journeyhod Journey into Hell in Joseph Conrads Heart...

The Journey into Hell in Heart of Darkness In Joseph Conrads novel, Heart of Darkness the environment is often symbolic as well as literal. The novel contains both the frame narrator, an anonymous member of the Nellie, representing the dominant society, and more importantly the primary narrator, Marlow, who too, is a product of the dominant society. For the novels narrator, Marlow, the journey up the Congo River to the heart of darkness is reminiscent of Guidos journey into hell in Dantes Inferno, with these literary allusion always present, through forms of intense imagery. The landscape takes on a hellish nature and the wilderness is personified. Death is omnipresent and this is reflected in the death imagery used†¦show more content†¦Darkness is used throughout the novel to symbolize savagery, death and the unknown. Marlows observation is reinforced when London is described as a brooding gloom. In thisinstance the physical description of the city serves to reinforce Marlows theory, and refute the earlier judgments of the frame narrator. Marlow tells of his quest for employment, that is, an unnamed city in Brussels, the sepulchral city that he visits to sign his contract. Conrad uses much death imagery to describe the physical appearance of the city. He describes it: as having the appearance of a well kept alley in a cemetery. Marlow travels to the dead centre of the city. He observes grass sprouting between the stones just as grass sprouts between tombstones. This environmental imagery is symbolic of the hypocrisy that Marlow Witnesses, the exploitation that forms the basis of the company and the universality of death. All three interpretations of the applicability of the imagery are reasonable however, the death imagery also links to Marlows apprehension. Marlow says that he felt as if he had been let into some conspiracy. The death imagery associated with this, the first leg of Marlows journey on his way to his farthest point of navigation and culminating point of (his) experience is appropriate as it relates stro ngly to