The story opens with four men resting in various states of repose upon the deck of a ship near the mouth of the Thames River. One of the men begins to tell a story of his experiences as a steamboat pilot in Africa while it was still in the earliest stages of exploration and/or exploitation. The man's story begins with his obtaining a job for a very prestigious firm as a steamboat pilot in Africa ferrying ivory down the river. The man journeys to Africa and when he arrives he begins to hear of a wonderful man, a perfect example of western society, the perfect gentleman. He slowly becomes obsessed with meeting this man named Kurtz.

To be a member of society one must play by the rules. To be outside of society is to make up one's own rules and to become ostracized, and no matter how strong and independent the person, they, as a human, need a validation and some type of acknowledgment for their behavior. When this is taken away the person shall seek to find another group with another set of rules that they may follow and be rewarded with acceptance. This is exactly what happened to Kurtz, his western society was no longer around to validate his behavior and to approve, so he began to act as the natives, thus gaining acceptance and approval from their society.

When the pilot finally finds Kurtz and takes him aboard his ship, Kurtz is terminally ill. Within days Kurtz dies of some unknown disease. His last words to the pilot being, "the horror, the horror," this will for obvious reasons, haunt the pilot to the end of his days.

As the story progresses he encounters many different characters, that all represent some aspect of western "civilization" taken to the extreme to where the writers views upon the social characteristic become more evident. In the end, the pilot finds that the wonderful pillar of civilization, Kurtz, has fallen in among the natives and begun to participate in the exact behavior that western civilization finds abhorrent.

In the current society, the values and code of conduct that are "common" to all people, gain all of the said value from the firm belief of every other person in that society that those rules are "right" and "good." Once a person is removed

Some common words found in the essay are:
Thames River, Heart Darkness, western society, Joseph Conrad's, horror horror, heart darkness, steamboat pilot africa, western civilization, realized people, pilot africa, set rules, one's own, representation society, steamboat pilot,
Approximate Word count = 1061
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)