Symbolism In Heart Of Darkness

Darkness is everything that is unknown, primitive, evil, and impenetrable.  To Conrad, Africa is the very representation of darkness.  Marlow often uses the phrase, “We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness” (Conrad 68), to describe his progress on the Congo.  By traveling farther and farther down the Congo, Marlow and his crew get closer and closer to the epicenter of this foreboding darkness, to the black heart of evil.  Because of Africa’s physical immensity and thick jungles, it appeared to be a land of the unknown where “the silence . . . went home to one’s very heart—its mystery, its greatness, the amazing reality of its concealed life”(56). This portrayal of Africa as both a romantic frontier and a foreboding wilderness continues to dominate in the minds of Westerners even today.

One of the most reoccuring themes in the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, is the theme of race, more specifically, racism by the European and American characters towards the African characters. Critics of the book condemn Conrad as being racist, while others claim that it is just representative of the time period and that how Conrad depicted certain characters and groups within the novel was not uncommon during the time period that the book was written. Published in 1899, at that time it was not unusual for white people to have racist views towards people of other races. Whether or not Conrad was aware that some of the statements made in the book were racist and whether or not he actually intended for race to play as such a large

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.

Conrad, in Heart of Darkness, challenges the values of colonialism, but at the same time he conforms to the constraints of popular culture of the time in which he wrote. In this way, the extent to which he challenges mainstream ideas is limited in regards to the angles of his criticism. Conrad’s detailed descriptions of the Europeans in Heart of Darkness implicate his discontent towards colonial practices whilst certain references to the “black fellows” who reside in Africa show his opinions are influenced by his time, and thusly impact his acquired knowledge of what is politically correct or incorrect. Conrad challenges stereotypical

Joseph Conrad was quite the rebel in his day. The celebrated author not only wrote a novella, Heart of Darkness, which offered a condemnation of the imperial tendencies of European nations toward Africa; but he also dared to challenge the established symbolism norms of his predecessors, including Mary Shelley and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Conrad’s novella, set in Africa of the early twentieth

Throughout the novel, it shows the symbolism of how light is affected by darkness, which drives out darkness. For example, when Marlow’s aunt claims that her nephew is going to bring the “faith”, or in other words, civilize which in Marlow’s view is to educate the natives as he was suppose to do (Conrad 10). In all, through biblical allusions, Conrad displays the theme of people being a light in the darkness from the views of the white people at the

Conrad uses light as a symbol of civilization. Just as darkness is defined as the absence of light, the black jungle represents the absence of white man’s civilization - a civilization marked by corruption and evil. Conrad’s description of Brussels in part one is an example of how he uses detail to convey deeper meaning. “In a very few hours I arrived at a city that always made me think of a white sepulcher.” (953) It is significant that Conrad describes the building Marlow departs from as a white coffin, because the offices in that building are driven by greed and their job is sending men out to their almost certain deaths. The white men in the white town send sailors in search of their white prize, ivory. This cycle of evil begins and ends in this town. Describing the town as white is deceptive, because the town itself possesses an ominous feeling of death. This symbolizes the deception of all the sailors who come to this town in hopes of finding fortune and are sent to their deaths. Conrad makes it clear that this is a deception not found in the darkness of the jungle. When Marlow approaches dying slaves in the darkness of a shaded cove, he states: “They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now, - nothing but black

Conrad’s depictions of the African natives and the operations being carried out in the stations of the Congo seem to vary throughout the entirety of The Heart of Darkness. At times there are condemnatory statements made about the so called savages, while at other times, Marlow develops a friendship of sorts with his African helmsman. Ultimately though, Conrad’s portrayal of the ivory trade and overall imperialistic policies employed by European countries upon Africa is one of denouncement. This novella is written with an unmistakable denigration for the so called civilization mission and for the ill treatment of the natives. Far more superior technology paired with the sense of duty to spread civilization resulted in the abuse of the people

In the late 1800s, a Belgian king wanted to dabble in Imperialism and he choose the Congo, which sadly meant that all its resources were going to be sucked dry. The government in the Congo made no honest and practical effort to increase the knowledge of the Congolese people nor did they secure their welfare, which is what they promised (Williams). This is around the time the main character in the book Heart of Darkness, Marlow, went to Congo because of his obsession with Africa. As Marlow was going up Congo River and journeying to his final destination, he was disappointed with how things were operating due to the company’s inefficiency and brutality towards the slaves. As the story goes on you will notice the hardship that the natives of the

This scene sheds light on the aspects of Conrad’s style by using visual imagery, auditory imagery, repetition, and personification. As Marlow ventures into the jungle, Conrad uses visual and auditory imagery to describe the “gleam of fires,” “throb of drums,” and “the drone of weird incantations” of the forest, producing an eerie, sinister atmosphere and giving the impression of future forlorn events. In this scene, Conrad uses repetition to emphasize Kurtz’s loneliness as the “spell of the wilderness” surrounds him and how he separates himself from societal principles. In addition to

Heart of Darkness, a greatly revered piece of literature for its condemnation of imperialism written by Joseph Conrad, has a lot of symbolism throughout it. One of the most important symbols that is a recurring theme is the darkness and what it represents. For Kurtz, a character that gets carried away by greed, the darkness would represent all the unspoken deeds he was able to commit in the Congo without the eyes of civilization watching him.

From the start of the novel, Conrad foreshadows Marlow journey into the "heart of darkness" through the use of light and darkness. Marlow's journey to the Belgium company's office, where he encounters two women knitting black wool. The two women are commonly interpreted of representing two of the three fates of Ancient Greek mythology who spun, wove and cut thread to represent the birth, lifespan and death of mortals. This darkness used perhaps foreshadows the evil he will encounter, something that merely fate may decide. Marlow describes the place as the "city that always makes me think of a whited supulchre", and the "city of the dead", thus, white in this instance is used to represent the exploitation of the company and the true evil, which is hiding behind the façade of light and progress. Therefore Conrad uses the civilized white to represent the evil of the "dead city" and the search for the "precious trickle of ivory".

Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness is the story of a man who was sent into the depths of the African jungle to obtain ivory. On this quest the protagonist, Marlow, becomes aware of the oppression set forth by the European settlers in the African Congo. A major subject of dispute set forth in this book is the manner in which these social atrocities are described. Joseph Conrad’s descriptions of the African natives and the setting in which the story takes place have long been dismissed simply as usage of the racist language and ideals of the time. But there seems to be a deeper meaning in his usage of this language.

Tovah Popilsky Ms. DeCaporale Modern World Literature 1 September 2015 Lit Log: Heart of Darkness Throughout Heart of Darkness, Conrad uses the word “darkness” both as a symbol for the incivility and savageness of Africa and its natives, which provides a negative connotation towards the continent and heightens racial stereotypes, as well as to point out the negative situation caused by European colonization. Conrad continually equates “darkness” with the African peoples, which portrays the Africans as primitive and suggests that they need to be colonized by Europeans. Darkness is first introduced within the title of the novel, Heart of Darkness, which sets the theme of savagery, evil, and manipulation from the very beginning of the story.

In the book, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, all the characters are pulled into a well of black despair. Conrad uses the darkness of the situation contrasted to the light of society to show man’s dependence on western morals, and how when these morals are challenged by the darkness, the light crumbles under its newly weakened foundation. The contrast between light and dark is most stark in the themes of setting, the changes in Europeans as they drive farther into the Congo, and the white man’s collapse under the ultimate darkness of the Innermost Congo.