An overriding series of symbols in Heart of Darkness is the ongoing contrast of white and black, dark and light, and respectively holding representations of good and evil. Amongst most literature white/light relates to a civilized community and black/dark denotes savagery. However, Conrad often depicts many things usually associated with light to be dark in coincidence with the glittering light shed on dark images. Conrad illustrates the wrath of Europe, ?And this also has been one of the darkest

The start of the book is set on the River Thames in England in contrast to where the journey takes place on the River Congo. The river acts as the path in for the Europeans allowing them entry to the inner Africa with out having to cross it, and furthermore giving them an inside perspective while the white man still is separate.

"One evening coming in with a candle I was startled to hear him say a little tremulously, 'I am lying here in the dark waiting for death.' The light was within a foot of his eyes."(Conrad 111)

"The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz's life was running swiftly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time. ?. I saw the time approaching when I would be left alone of the party of 'unsound method.'"(Conrad 109)

Heart of Darkness overflows with symbolism and is by far one of the greatest novels of the twenty century. Conrad employs the literary tricks as he unwraps more than just the quest of a man and his trip through the Congo. Looking between the lines helps convey the true meaning in Heart of Darkness and enhance the reader?s enjoyment of the novel. Not to forget that Conrad closes the book with classic symbolism of Marlow in the lotus position closing his spiritual journey.

As the novella commences Marlow encounters huge buzzing flies that constantly pester and annoy him. Towards the close of Heart of Darkness he finds himself amidst a swarm of small flies. The diminishing size of the insects is a representation of

Some topics in this essay:
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