Title Heart of darkness

Heart and darkness are 2 constrasting terms,life and

death.Heart is associated with life and pulse and Darkness is
associated with death and obscurity.Marlow finds the utter
destruction(the slaves,the battle for ivory) instead of progress
they brought death.Darkness is associated with continent ,the
darkness of the continent Africa,a labyrinth full of
mysteries.Darkness associated with the unconscious.The
savages also had an heart but the Europeans couldnt see it.The
darkness in the title is the physical one but symbolically we
talk about the darkness of the soul.Another opposition is light
vs dark,civilization vs savage,white vs black ,city cs jungle.


Symbols in the heart of darkness.The main symbol of the novel
is the ivory ,it has double significance:distruction and
purity.Ivory is a symbol of purity ,it could be associated with
the symbol of power ,Power is related to Kurtz (he
degenerates).
JUNGLE-mud and water,the cradle of humanity,instinctual side
of man,the pure side of man,jungle could be associated with
evil ,demons ,chaos,brutality and darkness.

RIVER-is compared by marlow with a chrisis of identity ,he
followed the river(on the map) with his finger comparind it to a
snake.,the snake in the garden of eden.The river can be
linjked with the idea of knowledge,he gets to know more about
himself.



FOG-mistery,rain are another symbols which mean the
unconscious,degrees of mental states from the conscious to
the unconscious.


THE SYMBOL OF BRUSSELS:is taken from the bible,book of
Mathew(beautiful on the outside but full of death),the
connection is made with the beautiful city.




WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE JOURNEY:is a symbolical
one to acquire self knowledge.The journey is a means of
discovering himself.Marlow just takes this as a simple journey
in the jungle and he gets to find and know the truth ,the
darkness within himself.


MARLOWS HIDDING THE TRUTH:he lies in the end to protect
kurtss memory ,both to the official side and to kurtzs
fiance.Marlow was wondered by the mourning,kurtzs last
words were:the horror the horror ,be becomes of the things he
did.



THE STATUS OF THE WOMEN
Knitting women.The intended who is kurtzs fiance.the
mysterious woman in the jungle who was in fact kurtzs
mistres.Women in the novel should be out of it ,they do not
appear in the text ,they are just signs,acting like ones,they dont
have names.The knitting women may be associated with the
destiny,they are knitting the destiny of man.

COULD THE NOVEL BE CONSIDERED AS AN INVESTGATION OF
THE SELF?
The novel represents an investigation of the self .The woman
blind folded carrying a torch(not being able to be the one near
you).


Character of Kurtz
Double interpretation of Kurtz :an European one vs the jungle
one.He was venerated by the natives,is transformed into a
brute,He is a key for Marllow that comes to discover himself
though him.He is not a god as savagers believed but a dieing
man,destroyed by his greed.