--> ''The horror! The horror!''

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''Heart of Darkness'' is a novella by Creator/JosephConrad, originally published as a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899.

If you were looking for the, aside from the title, totally unrelated video game, you can find it [[VideoGame/HeartOfDarkness here]], or if you were looking for the videogame adaptation that changed not only the title but also all the teensy details but gets the soul of the thing completely right look no further than [[VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine here]]

It tells the story of Charles Marlow, a ferry captain on an expedition down the Congo. The objective as laid out by his employer is to pick up and return with the ivory harvests collected by each of outposts along the way, however Marlowe becomes at first curious about and eventually obsessed by a mysterious ivory agent/manager/demigod/demagogue called Kurtz, who has a strange influence over the natives. On the way, Marlow bears witness to the savage climate, the enslavement of natives by European imperialists, and the inherent evil of mankind. If the title didn't make it clear enough, this story isn't going to have a happy ending.

The novella went on to [[SpecOpsTheLine inspire]] or serve as [[Film/ApocalypseNow the base]] of [[Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod several]] [[FarCry other]] [[Literature/ThingsFallApart works]], and has long been held as an archetypal anti-colonialist novel for its harsh depictions of the exploitative "grab for Africa" policies operated by European powers. However despite any possible political messages it may or may not have had at the time of it's writing it's lasting appeal probably has more to do with it's exploration of a more universal loss of innocence and the realization of how generally shit everything is when you really look at it. Or in other terms it's really the blueprint for the ultimate feel bad story.
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!!''Heart of Darkness'' provides examples of:

* ApatheticCitizens: Overlaps with IgnoredEpiphany. After Marlow finishes talking about his [[FramingDevice journey to Africa]], one of the listeners responds with, "We have lost the first of the ebb." One of the most common interpretations of this line is that shows just how callous most people are to the brutality going on in Africa.
* ATeamFiring: One character describes a French attempt to quash rebellious locals. They used a warship to bombard open brush, regardless of the fact that they didn't even know of anyone hiding in it, basically shelling the continent itself.
* BaldOfEvil: Kurtz
* CharacterFilibuster: A seventy-page novella with sixty-four pages being pure, uninterrupted dialogue from Marlow. Justified though, since none of the others felt like talking at all during their gloomy trip, not even to interrupt Marlow, and might as well have been asleep. The format of the book is essentially him telling the story anyway.
* CirclesOfHell: The further up the river, and deeper into the heart of Africa that Marlow is, the darker it gets, culminating in the arrival at Kurtz's house.
* ClothingReflectsPersonality: Every single major person Marlowe encounters as he goes upriver has worse and worse clothing to reflect the increasing divisions from European society and civility. While the Chief Accountant at the outer station wears fancy and rich clothing, Kurtz is nearly naked.
* CompositeCharacter: Kurtz is inspired by several Europeans who "made their mark" on the Congo. The name is a take off on one in particular, George Antoine Klein ("kurz" is German for short; "klein" German for small).
* DarkestAfrica: The protagonist, Marlow, subverts the trope by telling his audience that "this also...has been one of the dark places of the earth" refering to Britain. The ancient Romans, he says, regarded Britain as a "savage" land where colonists had to be "men enough to face the darkness".
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The novella only has three characters that have names (Marlow, Kurtz, and a minor character called Fresleven). Others include the Narrator, the Accountant, the Manager, the Director, the Director's Uncle, the Pilot, Kurtz's Mistress, Kurtz's Intended, Marlow's Aunt, the Russian, etc.
* FamousLastWords: "The horror... the horror..."
* {{Foil}}: Kurtz is in the story for only a short time and there is little to to suggest his motivations or internal conflicts. However, his presence easily adds much more insight to Marlowe's character.
* ForScience: The attitude of the doctor who checks up on Marlow before his journey. He is a phrenologist, measuring Marlow's skull to determine his character, and to see how his skull (and thus, according to the theory, his personality) have changed.
* GoingNative
* GoneMadFromTheRevelation: Kurtz's reaction to the jungle definitely qualifies.
* HungryJungle
* IWillWaitForYou: Kurtz's fiancée. Presented as pathetic, because she has deluded herself about Kurtz to the point that she's barely functional as an independent person.
* ImAHumanitarian: The cannibals who aid the voyage. Despite this habit, they are portrayed as sensible and reserved compared to the European crew.
* InfallibleNarrator
* InformedAbility: Everyone who meets Kurtz can speak of him only in the most hyperbolic praise. He is a genius without equal, and has a mesmerizing presence that causes people to worship and adore him (see below). However, none of this is actually demonstrated to the reader, so you just have to take their word for it.
* {{Jerkass}}: The Director
* KillEmAll: Kurtz's last written suggestion: "Exterminate all the brutes!"
* MeaningfulName: Subverted. Kurtz (kurz is German for "short"), is described as nearly seven feet tall. His name also makes a pun on the English word "Cursed", and on the word "curt", meaning to be terse or brief (while Kurtz himself is renowned as a great speaker who can enthrall listeners for hours).
* MightyWhitey: Subverted... in spades.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Kurtz's last words hint that... if you completely ignore that the point was that he was saying the land itself was evil to justify his own actions.
* NoCelebretiesWereHarmed: Henry Morton Stanley might or might not be Kurtz.
* NoodleIncident: What exactly Kurtz did among the natives is only half hinted at.
-->But this must have been before his—let us say—nerves, went wrong, and caused him to preside at certain midnight dances ending with unspeakable rites, which—as far as I reluctantly gathered from what I heard at various times—were offered up to him—do you understand?—to Mr. Kurtz himself.
* OnlySaneMan: Marlow, though he's clearly disturbed by the end of the book.
* ThePowerOfLegacy: Marlow lies to Kurtz's fiancée when asked to recount Kurtz's last words.
* RiverOfInsanity: TropeCodifier.
* SceneryGorn / SceneryPorn: Marlow's descriptions of the jungle oscillate between the two.
* SendInTheSearchTeam
* StartOfDarkness: Marlow, who has claimed that he detests lies, lies to the Brickmaker to help Kurtz (whom he didn't even know), but then feels regret and realizes that he's not different from the 'Pilgrims'. At the end, however, he notices that nothing bad happened after he deceived Kurtz's fiancee, after all...
* SympathyForTheDevil: Marlow respects Kurtz even after seeing his misdeeds.
* TalkativeLoon: The Russian
* TitleDrop: "The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness." is one example. The "Heart of Darkness" comes up frequently throughout the book.
* [[TruthInTelevision Truth in Literature]]: As revealed by Adam Hochschild's ''King Leopold's Ghost'', colonialism in the Congo really was every bit as brutal as Conrad depicted it. If anything Conrad's vision of it might be a bit of an understatement, considering anywhere from five to ten million natives are estimated to have died in the Congo during the time period. See also CompositeCharacter above.
* {{Ubermensch}}: Kurtz
* UnreliableNarrator: Although is never stated explicitly in the novel, the framed narrative device suggests that Marlow could be lying.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: A core point of the book, which examines how humans react to separation from all the controls of society.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Kurtz is seemingly corrupted by the power he has over locals.
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: The 'rebels' executed by Kurz.
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