Heart Of Darkness By Joseph Conrad

In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Conrad reveals that there is corruptness within every person. This darkness envelops all characters in the Congo and is inescapable. Moreover, to depict man’s fate in the Congo, Conrad uses the symbol of the two knitting women. These women greet each man before he embarks on his journey, knowing the horrors the prospective adventurers will experience. The symbol of the two knitting women represents the darkness and decay that the voyagers will experience. The two “ominous” women are symbols for darkness because they make Marlow feel “uneasy” and “not quite right” (Conrad 55). Moreover, Marlow’s “troubled” (55) state is similar to the effect the Congo has on Marlow and everyone who travels into it. When Marlow is with the two knitting women, he believes he has been led into a “conspiracy,” saying that the pair of women know how “foolish” (55) Marlow is in his mistake. Furthermore, the women’s “placidity” gives Marlow an “eerie” feeling, allowing Marlow to realize that he is about to enter into an immense “darkness” (55). Due to Marlow’s agitated state, when around the two knitting women, the women are a symbol for the calamities Marlow will
Although the women never talk and only look up to “thr[ow]” glances of wisdom and to “scrutinize” the “cheery” men, the women represent how the mind darkens after returning from the Congo (55). The women are similar to the few men who come back from the Congo because they are “indifferent” and “uncanny” (55). Moreover, the pair of knitting ladies are “unconcerned” (55) because they know the horrors of the Congo, realizing the way it isolates men from society and creates a corruptness within their hearts. Because they are isolated from everyone around them and only sit and knit, the two women symbolize the emotional “death” (56) the adventurers experience when returning from the