The air was dark above Gravesend..This is obviously a hyperbole for the situation, it may have been very cloudy but not completely dark since it was daytime. But the hidden meaning of this detail is revealed further on. The voyager, through is descriptions, unveils that he is very anxious and frightened about the trip and its destination, so the weather and the setting are actually just a metaphor for his emotions. In this case, the word dark just defines his feelings before setting sail.
The word dark also appears in another part of the first part of this book, when Marlow is describing the setting he sees upon arriving to Africa:
The edge of a colossal jungle, so dark-green as to almost be black.. (20)Marlow gets this description from the simple appearance of the jungle he sees, but we know that it is not only what he sees at plain sight that is obscure in that jungle. I believe Conrad is referring to the crushing darkness of the unknown, that once man sets himself into that territory, he is on his own and can do little to survive. The obscurity of the land will eat him up and not leave any trace of him. Also, he refers to the darkness of the acts committed inside that jungle, where the law of survival serves at its fullest extent and no limits are set up to where savages' and animals' actions are judged or punished by no one.
Finally, there is another use of darkness that captivates readers from the beginning: the title. What is the "heart of darkness"? What does it represent? At first, we believe it is just a simple allusion to the center of where people with dark complexion live, but we notice that darkness and the heart of it is much more than that in the first few pages. Readers can only imagine what is going to happen next, and if their issue on darkness will be resolved.
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