Contradicting Symbolism in Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"

But if one accepts the title as meaning, in essence, "the heart which has the quality of being dark," one has to consider the associations of "darkness." Though darkness ordinarily connotes evil, Conrad brings still more ambiguities about light and dark into the mix as the novel progresses. Ivory, a constant presence in the novel, gains associations with the horrors of European colonialism and human materialism. The whiteness of ivory, therefore, cannot denote the positive, pure associations normally used by writers. Most critics believe "the story is set in light and dark polarities" (Ong 61), but clearly, there is vagueness and ambiguity throughout the novel. If one attempts to answer any such questions, still more arise. Watts validly concludes that the title offers "a certain disturbing mysteriousness through the immediate possibility of alternative glosses" (55).

Notably, Douglass appeals to his audience’s humane side when he claims that one of his masters, Mr. Severe, “was rightly named: he was a cruel man”, and that “I (Douglass) have seen him whip a woman, causing the blood to run half an hour at the time” (11). The imagery of a defenseless woman being mercilessly attacked is effective in invoking both sadness and anger at Mr. Severe and the slave industry. Further on, he makes an appeal to his audience’s personal values, and, when discussing how slaves were handled upon unknowingly criticizing their masters, mentions that “The poor man was then informed by his overseer that, for having found fault with his master, he was now to be sold to a Georgia trader. He was immediately chained and handcuffed. snatched away, and forever sundered, from his family and friends” (17).

Abby Slate Weatherall 2 English IV 15 October, 2014 Heart of Darkness Contrast Journal Throughout Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad uses contrasting ideas to create a deeper meaning and develop his personal ideas and feelings on civility and savagery. Such as when he contrasts light and dark, or the Thames and Congo, Conrad reinforces his differentiation between savagery and civility, helping to further the novel as a whole. Joseph Conrad begins by using symbolic elements to explain his contrasting beliefs on savagery and civility. In order to do so, Conrad involves the contrast of dark and light.

Straightaway, Douglass points out his new master’s, Thomas Auld, harsh treatment of his slaves. Auld consistently fails to feed his slaves enough food which Douglass describes as, “...most aggravated development of meanness even among slaveholders.”

Their complexions, differing so much from ours, their long hair and the language they spoke, which was different from any I had ever heard, united to confirm me in this belief. Indeed, such were the horrors of my views and fears at the moment, that if ten thousand worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with them all to have exchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave of my own country. When I looked around the ship and saw a large furnace of copper boiling, and a multitude of black people of every description

They weren't 'dark' until the coming of the 'light'. The reader is presented with conflicting and complex meanings, and is affected accordingly. They become sympathetic toward the natives, despite the fact that they are supposed to be evil and uncivilized. Similarly, the metaphor of light representing the white man's nature of civility and goodness is flawed. The white man is civilized, but is that really a good thing? The reader can see that although the white men are civilized, they are brutes that are interested only in capital gain. The ivory that they hoard is white too. Again, the contradictory nature of these metaphors produces interesting effects on the reader. They pity that which is dark, which is only in darkness because of the light. They pity that which they are not really supposed to pity, and they are being asked to all throughout the text. It can be seen then, that the darkness and lightness as metaphors in regards to the natives and the white men, creates effects for the reader that are only strengthened, as they get further through the text.

In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the imperialism of Africa is described. Conrad tells the story of the cruel treatment of the natives and of the imperialism of the Congo region through the perspective of the main character, Marlow. Throughout the novel, Marlow describes how the Europeans continuously bestow poor treatment to the native people by enslaving them in their own territory. Analyzing the story with the New Criticism lens, it is evident that Conrad incorporates numerous literary devices in Heart of Darkness, including similes, imagery, personification, and antitheses to describe and exemplify the main idea of cruel imperialism in Africa discussed throughout the novella.

A famous criticism of Conrad’s novella is called An Image of Africa, which was written by an African native named Chinua Achebe. In Achebe’s criticisms of Heart of Darkness, he points out the difference between descriptions of the European woman and the African woman, who was Kurtz’s mistress. The narrator describes the European woman as being calm and mature, and the African woman as being “savage” (341 Norton). Even though many writers claim that Marlow is kind to the Africans by bringing light to their situation, the real problem does not lie in his description of their situations, but his descriptions of the people themselves (30 Heart of darkness Interpretations).

Tom Weylin’s sexual assaults on his female slave Tess and selling out her children reflects the miseries of the helpless blacks at the hands of the white population. Though Tess has lost her children, yet she has to comply with the orders and wishes of her white master. (The Fight, X) In addition, Weylin’s consistent whipping on Dana, Tess and Alice also reveals the existence of butchery and domestic violence by the whites. Particularly stripping of the Black women and beating them brutally serve as the black mar on the very face of the white community. (The Fight, XIII) History is also replete with the examples of butchery and cruelties inflicted upon the Black slaves in the USA, northern and central Europe, Russia, Turkey (the Ottoman Empire) and other parts of the world, where sexual exploitations, whipping and torture were the orders of the day. Hence, Butler has portrayed the exact picture of the situation prevailed in the olden past in her novel.

“My first master’s name was Anthony. I do not remember his first name. He was generally called Captain Anthony—a title which, I presume, he acquired by sailing a craft on the Chesapeake Bay. He was not considered a rich slaveholder. He owned two or three farms, and about thirty slaves. His farms and slaves were under the care of an overseer. The overseer’s name was Plummer. Mr. Plummer was a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer, and a savage monster. He always went armed with a cowskin and a heavy cudgel. I have known him to cut and slash the women’s heads so horribly, that even master would be enraged at his cruelty, and would threaten to whip him if he did not mind

Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness is both a dramatic tale of an arduous trek into the Belgian Congo at the turn of the twentieth century and a symbolic journey into the deepest recesses of human nature. On a literal level, through Marlow 's narration, Conrad provides a searing indictment of European colonial exploitation inflicted upon African natives. By employing several allegoric symbols this account depicts the futility of the European presence in Africa.

The true purpose of the book is to reveal to the European people that Africa is being raped by the ivory traders. Kurtz, the villainous ivory hunter, is portrayed in a captivating manner due to his eloquence. Kurtz is a representation of all European ivory traders, specifically Belgium, who journey to Africa in hopes of striking it rich. Europeans come to take the ivory, but while there, they destroy the land and kill the people. Marlow then meets an accountant after arriving at his post in Africa. The accountant seems to be a representation of the trading companies due to the fact that he is an accountant and dressed immaculately in all white. The trading companies just like the accountant only care about the money being made off of the ivory. The accountant is dressed so perfectly, however is corrupt on the inside.

     Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a story about a man named Marlow and his Journey into the African Congo. By reading the novel and understanding all the imagery Conrad has inserted, we can get a better understanding of the

Marlow tells a story of his first trip to Africa on a steamboat with a company that gathers ivory. The real adventure begins as he goes on a journey to the Congo to find a man known as Kurtz, who he has a weird obsession with upon hearing about him. Like the framing device of the novel, the idea of the Company and trading of ivory seems structured from an outside point of view. The Company appeases their journey by calling it “economic trade” and “civilization” for the savage. But through the journey, Marlow witnesses the cruelty of the Company. The structure’s underlying chaos and corruption gives rise to the hypocrisy of imperialism in the novel. The “economic trade” and “civilization” relates to the frame of the novel while Kurtz and the actual

    Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness portrays an image of Africa that is dark and inhuman.  Not only does he describe the actual, physical continent of Africa as "so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness" (Conrad 94), as though the continent could neither breed nor support any true human life, but he also manages to depict Africans as though they are not worthy of the respect commonly due to the white man.  At one point the main character, Marlow, describes one of the paths he follows: "Can't say I saw any road or any upkeep, unless the body of a middle-aged negro, with a bullet-hole in the forehead, upon which I