Where It All Goes Down
Southeast Pacific Ocean
Conrad's descriptions of the setting in this book all point to one major theme: isolation.
From the very first paragraph, we realize that the narrator is far from home on a boat full of strangers. We get a keen sense of loneliness when he describes the area they're sailing through:
To the left a group of barren islets, suggesting ruins of stone walls, towers, and blockhouses, had its foundations set in a blue sea that itself looked solid, so still and stable did it lie below my feet. (1.1)
Later in the book, the setting goes from being a symbol of isolation to a symbol of danger, as the captain steers his ship dangerously close to a rocky island in order to set Leggatt free:
The black southern hill of Koh-ring seemed to hand right over the ship like a towering fragment of everlasting night. (2.174)
Instead of being an unfamiliar and far away place, the setting is now a scary abyss that's threatening to swallow up the narrator and his whole crew. Luckily for him, though, he steers away from it at the last second.