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Darkness and Light the Illumination of Reality and Unreality in Heart of Darkness

m the sacred fire." That Marlow directly correlates knowledge and light, and light and civilization, necessarily implies that Marlow seeks to correlate knowledge and civilization. In a word, Marlow's delineation of the British imperialists implies that he understands civilization to be logical and rational, while he understands primitive social organizations to be backward and crude. As Marlow proceeds deeper into the heart of the African jungle and begins to understand savagery as a primitive form of civilization and, therefore, a reflection on his own reality, the light-dark metaphor shifts. For example, when Marlow goes wandering in the jungle, he has contrasting experiences in the sunshine and in the shade that are ironic in light of the established metaphor. Contemplating the colonialists in the jungle, he remarks: 'I've seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but, by all the stars! These were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men - men, I tell you. But as I stood on the hillside, I foresaw that in the blinding sunshine of that land I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly. How insidious he could be, too, I was only to find out several months later.' That the 'blazing sunlight' would proffer to Marlow the realization that the civilized colonialists were little more than 'flabby, pretending devils' is ironic. In keeping with the established metaphor, it would be logical for him to glimpse the intelligence and inherent goodness of the colonialists in the sunlight. The pun on the metaphor continues when Marlow departs the sunshine for the shade and is aloud to partake of the natives in their 'natural' habitat: the darkness. We would expect to see the natives in all their wanton savagery, but instead the darkness is 'gloomy' and filled with a 'mournful stillness. As Marlow describes, 'Black shapes crouched, lay, sa...

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