Heart of Darkness

Marlow, a seaman hired through his aunt's connections to command a river steamer in the Congo, witnesses decaying colonial settlements, dying laborers, and a Company consumed by greed. He learns of Mr. Kurtz, a brilliant trader at the Inner Station who has acquired more ivory than all others combined. After enduring a two-hundred-mile trek and months waiting for repairs to his wrecked steamer, Marlow journeys upriver to Kurtz, encountering dangerous wilderness and a deadly attack. At Kurtz's ruined station, he finds the trader corrupted beyond measure—his eloquent voice masking a hollow soul. Upon Kurtz's death with the cry "The horror! The horror!"—Marlow lies to Kurtz's grieving Intended, telling her Kurtz spoke her name last, preserving her beautiful illusion while exposing the true darkness beneath.