Where is the "heart of darkness" located, symbolically and actually?

The "heart of darkness" can be understood to represent many things. Your interest in the "location" of this phenomenon, whatever it is, is fascinating. In a literal sense, the events of the story happen in the Belgian Congo, on the Congo River. ( is an excellent overview of the geographic and historical context for the story).

However, if we understand the phrase "heart of darkness" in a symbolic sense, then the "location" of...

The "heart of darkness" can be understood to represent many things. Your interest in the "location" of this phenomenon, whatever it is, is fascinating. In a literal sense, the events of the story happen in the Belgian Congo, on the Congo River. ( is an excellent overview of the geographic and historical context for the story).

However, if we understand the phrase "heart of darkness" in a symbolic sense, then the "location" of it can be thought of as in the hearts of men, I suppose, or as somehow permeating all existence. The story opens on the Thames, in England, with Marlow aboard ship telling his story to his companions. Marlow's comment about how even London "has been one of the dark places of the earth" suggests that the savage spirit of the world (if that is what we are to understand by Marlow's remark about "facination of the abomination"—"all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men”) is everywhere, even the most civilized city, if you scratch the surface. The world of "straightforward facts" that is, finally, powerless in the face of indifferent nature; the ineffectiveness of man, his descent into savagery while believing himself to be bringing civilization, is represented by the French warship pointlessly firing into the bush: "Pop, would go one of the eight-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech—and nothing happened. Nothing could happen." The bombardment is irrelevant because there is "nothing," in the sense of a rational target, to fire at. You can't kill reality, Conrad seems to suggest.