The reoccurring symbol of light and darkness throughout Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness reaches both a literal and figurative level when illustrating interaction externally between humans and, very similarly, internally within ourselves. Darkness is defined as the inability to see what is around you. The reader is able to identify this motif as it more simply applies to the gloomy and ominous settings of Brussels, England, and Africa. More abstractly, however, is the darkness where a person hides their internal self to the outside world. In doing this, a person does not allow others to see them fully, and therefore, puts on a façade that differs from their internal self. Traveling from the outskirts of an African jungle all the way inward to the human mind, the symbol of external light differing from internal darkness creates a contrast of what a person shows to others or, more often, keeps in the dark.
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