Heart Of Darkness Imperialism

Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad explores our own morality, through the themes of racial equality and distribution of power, to name a few. Heart of Darkness tells the story of Marlow, an adventurer, travelling along the Congo River, fuelled by an obsession of successful ivory trader Kurtz. Conrad discovers issues of disparity in races, darkness within humanity and the hollowness of European civilisation using various literary techniques, such as symbolism, imagery and foreshadowing.

Conrad explores racial disparity, which causes the reader to question their own morality. Marlow’s journey demonstrates the perception of Africans by the Europeans, through slavery and discrimination. Before leaving to Congo, Marlow’s doctor asked “whether”
The story of Marlow is told on the River Thames, by one of his crew members. Symbolism is used to contrast the imperialism in England, with civilization in Congo. All the horror that happens in Africa could be partially to the fault of the Europeans, and also happens in a different sense in Europe. Through the narrator voice, as Marlow approaches the inner station of the river, it is told that he “penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness,” towards Kurtz (p.43). This symbolises the darkness in all humanity, as it could be considered that Marlow is journeying towards the dark heart of Africa. However it could also be considered that he is heading towards Kurtz, who has a heart of darkness due to the awful things that he does. So it exemplifies that all of humanity has a heart of darkness on an individual and a societal level. This encourages the reader to see that there is darkness in everybody, even if they do not believe
This is symbolised through the appeals of Kurtz, as well as Marlow’s surroundings. Marlow describes a “vast, artificial hole” that “someone had been digging” for no “purpose”, this symbolises European civilisation’s hopeless and hollow attempts of imperialism in Africa (p. 19). The purposeless hole was most likely dug by an African working for the Europeans, which shows that Europeans have blindly failed to bring light to a place of darkness, as they are dark themselves. At the central station, Marlow sees a painting by Kurtz of a “woman” who is “blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch”. This is not only a representation of Kurtz, but as European civilisation as a whole. The painting symbolises Europe attempting to bring light to Africa, but failing as they do so blindly. Without thinking about the current civilisation already in place in Africa, and making an arrogant assumption that Europeans have something to teach Africans, and that they are of a higher order. This is silenced through the death of Kurtz, who becomes crazy and cannot deal with Africa. Upon meeting Kurtz, Marlow is underwhelmed despite the “god-like” character that he was expected to be (p. 22). This is an ultimate showing of the corruption and hollowness of Europe, as Kurtz is described as weak and “bony” in his final moments, representing the failure of imposing Europe’s civilization as their corrupt ways taking ivory and