Standing out in the sea of black and darkness, Marlow notices a "bit of white thread from beyond the seas. . . round his black neck" (21). The stark contrast of the white on the black neck clearly shows the complete control that the White men have over them. The white, instead of symbolizing purity, represents the White men killing the Black men. The thread comes from "beyond the seas," from the Western civilization. The "civilized" men traveled across the seas to the Congo to try to teach them morals, when in reality, they impoverish and dehumanize the Black men for their ivory.
The company that Marlow works for kills elephants and digs up land in order to have the ivory of the elephants" tusks. The white ivory that they get also is a medium for death. Again, the white symbolizes death. In order to get what they need, the refined Western civilization commits inhumane acts of murder. .
As Marlow continues his journey into the inner station, the heart of the darkness, he notices a painting in one of the offices: ". . . a small sketch in oils a woman draped and blindfolded carrying a lighted torch. The background was sombre- almost black" (27). In this painting, the blindfolded woman, who represents blind justice, holds a lighted torch that should illuminate the area around her with justice and knowledge. Instead, the background of the painting remains black; the darkness conquers the light that she attempts to shine onto the world. .
The darkness and evil of Western society conquers the light and knowledge that justice attempts to impact on the world. Instead of darkness passively being the absence of knowledge, it actively shuns knowledge and the advancement of mankind. The morals that Western civilization claims to shine on the Congo, may even be the same as the darkness. Their knowledge is so corrupt that it blends in with the darkness which is the primitive and uneducated view of how to govern oneself.
