words carefully: "The earthseemed unearthly" (emphasis added). It's not that the earth is unearthly; it just seems that way. This part of the world, this heart of darkness, has distorted reality to such an extent that even something as natural as the ground beneath one's feet now seems alien and threatening.

A couple of sentences later, however, Marlow changes his tune—although the import of his remarks is much the same—and asserts that the earth is unearthly. It's clear that Marlow's perception of this harsh and unfeeling environment is changing rapidly, and not for the better. Increasingly, he feels that he doesn't belong here, a place which stands over against him threateningly like some kind of bloodthirsty monster.

This unnerving sensation completely reverses the relationship to the earth that Marlow and all the other colonialists have traditionally enjoyed. Once upon a time it was they who shackled the earth, they who controlled it for their own ends. But now that the reverse is true, it's no wonder that Marlow feels that the earth is unearthly.

If readers in Joseph Conrad’s time could have seen the earth from outer space, the phrase “the earth seemed unearthly” would have made perfect sense. From that view, our planet is a place of bright blues and greens, occasionally interrupted by white clouds spanning the sphere. Any darkness visible was off the horizon, not central to the action. That is how Marlow—and the west in general—viewed colonialism. Dark corners existed on the maps, but those needn’t concern the colonialists or their benevolent agendas. The dark corners also did not take away from the immense beauty of our earth.

According to Marlow, however, it was not the earth of his time, but an earlier version.

We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness. It was very quiet there. . . We were wanderers on a prehistoric earth, on an earth that wore the aspect of an unknown planet. We could have fancied ourselves the first of men taking possession of an accursed inheritance, to be subdued at the cost of profound anguish and of excessive toil.

The “cost of profound anguish” calls to mind the concepts of “the white man’s burden” and “noble savages,” mindsets predominant in Marlow’s era. Yes, they would succeed, they would receive the “accursed inheritance,” they would suffer from “excessive toil.” But such was the price to pay for bearing the responsibilities of an Empire—Dutch, French, English, or, in this case, Belgian. So as the boat drited ever deeper into this prehistoric world, it’s easy to see why Marlow and others would eventually come to see it as “unearthly.” But what makes it most unearthly is not the river and its environs, but the people on its banks.

We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there—there you could look at a thing monstrous and free. It was unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—this suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly.

A heart of darkness indeed. In the end it’s not the earth that’s unearthly, it’s the inhuman humans. And not only are these men inhuman, not only is our “kinship with this wild and passionate uproar” remote, it’s also ugly. Marlow tries to deny the depth of his hatred, fear, and suspicion of the natives, but he ultimately fails. The earth is as lovely and mysterious as ever, whether viewed from space or not. However, Marlow’s—and Western Europe’s—real beliefs have been revealed. We have met the darkness, and it lives inside us.

The quote itself seems to be paradoxical because it is. Directly after this line, Marlow goes on to observe "We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there—there you could look at a thing monstrous and free." Marlow is observing the mental paradoxical phenomenon that occurs when someone is confronted with information that goes against a conditioned mindset.

As a member of the company, Marlow tends to associate the civilized world with light and the Congo with darkness. He is used to seeing a reality that is "conquered" and tame. He and other company members are no doubt uncomfortable in a world that seems to chaotically move like a free beast. It is important to note, however, that Marlow says that the earth "seems" unearthly, not that it is. In this way, he is beginning to understand the humanity around him and that his way of thinking is conditioned by the company.

As Marlow is traveling upriver to see Kurtz, he is very uncomfortable in his surroundings. They are foreign to him, even though they probably feel quite natural to the native population. He has 20 cannibals as his crew and the massive trees make Marlow feel very small. At this point he says, "the earth appeared unearthly". In other words, it was unnatural, eerie and ominous for Marlow. One must also remember that Marlow is recounting this story from memory and memories often are hazy. So Marlow focuses on his emotions, which he remembers better than the actual scenery. At this point, he is frightened and says even the men appeared monstrous. Marlow is truly out of his element and facing an unknown situation and thus nothing he remembers appears "real" because he is so unfamiliar with it.