While people have written literature portraying the horrors of colonial times since its initiation, very few portray the raw power of racism like Heart of Darkness does. The author Joseph Conrad uses imagery in his book to make everything more vivid and to further depict the horrors of colonialism in the Belgian Congo. Conrad specifically uses light and dark imagery to illustrate how the dark power of colonialism consumes colonists and one of the main characters, Kurtz, in particular, driving them insane. This depiction of colonialism suggests that its inherently biased power structure is detrimental for both the Africans and the colonizers because the power structure not only dehumanizes the Africans but consumes the colonizers and drives them mad.

Imagery centered around darkness and light is first used to show how the malevolent power of colonialism took over Africa. When the main character and narrator Marlow is looking at a map, he describes Africa as a place that “had ceased to be … a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. It had become a place of darkness” (Conrad 9). By portraying Africa as a “white patch” before, and a “place of darkness” after its colonization, Conrad portrays colonialism through a dark lens and Africa before colonialism in a white light—an obvious dichotomy. By making colonialism the “darkness” that took over Africa, Conrad adds a twist that creates a self-fulfilling prophecy—the colonizers brought the darkness of colonialism to Africa, and after consuming Africa it goes for the colonizers and drives them insane. Conrad continues to garner sympathy for the colonizers using light and dark imagery to illustrate how the darkness destroys them. He states that the “powers of darkness claimed [them] for their own” to demonstrate how the colonizers were victims to the “powers of darkness” that “claimed” them and dehumanized them until they were barely recognizable as human (60). This becomes a loaded statement; the fact that Marlow sees Africa’s colonization by the darkness as a good thing until the darkness comes for the white Europeans too shows how hypocritical their actions were.

The power of colonialism is not just talked about abstractly as consuming the white men but with a specific example: Conrad focuses on the character Kurtz throughout the book in order to portray his descent into darkness and madness. Conrad uses language that victimizes Kurtz in order to simulate his struggle. Marlow says the following:

[Kurtz’s voice] survived his strength to hide in… the barren darkness of his heart. Oh, he struggled… The wastes of his weary brain were haunted by shadowy images now… The shade of the original Kurtz frequented the bedside of the hollow sham… But both … fought for the possession of that soul. (85) 

By using phrases such as “he struggled” and “fought for possession of that soul” it makes it seem as though Kurtz has fallen victim to the power of colonialism after a long struggle. The usage of “shade of the original Kurtz” is particularly interesting because the picture it paints is one of Kurtz fallen into darkness and of being a shadow of his former self; of Kurtz being “haunted by shadowy images”—language that is again related to darkness. The bluntest of these descriptions is in the phrase “barren darkness of his heart.” This phrase relates directly to the title of the book, which is about the darkness of colonialism and its undeniable power to eradicate ‘good men’ like colonizers and turn them into shades of their former selves. 

The undeniable fact, however, is that Kurtz is still human. He has been dehumanized and victimized until he is a shade of his former self but he is still human. Kurtz is compared to  “a shadow darker than the shadow of night” as a way of comparing him to the darkest of darknesses (91). This shows just how far Kurtz’s descent has been—from being compared to light to being the darkest of darknesses. Conrad states that Marlow “looked at him as you peer down at a man who is lying at the bottom of a precipice where the sun never shines” (86). At this point, the fear starts to set in because Conrad still calls Kurtz “a man.” Kurtz is still human, albeit a human who placed “those heads on stakes” (72). It shows just how far humanity can fall, to take such brutal, savage action all because one Kurtz has fallen into darkness, driven insane by the power of colonialism. Conrad uses light and dark imagery, here again, stating that Marlow feels as though has been “transported into some lightless region of subtle horrors, where pure, uncomplicated savagery was a positive relief, being something that had a right to exist—obviously—in the sunshine” (73). The dichotomy established here is that such savagery belongs in a “lightless region”, but instead is able to “exist in the sunshine”. To place Kurtz’s brutal actions in bright sunlight demonstrates how twisted all of it is, and the insanity of humanity if possessed and twisted by the dark power of colonialism.

The premise of Heart of Darkness is terrifying because even though it is about the horrors of colonialism, it victimizes the colonizers in such a way it feels as though one is looking into a mirror—Kurtz could be anyone if subjected to the colonial system. The colonizers are not the villains in the book, but rather the idea of colonialism and the weight of racism, which are the true antagonists, possess them. Conrad renders the colonizers as mere tools for the agenda of colonialism, and this is ironic. It is the colonizers who invented the idea of colonialism, and colonizers who brought it to the rest of the world. In the end, it is the colonizers to whom colonialism turns and consumes. The system of colonialism, of systematic racism and dehumanization, is a system that leaves no one unscathed. There is no winner because it turns on everyone: the aggressors and the victims. The colonizers just become casualties to their own hubris because they thought themselves powerful and untouchable, but the system turned on them too. In the end, everyone ends up in the same place: in the darkness.

Works Cited

Brown, L. Personal Interview, 7 November 2019.

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness & Selections from the Congo Diary. New York: Modern Library, 2001.

Paull, J. Personal Interview, 11 November 2019.

Saarnio, E. Personal Interview, 12 November 2019.