Young Goodman Brown And Heart Of Darkness

3 Pages 646 Words

Joseph Conrad’s use of light and dark to represent good and evil in the Heart of Darkness helps in developing the theme and the plot of the novel. Conrad uses the symbol of light and darkness repetitively throughout the novel in order to disclose his insight to the reader. Conrad uses light and darkness when referring to the Thanes and
Congo Rivers, the skin color of the whites and blacks, and shadows.
Conrad’s use of light and dark is evident from the opening of the novel. The story opens on the calm Thanes River aboard the cruising yawl called the Nellie. All is calm on the water as the lights of London twinkle around the boat. The Thanes River, which is seen as calm, ‘civil’ and bright, is an obvious contrast to the Congo River that Marlow navigates in Africa. The Congo is full of darkness and fractiousness. Ironically, the bright Thane is described similarly to the dark Congo. In the closing lines of the novel, the Thanes seem to be flowing into the heart of an immense darkness. However, during the closing of the novel, in which the startling cruelty of the Europeans is divulged, the narrator describes the Thanes as strikingly different: immensely dark. Through the use of lightness and darkness Conrad suggests that regardless of where the white man exists, in civilized London or deepest Africa, he seems to bring darkness and cruelty to his fellow man.
Conrad uses light and darkness in context of the color of skin of the whites and blacks, as well as the corresponding good and evil of their hearts. In contrast to the greed and cruelty of the white men in Africa, who greedily and recklessly seize ivory at the cost of a human life, Conrad depicts the black natives as having more self-control. The Manager is starving the cannibals on board Marlow's steamer to death, and although they eagerly eye the body of the dead Helmsman and also the physique of the plump Russian, they restrain their native urges and do not...