“We felt meditative, and fit for nothing but placid staring.”

Anchored on the Thames, waiting for the tide to turn, the passengers on the Nellie search for ways in which to pass the time. Their meditative state encourages Marlow to telling his story and sets the narrative structure as a story within a story. The narrator becomes akin to the audience, hearing Marlow’s story for the first time.

“The dreams of men, the seeds of commonwealths, the germs of empires.”

The narrator provides the audience with the proper context for Marlow’s story. They sit on the Thames, a symbolic representation of Great Britain, from which the naval arm of Britain’s empire set forth. Marlow, too, sets forth from Britain and becomes entangled in a tale of colonialism and empire. The story is reflective, ruminating on how the seeds of commonwealth are sewn and how the germs of empire infect the minds of those involved. The great ambitions of those involved clash with the harsh realities of the unconquered, foreign lands. Juxtaposed against the calm, meditative sunset on the Thames, these tales of Empire appear all the stranger and more Other.