Question: What is the significance of the Prologue in Heart of Darkness?
Ans. The Prologue or Introduction to Heart of Darkness opens with a first-person narrator, forming what is known in literature as a “boxed story.” This initial “I” prepares the ground for another “I”—Marlow—who later takes over the narration and tells the main story.
The scene is set in the evening on the River Thames, where the Nellie, a cruising yawl, lies at anchor. On board are five old friends, united by “the bond of the sea”: the Director of Companies, who is the captain and host; the Lawyer; the Accountant; Marlow, the principal narrator; and the unnamed first narrator, who speaks in the opening paragraph and the final sentence of the story.
Each of the men is presented in a characteristic posture: the Director gazes seaward, the Accountant plays at dominoes, and the Lawyer reclines on a rug. All of them—especially Marlow, who sits cross-legged like an idol of Buddha—are in a meditative mood as the sun sinks low, “as if about to go out.”
The first narrator evokes “the great spirit of the past” and recalls famous seamen of history such as Sir Francis Drake—“knights-errant of the sea”—who once sailed down the same river, the Thames, in search of gold or glory.
Conrad assigns the first-person point of view to both the outer narrator and Marlow. However, the first narrator remains peripheral to the story, despite some critics identifying him with Conrad himself. The second “I,” Marlow, is the central figure and the true narrator of the tale.
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