Light and Darkness in Conrads Heart of Darkness

From the beginning of the novella it appears as if everything is covered in darkness. In most examples however, this darkness appears to be metaphorical rather than literal, giving the impression that rather than Conrad using it primarily to describe the imagery, he also may be using it to connote other ideas to the reader. Conrad’s novella is allegorical of the Dark Age in which it was written as the novella was published in the 19^th century when Africa was known as ‘the dark continent’. The context of this is 1807 when the act for the abolition of the slave trade was brought into England, although I believe that the book looks at the darkness of the Europeans' cruel treatment of the natives.  

The novella begins then returns to darkness. Before Marlow has even begun to speak, the sun is setting and dark clouds hang over them. This automatic use of darkness gives the audience the idea that it is not an optimistic novel, that darkness frames the narrative. In fact, it appears that all three countries described (Africa, England and Brussels) are connoted as dark and somewhat depressed even when the sun is shining.

Weather conditions in Heart of Darkness seem to be used to create a dark unsafe feel. Fog is an outcome to darkness. It is not only used to show darkness, but also to give the characters and also the story a kind of distort feeling: when Marlow’s steamer is caught in the fog, although he is not lost, the fog gives him a lack of direction. He can only see so far ahead of him therefore he must make assumptions as to whether or not he is safe even though has no idea on what is further ahead. The assumptions made in this book usually end up wrong as in this example, once the fog has cleared, his steamer is surrounded by the natives who fire at him.

Staying still with the jungle, when Marlow sailed through, it was extremely dark and sinister, the manager's uncle described the jungle as a "profound darkness", Marlow then describes his ships as voyaging deeply into the "heart of darkness." Implying that the overall darkness in the novel centres around the jungle.

Again looking at the way that darkness is automatically introduced at the beginning of the novel, Marlow speaks of how he was thinking about the years when the Romans were on the Thames. The end of the Romans again links to darkness; the collapse of the Roman Empire was known as the Dark Age. He links this back to how London was a large, popular, wealthy empire at this time yet was still a dark place which I believe could link to Kurtz, as he was wealthy due to the ivory, and his popularity was shown though his native follows, yet people thought he was mad, and his life was quite dark; he’s left everything he’d known and was left with a large amount of hatred in his life. I believe that also the Romans success at conquering the savage Britons is equivalent in the book to the Belgians conquering the savage Africans.

Both Kurtz and Marlow experience a drift between life and death, Kurtz however doesn’t come past this stage. Death therefore is important to the theme of darkness in the novel. Although Kurtz’s last words “the horror, the horror” appear to be unexpectedly meaningful, they are totally empty due to the vagueness. They could, however be read as his acknowledgement of his misguided life or a depiction of his inner darkness; he expresses himself before he dies although the context of them is not explained therefore they resist interpretation. Death and the darkness in the novel join, when Marlow blows out the candle he had brought in as Kurtz is dying and night falls around the ship. Death is also used in the novel when he visits the grove where the men are dying. Marlow, in this part of the book, is the light as although he is not particularly tender, he offers them all biscuit in want to help.

My conclusion is that in the novel there appears to be a real lack of light. As if the darkness in the novel is too strong for any light to come through. The novels context parallels the time in which it was written looking at the abolition of the slave trade and also as African as ‘the dark continent’ but also uses history for comparison through the use of the Roman empire at the beginning. I have also noticed how dark appears more in the novel metaphorically than literally connoting the mood of characters and the time. Like Freud, Conrad’s interests are in the soul, it is for this reason that I believe he decided to show in the novella, the deep darkness within every human being for committing scandalous acts of evil.