Literary Uses of Darkness in Heart Of Darkness Essay

In Heart of Darkness, darkness symbolizes many things. In the beginning of the book it represented the uncivilized, the uneducated and death. By the end of the book it represented the civilized and their true inner self, the evil side of a person.

In the beginning of this book the darkness symbolizes the uncivilized Africans. The Europeans say they want to civilize and educate the natives, but in reality the Europeans are keeping the natives under their control. To the Europeans the Africans are in darkness because natives are not civilized, but really the Europeans are the ones actually in darkness. They are in darkness because they want to civilize the Africans, when they are not even civil themselves, but actually greedy.

The Europeans see themselves as the Africans saviors. The manager says to his uncle each station should be like a beacon on the road towards better things, a centre for trade of course, but also for humanizing, improving, instructing, (pg 58). The manager truly believes that the colonizing of the Africans is good for them and they are the natives saviors. The Europeans think they are humanizing and improving the lives of the Africans, but in reality they are practically enslaving the Africans.

There is a lot of darkness imagery in this book. It starts out saying A haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth, (pg 15). That is pretty dark and gloomy description of the sun setting. Also the sun is setting which symbolizes the end of a chapter in someones life. Having the sun set which can mean that the unknown narrators life is going to change, which in the book it does, by the end he has a new perspective on life.

Another example of darkness imagery is when Marlow sees the two women knitting black wool when he first goes in for the job. Marlow describes them as guarding the door of Darkness, knitting black wool as for a warm pall, one introducing, introducing continuously to the unknown, the other scrutinizing the cheery and foolish faces with unconcerned old eyesMorituri te salutant, (pg 26). He is describing these two knitters as if they are the Fates in Greek mythology; two of the Fates were spinning the yarn and all three Fates decided your destiny. These to old women are doing this as they guard the door to the company. Then Marlow said Morituri te salutant which was the salute of the roman gladiator to their emperor. It means, those who are about to die salute you (131). This is one of the reasons that the darkness could symbolize death. These women definitely symbolize death and unhappiness.

Another instance of darkness imagery is when they are getting deeper in the Congo jungle they call it the heart of darkness. The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness, (pg 62). This quote is saying that the jungle is engulfing the steamer. The jungle represents the uncivilized and as you go deeper and deeper into the uncivilized the more likely youre going to become uncivilized, like Kurtz did. This is another reason why the Darkness can symbolize the uncivilized.

Marlow compares seeing the impenetrable darkness of Kurtz to a man lying at the bottom of a precipice where the sun never shines. He calls him this because Kurtz is slowly dieing on the boat on their way back out of the Congo and Kurtz as no chance of becoming civil and sane before he dies. He has become the darkness. Darkness in this instance is symbolizing the evilest side of a person because Kurtz has shown his evil uncivilized side toward the natives just to get ivory, and it also shows that every one has an evil side. Before Kurtz went to the Congo he was educated and nice and when he was leaving the Congo he was an evil, slightly crazy person. He had completely changed.

In the end of the book it says the offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness, (pg 124). This is the last sentence of the book; it is describing the view of the boat after Marlow finished his story. The unknown narrator is saying the world of the civilized person inner self is the darkness, not an uncivilized person or death. The river theyre on is near London, which before the story began the unknown narrator said was the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth, (pg 15). Then at the end he says that London and the ocean and the world is dark. The story definitely put a new perspective on this unknown narrator.

In the beginning of Heart of Darkness darkness represented death, the uneducated, and the uncivilized, but by the end it symbolized the civilized true selves, their dark side.

Source

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. London: Penguin Books, 1995. Print.