Metaphor at work in Conrad's Heart of Darkness

In the text of Heart of Darkness, the reader is presented with many metaphors. Those that recur, and are more striking and remarkable, are light and darkness, nature and Kurtz and Marlow. Repeated use of images of light and darkness represents civilization and primitiveness, and of course the eternal meaning of good and evil. However, the more deeply the reader will become more complex. Are also complex meanings behind the metaphors of nature included in the text. Represents a challenge to the settlers, often also means the decline and degeneration. Kurtz and Marlow finally represent imperialism and settlers. All these metaphors come together and contribute not only in the sense to the reader, but also the general sense.

From the very moment when Marlow speaks to the reader gets dark and bright images. It should be noted, however, that the darkness seems to dominate. The light and dark, with binary oppositions, come to represent other binary oppositions, as civilized and uncivilized, and of course good and evil. The original "wild" are described as dark, both literally in terms of skin tone, but also in attitude and inside. Marlow calls the natives in the first season of "black shadows of disease and hunger" (Conrad 20). A little later in the text, Marlow is horrified by what he sees, through the darkness and the reader is presented. Both are excellent examples of negativity towards indigenous peoples throughout the book. Thus, the darkness of the Indians is a metaphor for his supposed uncivility, evil and primitive. However, if the reader looks a little deeper, you can see that this darkness also represents somewhat of innocence. The natives are primitive, but in its primitiveness, prior to the arrival of white men were happy, free and innocent in fact. ...