The Heart Of DarknessRemind yourself of the passage from the beginning of chapter 1 as far as "...under the stars", and discuss its effectiveness as an opening to the novel. In the course of your answer:

        Conrad then goes on to describe who is on the boat waiting for this tide to change. It is interesting that Conrad starts the story on a boat, as pretty much the entire novella takes place on boats and so this is quite a good introduction to getting the reader used to what a boat looks and feels like. “The Director of Companies” is said to be staring out to sea, however, his place was in the gloom behind him, presumably in London. This makes us wonder why he is on a boat being described as a “pilot” which is the epitome of trust to every sailor. The Lawyer is sitting on a rug and cushion because of his “many years and many virtues”. This I believe is basically saying that the Lawyer is of a considerable age compared to the rest and therefore some comfort is given to him rather than the wooden boards of the boat. The accountant is “toying architecturally with the bones”. This mention of bones is not something we’d normally associate with dominoes and gives us a sense of foreboding and thoughts of death which is a subtle way of laying down a recurring theme found within this novella. We are then introduced to the main character, who at this point we know not, in the form of Marlow. “He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion…” the colour of yellow could be linked to disease and the sunken cheeks seem to suggest a deathly face. These descriptions again emphasize the foreboding feelings Conrad planned for us to feel and suggest that what is to come is a story much of death and Africa, as a continent being known as a place of disease and pestilence. They are exchanging words “lazily” expressing again the mood of the time and how waiting for the tide to change has slowed everything down.

        As the sun goes down, Conrad describes it to be “stricken to death, by the touch of the gloom”. This again is hinting at death to come further into the book. The waters around the men also experience a change and become “less brilliant” than before. I can only imagine this to mean that the water no longer reflects the rays of the sun and therefore is less interesting, and instead becomes a plain blank, black lagoon of unknown depth. This could relate to Africa being the black unknown which Marlow is yet to journey into. Conrad tells us how the waters have memories of great explorers such as “Drake” and “Franklin”. These explorers could be a way of Conrad hinting to us that they remain memories and that the journey we are about to take, or the crew on this boat is about to take, is fated and they will become merely memories. He describes the explorers as “the germs of empires”. This interesting opinion shows us that Conrad resents the white men colonising Africa as they spread like germs, like a plague upon the earth, devouring cultures to change them to their own. If people didn’t change willingly then the white men saw an opportunity to make money by using them as cheap labour and so black slaves were born.