Although Marlow and Kurtz are surrounded by people, they are both affected by loneliness and alienation. For Marlow, the alienation begins while he is still in Europe. As he prepares to travel to Africa, the women in black never look him in the eyes. Instead they lead him wordlessly in and out of the director’s office as if he were already condemned to die.

Kurtz’s self-imposed isolation, signaled by his decision to return to the trading post rather than personally deliver the ivory, shows how much he has changed, almost as if he no longer belongs in Europe or around other white men. Marlow spends most of his time alone, working on the boat or attending to the highly engrossing task of navigating the treacherous Congo. His estrangement from what he might consider “normal” life in Europe impacts his emotional stability, especially when he throws his shoes off the steamboat after the helmsman is killed before his eyes.