Mournful Gloom

“Farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth.” (Conrad 1).

This quote, taken from the beginning of the story, as the crew is on the river Thames, is a reference to London and its greatness in the primary narrator’s eyes. This is a parallel reference, hence the “mournful gloom,” to how Marlow views European cities; dark and deceitful.