Question: Comment on the setting of the novel, Heart of Darkness.
Ans. Heart of Darkness, a novel by Joseph Conrad, begins with the description of a cruising yawl, a sailing boat called the Nellie, anchored in the estuary of the River Thames. There are five men on board the sailing boat, which is waiting for the turn of the tide before setting sail down the river. The group of men includes the Director of Companies, the Lawyer, the Accountant, Marlow—“sitting cross-legged right aft”—and the first narrator, the “I” of the opening paragraph and the last sentence of the story.
Marlow’s telling of the story aboard the ship is appropriately suggestive of one of the main symbols of the book: his archetypal voyage of discovery. The Nellie is anchored on the Thames, “an interminable waterway,” which parallels the Congo River, the “snake” that tempts Marlow, in his Adam-like innocence, to embark on a journey that leads to self-knowledge. It is significant that the Nellie is at anchor, at rest—just as are its passengers, the five men linked by the “bond of the sea.”
Moreover, the timing—the flood-tide—is symbolically opportune for the voyage Marlow will undertake. His Buddha-like, cross-legged posture accentuates the deeply introspective and contemplative atmosphere, underscoring the novel’s focus on reflection, self-discovery, and the moral and psychological journey ahead.
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