Motifs

=The Heart of Darkness= The most often recurring image in the novel is that of a heart of darkness. Quite simply, it represents the evil within humans. The heart of darkness shows up at the novel's end, for example, when the frame story ends and the traveling men are sitting on the boat. Looking upstream at the river they're on, they say that it seems to be leading further and further into a heart of darkness. Additionally, virtually everything in the entire novel is described as being dark in some shape or form. It is not literally dark, but metaphorically, where darkness is the inability to understand another person, thus failing to sympathize with them at all. =Lies= The idea of lies and hypocrisy show up in the story several times. The first time it comes up, Marlow discusses his hatred for lying. Marlow sees deception as something that is far worse than death--something that makes him sick. Even though he detests it so much, Marlow lies to the brick maker, and allows him to believe that he does in fact have some influence with the company's leaders in Europe. At the story's conclusion, Marlow again is forced to lie, but this time to Kurtz' intended. When she asks what Kurtz' final words were, Marlow lies and tells her that they were her name, in order to preserve her peace of mind. =Idols and Worship= The worshiping of false idols plays an important role in the novel. Most obviously, is the worship of Kurtz by the natives. After seeing his guns, and thinking he possessed god-like qualities, they began to revere him. The natives chanted, had fires, and held rituals in his honor--they even sacrificed human flesh in his name. Due to this strange activity, the other members of the company turned against him and disowned him as one of them. However, they themselves also engaged in a strange type of worship. Their worship however, was with greed. Ivory is talked about like it's a god at times, and it is held above all else.