Intro

In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, he deliberately and carefully juxtaposes a number of opposites in order to emphasize how different each race, continent, and level of civilization is. However, unlike most authors, Conrad takes the notion of opposites one step further and reverses the color symbolism throughout the novella. In reading the reflection on Marlow’s journey into the heart of darkness – Africa – the reader faces the challenge of understanding Conrad’s reversed color symbolism. The primary element of Conrad’s writing tactic would be how the heart of darkness actually illuminates the characters’ true selves, thus failing to coincide with the conventional notion that darkness symbolizes hidden or repressed ideas.