Heart Of Darkness III

Darkness does not exist. It is merely the absence of light; which is normally paired with good and progress while darkness typically represents evil. In the novel Heart Of Darkness there is a paradox when it comes to the meaning of light and darkness. In the novel, light is a symbol of power and strength but not necessarily of good, then the darkness is a creation of the people who are allegedly the light. In this dichotomy-of good and evil, light and darkness-Marlow finds himself torn between the two sides of the spectrum.

            What is light? Typically it is progress, knowledge, power, good. Cities, which at a time were the hearths of culture and knowledge, were the lights of the world; places in a world-of brutality and savageness-that applied reason and humane policies were also referred to as the lights. In this novel, the light merely represents the power of certain people over others, an alleged superiority. Marlow demonstrates the irony and relativity of light with his first words in the novel, in reference to London: “And this too… was one of the dark places in the world”. The irony is that London-which was at this time the light of the world- was once a dark place in the world, controlled by an empire were knowledge and progress hadn’t arrived. What is most ironic is that light in this novel commits acts that aren’t pure or good at all. Colonizing through brutal means and entire population just for the exploitation of their resources (at this time the light is not only London but Europe). Daring to justify the acts through an absurd principle that says that the victims are inferior and need to be colonized. The darkness is therefore a creation of light, because Africa is not a place of darkness-at least no more dark than the rest of the world. What is dark is the actions commited by the light that does evil, inhumane acts.

            Really the light is the dark. Because even though the light is progress and technology, it uses its advantages to create hate and spread evil. The real light-which is supposed to do good-instead creates the darkness. In this novel, darkness is not the absence of light but the presence of it.