Light and Dark
Put away your yin-yang posters: in Heart of Darkness, light doesn't necessarily symbolize pure goodness or pure enlightenment. In fact, Conrad's vision is so dark that we're not even sure he fully...
Two Knitting Women
These aren't harmless old grannies knitting acrylic baby blankets by the fireside. Not at all. Check out the description of them:In the outer room the two women knitted black wool feverishly. Peopl...
Flies
This one's practically a freebie: flies have been symbolizing death ever since flies hung around dead bodies (so, forever). Slightly more recently than "forever"—but also a long time ago—the de...
Heads on Sticks
The heads-on-sticks symbolize Kurtz's excessive brutality and they're the final clue we need to decide that, yep, Kurtz is mad.The appearance of these heads-on-sticks is the graphic climax of the b...
Language
Like everything else in this novel, language is a mixed bag. On the one hand, Marlow sees Kurtz's eloquence as a redeeming feature—but it's also the reason he goes mad. In the end, he's "very lit...
The Accountant
When Marlow meets the accountant, he's stunned:I met a white man, in such an unexpected elegance of get-up that in the first moment I took him for a sort of vision. I saw a high starched collar, wh...
The Doctor
Before heading to Africa, Marlow has to visit a doctor. We only see the guy for a few minutes, but he gives us unpleasant feelings—and Marlow, too. he's not a symbol so much as an agent of foresh...
Kurtz's Painting
At the central station, Marlow sees a painting, "a woman, draped and blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch. The background was sombre—almost black. The movement of the woman was stately, and the...
God Imagery
In the "Character Analysis" for both Marlow and Kurtz we talked about how Conrad compares both men to gods. But it's not that simple. (We hope that doesn't come as a surprise.)So, let's try to unpa...