Heart of Darkness centers on Marlow, an introspective sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, a reportedly idealistic man of great abilities. Marlow takes a job with the Company piloting a steamship in the Belgian Congo. Marlow encounters widespread idiocy and absurd inefficiency in the Company's stations. The native inhabitants of the region have been impressed into service for the Company, and they suffer terribly from overwork and ill treatment at …showed first 75 words of 641 total…

…showed last 75 words of 641 total…falls ill soon after and just barely pulls through. He returns to Europe and goes to see Kurtz's Intended. She is still in mourning, even though it has been over a year since Kurtz's death, and she praises him as a paragon of virtue and achievements. She asks what his last words were, but Marlow cannot bring himself to shatter her illusions with the truth. Instead, he tells her Kurtz's last word was her name.