heart of darkness theme and symbols

7/24/2019 Heart of Darkness Theme and Symbols

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0What do you think are the

themes in Heart of Darkness?


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Heart of DarknessThemes

Civilization vs. Savagery (Darkness in Man)

0 The book implies that civilizations are created by the setting oflaws and codes that encourage men to achieve higher standards. Itacts as a buffer to prevent men from reverting back to their darker

tendencies.

0 Civilization, however, must be learned.

0 London itself, in the book a symbol of enlightenment, was once "one ofthe darker places of the earth" before the Romans forced civilization

upon them.

0 While society seems to restrain these savage tendencies, it doesnot get rid of them.


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Civilization vs. Savagery - Darkness in Man (cont.)

0 The tendency to revert to savagery is seen in Kurtz. When Marlow meets

Kurtz, he finds a man that has totally thrown off the restraints of

civilization and has de-evolved into a primitive state.

0 Marlow and Kurtz are two opposite examples of the human condition.

Kurtz represents what every man will become if left to his own intrinsic

desires without a protective, civilized environment. Marlow represents

the civilized soul that has not been drawn back into savagery by a dark,

alienated jungle.


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Civilization vs. Savagery - Darkness in Man (cont.)

0 Every man has a heart of darkness that is usually drowned out by the

light of civilization. However, when removed from civilized society, the

raw evil within his soul will be unleashed.

0 The underlying theme of Heart of Darkness is that civilization is

superficial. The level of civilization is related to the physical and moral

environment they are presently in. It is a much less stable or permanent

state than society may think.


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Themes

Absurdity of Evil

0 Much of Heart of Darknessis concerned with Marlows struggle tomaintain his sense of morality as power conspiracies rage all aroundhim and the mysterious figure of Kurtz piques his curiosity.

0 Marlows desire to do good grows increasingly futile as he is plungedinto a world where no absolute goodness exists and the best he can do ischoose between a selection of nightmares. Eventually, we see that thecharacters become unable to distinguish between good and evil.

0 Conrad illustrates this moral ambiguity with light and darkness imagerythat often blends together, yet is imbued with an overall inevitablysinister shade.


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Themes0 Imperialism/Colonization (Belgian Company)

0 Cruelty of Man

0 Greed

0 Exploitation of People

0 Unlike most novels that focus on the evils of colonialism, Heart ofDarknesspays more attention to the damage that colonization doesto the souls of white colonizers than it does to the physical death anddevastation unleashed on the black natives.

0 Madness is closely linked to imperialism in this book. Africa isresponsible for mental disintegration as well as physical illness.

0 When one becomes so far removed from societys morals andrestrictions, good and evil become relative terms. When these moralboundaries begin fading, Conrad suggests, man loses the sense ofwhere he stands in the great moral struggle.


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Themes

Theme of Power

0 Many of Marlows crew have ambitions of moving up the corporate

ladder of the Company. Insatiable greed for wealth and power defines

their characters. This greed quickly demolishes any sense of morality

they may hold and we find a handful of them attempting to get in

Marlows good graces for the sake of his aunts influences.

0 Kurtzs ambitions do not stop at merely moving up in the Company; he

desires to prove himself superior to all Africans. Even Marlow is sucked

in; he tries obsessively to get as close to Kurtz as he can both

physically and emotionally. Marlow proves as attracted to power as anyof his corrupt colleagues.


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0List and describe some of the

symbols in Heart of Darkness.


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Symbols

Fog

0 Fog is a consequence of darkness.

0 Fog not only obscures but distorts: it gives one just enoughinformation to begin making decisions but no way to judge

the accuracy of that information, which often ends up being

wrong.

0 Marlows steamer is caught in the fog, meaning that he has

no idea where hes going and no idea whether peril or open

water lies ahead.


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Symbols

Women

0 Both Marlow and Kurtz see women as symbolizing decency andpurity. Women represent the potential for goodness in allhumans, which is important to both men after having seen the

heart of darkness and evil.

0 Marlow frequently claims that women are the keepers of naveillusions; which is a crucial role, as these nave illusions are at theroot of the social fictions that justify economic enterprise andcolonial expansion.

0 Women are the beneficiaries of much of the resulting wealth, andthey become objects upon which men can display their ownsuccess and status.


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Symbols

The knitting women:

0 The two women Marlow encounters when he arrives at

the offices of the Company represent the mythological

Fates who spin, measure, and cut the thread of life. It is

in the offices of the Company that Marlows life is being

measured out as he begins his journey into the heart of

Africa.


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Symbols

Kurtzs painting:

0 The image in the painting resembles the figure of

justice, but there seems to be very little justice in

Africa. This image could also be another representation

of Kurtzs idealized vision of women who must be kept

ignorant of the darkness that he sees in the world.


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Symbols

The accountant:

0 The Companys accountant is the physical manifestation of

the ethics of the company. What is important to theaccountant is that he defies his surroundings. His physical

appearance is elegant and pristine in an environment that is

filthy and chaotic. He goes on with his work no matter what

is happening around him, including people dying.


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Symbols

Ivory:

0 Ivory is the physical symbol of the greed and runaway

ambition of the Europeans. They are willing to do anything,

include sacrifice their own humanity, in pursuit of this

treasure.


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Symbols

The Whited Sepulcher

0 The whited sepulcher is Brussels, where the Companys headquarters arelocated.

0

A sepulcher implies death and confinement. Europe is the origin of thecolonial enterprises that bring death to white men and to their colonialsubjects; it is also governed by a set of reified social principles that bothenable cruelty, dehumanization, and evil and prohibit change.

0 The phrase comes from the Book of Matthew in the Bible, where it says thewhited sepulchers are objects which indeed appear beautiful outward, but

are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

0 Belgian colonies, particularly the Congo, were notorious for the violenceperpetuated against the natives.


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Symbols

The Congo River

0 The river resembles a snake, and the snake symbolizes the

idea of temptation and evil. The river leads Marlow and the

other Europeans into the heart of the continent where the

temptations prove to be too much for many of them.

0 Marlows struggles with the river as he travels upstream

toward Kurtz reflect his struggles to understand the

situation in which he has found himself. The ease withwhich he journeys back downstream, on the other hand,

mirrors his acquiescence to Kurtz and his choice of

nightmares.

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