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Among the themes of Conrad’s novella that involve color symbolism include discovering that people are not who they may think they are, and taking a chance in veering away from one’s potentially repressed truth in order to discover (possibly unwanted) truths. Kurtz’ African mistress and his European intended embody the color symbolism of the two extremes: dark and light. When Marlow first sees the “wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman,” he responds to her natural freedom and beauty in an honest and sensual way, both of which would normally be repressed, but they are not because of this natural being.  Both Marlow and Kurtz unleash their genuine urges in the presence of this woman of dark complexion. She releases and highlights what Freud would call their ids. In his introduction to Psychoanalytic Criticism and Heart of Darkness describes as “the predominantly passional, irrational, unknown, and unconscious part of the psyche.” By moving “along the lighted shore” the woman helps both Marlow and Kurtz discover their once hidden and repressed desires.