of poets like Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio, is transformed in Conrad's hands into a tool that allows the narrator to remain a detached observer of events he has witnessed. In many of Conrad's works, including Heart of Darkness, the story is told by an anonymous narrator who closely identifies with Marlow, to the point where their identities blend. The anonymous narrator recounts events from Marlow's recent past, but Marlow must narrate his distant past—a complex psychological landscape unknown to the anonymous narrator. This interplay between the narrator’s perspective on Marlow's journey and Marlow's own account creates irony in both point of view and narrative voice. Conrad's evocative and sometimes poetic language, combined with his use of light and darkness, underscores his observational prowess and elicits a spectrum of emotions transferred from narrator to reader. Additionally, Conrad's language not only vividly depicts physical settings but also suggests the impact of the external environment on the inner landscape of the soul.

Heart of Darkness finds stylistic precedents in the tales of Chaucer and Boccaccio, and thematic precedents in the epic poetry of Virgil and Dante. Its bleak view of the universe is reminiscent of the novels of Thomas Hardy. Building on the tradition of the Victorian novel and the history of the British Empire, Conrad and his contemporaries began crafting adventure and travel stories set in exotic locales. By the time Conrad started writing, late Victorian authors like Robert Louis Stevenson, H. Rider Haggard, and Rudyard Kipling had already set their works in the South Seas, Africa, and India. In his portrayal of a protagonist who remains apart yet is still recognizable as "one of us," Conrad shares the Romantic spirit and anticipates the twentieth-century literature of alienation. His love of the sea, reflected in his tales, marks him as the literary heir of Homer, Victor Hugo, and Herman Melville.

The narrative begins with an unnamed storyteller aboard the cruising yawl Nellie, anchored on the Thames River in England. This narrator recounts Charlie Marlow's river journey in the Belgian Congo. Set in the late 19th century, the majority of the story unfolds at various outposts along the river, each bringing Marlow nearer to his target: the Belgian trader, Mr. Kurtz. At the conclusion, Marlow travels back to Brussels to visit Kurtz's fiancée. The setting of Heart of Darkness is almost indistinguishable from the novella's symbolic structure. The rich cultural details and natural symbols provided by the African landscape envelop Marlow, consume Kurtz, and illuminate Conrad's examination of human inner darkness.