Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

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The symbolic idea of light usually represents good while dark represents bad and evil. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness tells a story about a young man named Marlow and his job when transporting through the Congo. Through his journey, he meets Kurtz, a trader of ivory, whom he was very fascinated to meet for the reason that he had heard a lot about him. Light and darkness plays a major symbolic role in the Heart of Darkness.
The first section is described more as light by Marlow, however as the novel goes on the setting transitions to darkness. At the beginning Marlow describes the Thames River as a form of enlightment as “the water shown pacifically; the sky without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light; the very mist on the …show more content…
Dark represents the uncivilized, savagery, and cannibalism. Africa was considered the actual heart of darkness where the inner evil of people was brought out. There were actual cannibals who Marlow believed to eat human flesh on the boat. Marlow starts to lose civilization when he says ,“Fine fellows—cannibals—in their place. They were men one could work with, and I am grateful to them. And, after all, they did not eat each other before my face: they had brought along a provision of hippo-meat which went rotten, and made the mystery of the wilderness stink in my nostrils.” As the novel progressed, the men who from Europe who traveled to Africa displayed greed. The atmosphere in Africa was filled with gloom as Marlow described “―It was unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—the suspicion of their not being inhuman” (22). Marlow was affected by this new dark atmosphere that he began to feel grateful for those people. He described the cannibals as “Fine fellows”, showing that he had a decent level of respect for …show more content…
Kurtz, a worker of the true ivory country, was described as “a universal genius” (13). After being in isolation and horror, he began to decay physically and mentally. Marlow was also affected after meeting Kurtz because “he turned to the wilderness really, not to Mr. Kurtz, who, I was ready to admit, was a good as buried. And for a moment it seemed to me as if I also was buried in a vast grave full of unspeakable secrets. I felt an intolerable weight oppressing my breast, the smell of the damp of earth, the unseen presence of victorious corruption, the darkness of an impenetrable night” (55) This reflects the nature he was
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