Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

The Russian, who nursed Kurtz through two illnesses, views his leader as a guru.  Marlow finds the Russian interesting and refreshingly free.  In fact, the Russian is the only white man in the jungle who is there to experience and learn rather than exploit and plunder.  While the Russian rambles on about Kurtz, Marlow notices that the decorations he had noticed when he docked his steamboat are actually dried heads of native rebels.  Following this dramatic scene, Marlow turns to find a group of men carrying Kurtz on a stretcher.  Kurtz bellows some words to the group of natives who have amassed near the river then lies back on his stretcher as the men carry him to Marlow's steamboat. 

With Kurtz on the boat, Marlow finally got his chance to speak face to face with the infamous man.  As Kurtz utters his first words to Marlow, "I am glad," natives again gather at the river's edge. An ethereal black woman emerges from the crowd and stands firm while the others scatter after the crew sound their horn to scare the natives.  The woman clearly has a strong connection to Kurtz and one assumes that she had, at one time, been his mistress.  A series of covert conversations follow the strange scene on shore.  First, Marlow hears Kurtz berate the manager for interfering with his plans at the station.  Next, the manager tries to turn Marlow against Kurtz.  Finally, the Russian asks Marlow to help him flee because he fears that the manager wants to kill him.  Marlow helps the Russian escape into the jungle and laments the corrupt and chaotic state of his situation.

Conrad follows the chaotic scene on the shore and the strange conversations on the steamboat with a nightmarish scene in the jungle.  Marlow follows Kurtz into the jungle where he has crawled toward a fire started by his vigilant followers.  Marlow describes Kurtz as a man who has "looked over the edge." This scene, however, is short-lived as Marlow skips ahead to the next day-his day of departure from Kurtz' station.

With Kurtz on board the steamboat "waiting for death," the steamer sets sail down river.  Kurtz' followers, including the beautiful woman, again gather on the shore.  The white men aboard the ship fire blindly into the crowd as they leave.  As the boat steams down the river, much faster than it had moved up river, a pall of death and quiet falls on the crewmen.  When the steamer breaks down again, Kurtz realizes that he has lost his last chance for survival.  Marlow sits at his side as Kurtz takes his final breaths.  Kurtz hands a package of personal documents to Marlow and, with his last gasps, he whispers, "The horror! The horror!"

Returning to London, tired and sick, Marlow guards Kurtz' package diligently.  Three people inquire about Marlow's package: a man claiming to be Kurtz' cousin, a journalist, and an agent for the company looking for insight into the areas explored by Kurtz while he was at the station.  Marlow give the journalist Kurtz' Suppression of Savage Customs report then decides to give the rest of the documents to Kurtz' "Intended" (his girlfriend or fiancé).  Face to face with Kurtz' Intended, Marlow finds himself lying about the man Kurtz had become.  Marlow finishes by telling the woman that Kurtz' last words were her name.  Marlow realizes that he lied to save the girl from the darkness that had consumed Kurtz.  With that, Marlow ends his story aboard the Nellie.  Bobbing about on the Thames, the narrator spies incoming clouds and remarks that even the river upon which they now sit flows "into the heart of immense darkness." Marlow and his fellow journeymen now realize that the heart of darkness lies within men.