Themes, Motifs & Symbols Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary

work. The Hypocrisy of Imperialism Heart of arkness explores the issues surroundin! imperialism in complicated ways. "s Marlow travels fromthe #uter Station to the $entral Station and finally up the river to the Inner Station, he encounters scenes of torture, cruelty, and near%slavery. "t the very least, the incidental scenery of the book offers a harsh picture of colonial enterprise. The impetus behind Marlow&s adventures, too, has to do with the hypocrisy inherent in therhetoric used to 'ustify imperialism. The men who work for the $ompany describe what they do as (trade,) andtheir treatment of native "fricans is part of a benevolent pro'ect of (civili*ation.) +urt*, on the other hand, isopen about the fact that he does not trade but rather takes ivory by force, and he describes his own treatmentof the natives with the words (suppression) and (extermination), he does not hide the fact that he rules throu!hviolence and intimidation. His perverse honesty leads to his downfall, as his success threatens to expose theevil practices behind -uropean activity in "frica. However, for Marlow as much as for +urt* or for the $ompany, "fricans in this book are mostly ob'ects, Marlowrefers to his helmsman as a piece of machinery, and +urt*&s "frican mistress is at best a piece of statuary. Itcan be ar!ued that Heart of arkness participates in an oppression of nonwhites that is much more sinister and much harder to remedy than the open abuses of +urt* or the $ompany&s men. "fricans become for Marlow a mere backdrop, a human screen a!ainst which he can play out his philosophical and existentialstru!!les. Their existence and their exoticism enable his self%contemplation. This kind of dehumani*ation isharder to identify than colonial violence or open racism. .hile Heart of arkness offers a powerfulcondemnation of the hypocritical operations of imperialism, it also presents a set of issues surroundin! racethat is ultimately more troublin!. Madness as a /esult of Imperialism Madness is closely linked to imperialism in this book. "frica is responsible for mental disinte!ration as well asfor physical illness. Madness has two primary functions. 0irst, it serves as an ironic device to en!a!e thereader&s sympathies. +urt*, Marlow is told from the be!innin!, is mad. However, as Marlow, and the reader,be!in to form a more complete picture of +urt*, it becomes apparent that his madness is only relative, that inthe context of the $ompany insanity is difficult to define. Thus, both Marlow and the reader be!in tosympathi*e with +urt* and view the $ompany with suspicion. Madness also functions to establish thenecessity of social fictions. "lthou!h social mores and explanatory 'ustifications are shown throu!hout Heart of arkness to be utterly false and even leadin! to evil, they are nevertheless necessary for both !roup harmonyand individual security. Madness, in Heart of arkness, is the result of bein! removed from one&s social contextand allowed to be the sole arbiter of one&s own actions. Madness is thus linked not only to absolute power anda kind of moral !enius but to man&s fundamental fallibility, +urt* has no authority to whom he answers buthimself, and this is more than any one man can bear. The "bsurdity of -vil This novella is, above all, an exploration of hypocrisy, ambi!uity, and moral confusion. It explodes the idea of the proverbial choice between the lesser of two evils. "s the idealistic Marlow is forced to ali!n himself witheither the hypocritical and malicious colonial bureaucracy or the openly malevolent, rule%defyin! +urt*, itbecomes increasin!ly clear that to try to 'ud!e either alternative is an act of folly, how can moral standards or social values be relevant in 'ud!in! evil1 Is there such thin! as insanity in a world that has already !oneinsane1 The number of ridiculous situations Marlow witnesses act as reflections of the lar!er issue, at onestation, for instance, he sees a man

tryin! to carry water in a bucket with a lar!e hole in it. "t the #uter Station,he watches native laborers blast away at a hillside with no particular !oal in mind. The absurd involves bothinsi!nificant silliness and life%or%death issues, often simultaneously. That the serious and the mundane aretreated similarly su!!ests a profound moral confusion and a tremendous hypocrisy, it is terrifyin! that +urt*&shomicidal me!alomania and a leaky bucket provoke essentially the same reaction from Marlow. Motifs Motifs are recurrin! structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text&sma'or themes. #bservation and -avesdroppin! Marlow !ains a !reat deal of information by watchin! the world around him and by overhearin! others&conversations, as when he listens from the deck of the wrecked steamer to the mana!er of the $entral Stationand his uncle discussin! +urt* and the /ussian trader. This phenomenon speaks to the impossibility of directcommunication between individuals, information must come as the result of chance observation and astuteinterpretation. .ords themselves fail to capture meanin! ade2uately, and thus they must be taken in thecontext of their utterance. "nother !ood example of this is Marlow&s conversation with the brickmaker, durin!which Marlow is able to fi!ure out a !ood deal more than simply what the man has to say. Interiors and -xteriors $omparisons between interiors and exteriors pervade Heart of arkness. "s the narrator states at thebe!innin! of the text, Marlow is more interested in surfaces, in the surroundin! aura of a thin! rather than inany hidden nu!!et of meanin! deep within the thin! itself. This inverts the usual hierarchy of meanin!,normally one seeks the deep messa!e or hidden truth. The priority placed on observation demonstrates thatpenetratin! to the interior of an idea or a person is impossible in this world. Thus, Marlow is confronted with aseries of exteriors and surfaces3the river&s banks, the forest walls around the station, +urt*&s broad forehead3that he must interpret. These exteriors are all the material he is !iven, and they provide him with perhaps amore profound source of knowled!e than any falsely constructed interior (kernel.) arkness arkness is important enou!h conceptually to be part of the book&s title. However, it is difficult to discernexactly what it mi!ht mean, !iven that absolutely everythin! in the book is cloaked in darkness. "frica,-n!land, and 4russels are all described as !loomy and somehow dark, even if the sun is shinin! bri!htly. arkness thus seems to operate metaphorically and existentially rather than specifically. arkness is theinability to see, this may sound simple, but as a description of the human condition it has profound implications.0ailin! to see another human bein! means failin! to understand that individual and failin! to establish any sortof sympathetic communion with him or her. Symbols Symbols are ob'ects, characters, fi!ures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. 0o! 0o! is a sort of corollary to darkness. 0o! not only obscures but distorts, it !ives one 'ust enou!h information tobe!in makin! decisions but no way to 'ud!e the accuracy of that information, which often ends up bein! wron!.Marlow&s steamer is cau!ht in the fo!, meanin! that he has no idea where

he&s !oin! and no idea whether perilor open water lies ahead. The (.hited Sepulchre) The (whited sepulchre) is probably 4russels, where the $ompany&s head2uarters are located. " sepulchreimplies death and confinement, and indeed -urope is the ori!in of the colonial enterprises that brin! death towhite men and to their colonial sub'ects5 it is also !overned by a set of reified social principles that both enablecruelty, dehumani*ation, and evil and prohibit chan!e. The phrase (whited sepulchre) comes from the biblical4ook of Matthew. In the passa!e, Matthew describes (whited sepulchres) as somethin! beautiful on theoutside but containin! horrors within 6the bodies of the dead75 thus, the ima!e is appropriate for 4russels, !iventhe hypocritical 4el!ian rhetoric about imperialism&s civili*in! mission. 64el!ian colonies, particularly the$on!o, were notorious for the violence perpetuated a!ainst the natives.7 .omen 4oth +urt*&s Intended and his "frican mistress function as blank slates upon which the values and the wealthof their respective societies can be displayed. Marlow fre2uently claims that women are the keepers of naiveillusions5 althou!h this sounds condemnatory, such a role is in fact crucial, as these naive illusions are at theroot of the social fictions that 'ustify economic enterprise and colonial expansion. In return, the women are the beneficiaries of much of the resultin! wealth, and they become ob'ects upon which men can display their ownsuccess and status. The /iver The $on!o /iver is the key to "frica for -uropeans. It allows them access to the center of the continent withouthavin! to physically cross it5 in other words, it allows the white man to remain always separate or outside."frica is thus reduced to a series of two%dimensional scenes that flash by Marlow&s steamer as he travelsupriver. The river also seems to want to expel -uropeans from "frica alto!ether, its current makes travelupriver slow and difficult, but the flow of water makes travel downriver, back toward (civili*ation,) rapid andseemin!ly inevitable. Marlow&s stru!!les with the river as he travels upstream toward +urt* reflect his stru!!lesto understand the situation in which he has found himself. The ease with which he 'ourneys back downstream,on the other hand, mirrors his ac2uiescence to +urt* and his (choice of ni!htmares.