Symbols in Heart of Darkness

 Darkness

The symbol of darkness opens the novella, when Marlow is on the yacht on the Thames: "And this also," he says, speaking of England, "has been one of the dark places on earth." He meansthat the land and its peoples were primitive before the Roman

conquest, a parallel to European colonial control of Africa.Light and peace is here now, Marlow implies, but "darkness was here yesterday."Once Marlow's story is we ll under way, he says, "We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness" (Part 2, Section 2). There is literal darkness in the jungle and the waters of the river. But he also says that the suffering of the indigenous people and the evil in the hearts of the Company agents is a metaphoric darkness, a darkness of the unknown, of difference, and of blindness.

The most important metaphoric darkness is that revealed in Kurtz's heart and symbolized by the decapitated heads of native men displayed like decorative knobs on his fence posts. There, they are "black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids."These heads and the grisly fence stand as enduring symbols of Kurtz's depravity. Kurtz, then, symbolizes the darkness of the colonizers' lost morality, but there is also a sense in which Kurtz is the victim of the darkness of the jungle. Marlow comments on "how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own" in trying to explain his descent into depravity

Ivory

Ivory symbolizes the greed of the Europeans. It is a consuming passion for them, the lure that draws them to Africa. It has become like a religion to them: "The word 'ivory' rang in the air," Marlow says when he is at the Outer Station. It "was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it." Ivory, which is white, is the one thing of value that the Europeans in Heart of Darkness find in dark Africa. But ivory is also equated with darkness and corruption. Marlow muses that Kurtz had been captivated by the wilderness, which had "taken him, loved him, embraced him, consumed his flesh" until he had lost all his hair, his bald head now looking like an "ivory ball." When Kurtz is on the verge of dying, just before he says his last words, Marlow notes his "ivory face." Ivory no longer has value; it is a thing of evil, which is what Kurtz became.

Harlequin

When Marlow arrives at the Inner Station, he is greeted by a young Russian man dressed in clothes that are covered with bright blue, red, and yellow patches. The young man looks as if he is escaped from a troupe of mimes. Marlow compares him to a harlequin, something that does not fit in the African jungle. The harlequin's presence ironizes the tragedy of the situation and suggests another literary convention: the wise fool, although the Russian seems more naive than wise.

Drums

As Marlow pilots the steamboat up the river, he hears drums, which he finds unsettling but intriguing, calling it a sound through his racist character, Marlow, he reveals the racist viewpoints of Company agents and of imperialism more broadly. Others, including the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe (1930–2013), disagree. Achebe argues that, because Conrad rarely provides native characters with speech or other human traits, he—the writer—does not view Africans as human. A major point in support of the position that Conrad was racist is the fact that the book's central focus is Kurtz and his fate in Africa. In this view, by focusing on one white man's fall from grace—indeed, by presenting him as in some sense the victim of Africa—Conrad overlooks the terrible tragedies colonization wreaked on millions of African people. Another important issue is the question of who should speak for the oppressed. Is Conrad, as a white man, capable of speaking for the oppressed? Or must one be oppressed to tell the story of oppression? Readers of Heart of Darkness must form their own answers to this question and how Conrad's work reflects on that issue.

Money in Pride and Prejudice

Money plays a central role to the plot of Pride and Prejudice. Because of the entail, the Bennet women will have a bleak financial future after Mr. Bennet dies. When readers recognize this, Mrs. Bennet’s pursuit of husbands for her daughters takes on a sense of urgency that supercedes her foolish behavior. Translating the monetary realities that the characters of Pride and Prejudice face into modern equivalents helps readers to better understand the characters’ motivations and the significance of their actions. Austen describes people’s financial situations throughout Pride and Prejudice in terms of actual monetary amounts. 

Darcy is not simply rich, he has 10,000 pounds a year. When Elizabeth’s father dies, she will not only be poor, she will have a mere 40 pounds a year. But what do Critical Essays 79 these figures mean in modern U.S. dollars? Critic Edward Copeland has calculated the value of one pound in Austen’s day to be roughly equivalent to 80 dollars now. While he emphasizes that his estimate is not scientific and is probably conservative, such an equivalency helps to put the sums Austen scatters throughout the novel into perspective. According to Austen, Mr. Bennet’s annual income is 2,000 pounds, or 160,000 dollars. Compare that to Darcy’s 10,000 pounds or 800,000 dollars. Additionally, the sums Austen gives are often discussed in terms of 4 or 5 percents. These percents refer to the fact that the income the landed gentry earned came from investing their money in secure government bonds. Therefore, Bingley is described as having “four or five thousand a year” because Mrs. Bennet is not sure of what his 100,000 pound inheritance is earning. Similarly, Mr. Collins assumes the lesser amount when he condescendingly informs Elizabeth that he will not reproach her for bringing only “one thousand pounds in the 4 per cents” to their marriage. In other words, Elizabeth will only have a 40 or 50 pound annual income to live off of after her father dies, which translates into 3,200 or 4,000 dollars. This comparison of Austen’s pound with the modern dollar not only clarifies characters’ annual incomes, but also exposes the magnitude of certain financial transactions, such as Darcy’s dealings with Wickham. 

First, Wickham inherited 1,000 pounds, or 80,000 dollars from Darcy’s father. After dissolving his claim to the clergyman position, Wickham received 3,000 more pounds (240,000 dollars) from Darcy. Within three years, he was again asking Darcy for money, which Darcy refused to give him. Wickham then attempts to elope with Miss Darcy, whose inheritance totals 30,000 pounds (2.4 million dollars). Wickham then runs off with Lydia, whose portion equals Elizabeth’s—40 pounds a year, 1,000 pounds overall. He tells Darcy that he has no intention of marrying Lydia and still plans to marry an heiress. To persuade Wickham to marry Lydia, Darcy must then pay Wickham’s debts, totaling 1,000 pounds, or 80,000 dollars in addition to buying his commission at about 450 pounds or 36,000 dollars. 

Mr. Bennet also conjectures that “Wickham’s a fool if he takes her for less than ten thousand pounds,” meaning that Darcy probably also paid Wickham an additional 800,000 dollars. Elizabeth’s overwhelming gratitude toward Darcy and the debt of her family to him become much clearer in light of these figures in U.S. dollars.