river as Like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world The jungle is thick silent and endless It feels like an enemy The river is twisting and full of danger Hippos and alligators rest on the banks Fog heat and silence surround the steamer This setting is more than physical It reflects fear mystery and the deep darkness in human hearts The Stations Marlow visits three stations the Outer Station the Central Station and the Inner Station Each one is a setting that shows a new face of imperialism At the Outer Station he sees starving Africans He describes Nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation He also sees a French warship firing at the forest without reason At the Central Station broken boats and chaos show greed and rivalry At the Inner Station Kurtz lives as a demi-god among the natives with skulls on stakes outside his hut These settings show how each step deeper into the Congo means stepping deeper into moral corruption and horror The settings of Heart of Darkness are not simple places The Thames connects past and present empires The Congo River becomes a symbol of mystery and fear The stations show cruelty greed and madness Through these settings Conrad reveals that the real heart of darkness is not just Africa but also inside human civilization itself