Heart of Darkness Fear Quotes

Thought: Marlow begins feeling nervous about his trip right after he signs his papers. The two knitting women increase his anxiety by gazing at him and all the other sailors with knowing unconcern. Their eerie looks suggest that they know what will happen (the men dying), yet don’t care. This is the first time Marlow feels as if his trip might be ill-omened, but he quickly shakes it off.

Thought: Here, Marlow’s earlier sense of unease deepens. He feels inexplicably that he is an imposter on this journey. Instead of taking this trip in stride – as he is accustomed to doing – he feels suddenly a stab of nervous anticipation, as if he is headed on a perilous journey towards the center of the earth, from which he may not come back alive.

Thought: The pilgrims, sitting up fearful in bed, are ironically hearing only the wild celebration of their fellow men, not something frightful coming from the wilderness.

Thought: The manager and his uncle fear Kurtz for his ability to survive in the interior; therefore, they fear having to survive the interior themselves.

Thought: The manager and his uncle exemplify the constant fear induced by the wilderness.

Thought: Marlow lives in constant fear for the well-being of his steamboat, which is the pilgrims’ one means of survival. He learns a healthy respect and fear for his hostile and vengeful beast that is the wilderness.

Thought: The interior deprives men of their senses and drives them slowly into madness. Here, the eerie stillness of the wilderness and the darkness of night render the men both deaf and blind. Any noise – even the mundane splashing of leaping fish – startles them and makes them fear immediately for their lives. When daylight comes, the fog still blinds them, seeming even more sinister than the night.

Thought: The bloodcurdling cries of the native Africans, hiding somewhere in the underbrush on the riverbank, scare the men badly. Their fear is exacerbated by the former eerie silence and their inability to understand what is being communicated by the screeches. Though sensible Marlow does not panic, the pilgrims are either rendered speechless or run to grab their guns.

Thought: The pilgrims fear attack from the native Africans, who’ve just screamed somewhere beyond the blinding fog. Their fear is so potent that it has physical effects; their faces twitch involuntarily, their hands tremble, and their eyes watch the perimeter unblinkingly.

Thought: The pilgrims think their captain Marlow has gone mad with fear when he does something as mundane as giving a lecture while everyone else is freaking out from paranoia.

Thought: At the sight of his foreman dying at his feet, Marlow feels a stab of fear and a weird fascination with death that forces him to "make an effort to free my eyes from his gaze." After the Africans evoke his fear, Marlow returns the favor. He blows the steam whistle loudly and repeatedly, scaring the attacking Africans away.

Thought: Marlow has an irrational fear of touching the dead helmsman.

Thought: Marlow’s lack of fear at this horrifying discovery is telling. He has become jaded to the horrors of the interior.

Thought: Marlow is still clinging to his morals, if only by a thread. He is no longer horrified at the thought of living in a world where evil can exist openly. He is, however, scared badly by the thought of people (like the native Africans) openly worshipping evil – as symbolized by Kurtz.

Thought: Marlow is struck senseless with fear, an absolutely pure terror, at the realization that Kurtz is gone. He describes this as a "moral shock" that quickly subsides into a more rational and less bleak fear of commonplace danger. It is disconcerting that "commonplace, deadly dangers, the possibility of a sudden onslaught and massacre" are "positively welcome and composing."

Thought: The warrior woman is the only one of the native Africans who doesn’t fear the noise of the steam whistle. She doesn’t budge. Perhaps this is because she represents the wilderness, who does not fear the men, but is only amused by their antics.

Thought: Kurtz’s final judgment on his life, his actions, mankind in general, imperialism, or his fate is one of deep and profound fear.