The first chapter of Joseph Conrad's novella, Heart of Darkness, describes the beginnings of Marlow's harrowing tale of his travels in Africa. The story starts with an unnamed narrator, along with a few other seamen, awaiting the departure of their ship from London, listening to Marlow's story. Marlow describes how he accepted a position as captain of a Steamboat with "The Company" and traveled to Africa to take up his command. He sees some pretty strange things while he does this, like two ominous old ladies knitting with black yarn, and a warship firing at a completely empty coast. When he finally gets to the Outer Station, Marlow witnesses slaves trying to blow up a cliff to build a railroad and then encounters, in a grove of trees, a group of sick, emaciated, dying slaves. He attempts to give food to one of them, who dies right in front of Marlow.
He stays with an accountant for a time, where he first hears of the mysterious Mr. Kurtz. When Marlow finally departs and then arrives at the Central Station, he discovers that the steamboat he was destined to command has sunk, so he is once again stuck. Awaiting repairs, he meets the extremely irritating manager of the station, who says he wishes to become a manager within the Company and also that he heard Mr. Kurtz was sick. Marlow later meets a nosy, ambitious, and mysterious brick maker (who doesn't actually make bricks), who wants Marlow to help him climb the ladder in the Company. Marlow zones out and thinks about the repairs needed for his steamboat. Soon after, a group called the Eldorado Exploring Expedition arrived, and Marlow despises the manager and his nephew.
The plot is difficult to follow at times, but it is connected by an underlying image of darkness and mystery that resurfaces periodically. For instance, the whole first scene, where Marlow is sitting on the boat before he begins his narrative, all of their surroundings are described in terms of haziness or fogginess, with everything being dim and unclear, setting up the tone and mood that will persist in the story for a while. When Marlow goes to sign for his command, he sees two old ladies "guarding the door of Darkness, knitting black wool," (Conrad, 26), and this, justifiably, freaks him out, for these old ladies are clear symbols of the Greek fates, weavers of mens' fates and, when the time comes, cutters of the threads of life for each person.
What does this dark imagery do for the story though? For one, the mystery, lack of clarity, and supposed "evilness" that the darkness represents could be employed in order to parallel the "savagery" Marlow experiences in the deep, dark, "uncivilized" Africa. On the other hand, it epitomizes the classic struggle between good and evil. Many times, there are images of darkness overcoming light, like the sun setting, but this doesn't necessarily mean Conrad is pessimistic. In fact, many times, images of light to contrast images of darkness aren't present, and instead there are only images of fog, mist, and grayness, in between light and dark, obscuring the border between the "good" and the "evil" in the story.
