1.You have just finished reading Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

What is the
significance of the title?
In my opinion, the title make refferance to the Africa, located in a sauvage region, an unexplored
region and the black people, is like an ingredient in the recipe of the novel; it could refer to a
journey into one self. The indigenous people of that area, they have wild ha bits and they have to
be educated and civilized by white people. If I look at the beginnings of this -Going up that river
was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, I realize that a symbol was used,
for exemple the symbol of the river which stands for change and going up that river means going
to primitivism. The novel may be seen as a novel about a voyage into the heart of the jungle,
about the condition of the empire and the end of the Victorian period.

2.A symbol is anything that stands for or represents something else beyond it,
usually an idea conventionally associated with in. In literary usage, it is a world or
phrase reffering to a concrete object, scene, or action which also has some further
significance associated with in.

Identify at least two significant symbols in Heart of Darkness.

Use a dictionary of symbols or access

https://www.academia.edu/7141304/A_Dictionary_of_Symbols_J.E._Cirlot to find
their significance.
The two symbols in The Heart of Darkness are:

1. The Accountant
a. The accountant represents the façade of the company; the image they wish to project while
undergoing their colonization of Africa. He is an ironic stark contrast to his surroundings,
as he appears elegant and sophisticated in his surroundings, as he appears elegant and
sophisticated in his pure white garments, regardless of the fact he is surrounded by death
and destruction.

2. Flies
a. Throughout Heart of Darkness, flies symbolize ,,The Lord of The Flies;’’ a title
synonymous with death. They appear following the death of the slave in Chapter 1, and
more notably after the death of Kurtz in Chapter 3. The flies also suggest inferno and hell
imagery.
 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.

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 means
that 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 well 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.

2.Read the following text:

The tidal current runs to and fro in its unceasing service, crowded with memories of men and
ships it had borne to the rest of home or to the battles of the sea. It had known and served all the
men of whom the nation is proud, from Sir Francis Drake to Sir John Franklin, knights all, titled
and untitled – the great knights – errant of the sea. It had borne all the ships whose names are like
jewels flashing in the night of time, from The Golden Hind returning with her round flanks full of
treasure, to be visited by the Queen’s Hirghness and thus pass out of the gigantic tale, to the
Erebus and Terror, bound on other conquest and that never returned. It had known the ships and
the men. Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the
sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the
sacred fire. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an
unknown eart!.. The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires. (66-67)

a.Browse the Internet and find out who Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Franklin were. What do
they have in common?

b.What does ,,tidal current’’ refer to?

c.What does ,,Queen’s Highness’’ refer to? What cultural period does she belong to?

d.What period does the knight/knight-errant allude to?

What do you think Conrad referred to this period?

a.Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Franklin were, knights all, titled and untitled – the great knights
– errant of the sea. They real admiral and explorer who led an ill – fated expedition in 1845 in
search of the Northwest Passage, a Canadian Arctic waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans.

Sir Francis Drake was a sailor from the 16th century who took a small fleet of ships on a lengthy
voyage that was supposed to take them into the Nile River, but their true destination was the
Pacific Ocean. After losing most of his fleet, he eventually circumnavigated the globe taking
three years and accumulating approximately 36,000 miles on his ship.

Sir John Franklin led an expedition into the Arctic during the 19th century that proved to be quite
dangerous. Leading his 129 men into the Arctic, he searched for a passage across the top of the
North American continent. After years without word from the explorers, search expeditions were
sent out to find the missing voyagers; the search crews discovered bodies of several
crewmembers frozen in the ice.

The both of them were bery intelligent and skillfull sailors and knights.
b. The Tiddal current suggests the periodic mouvements of water driven principally, which
contains the rest of home or to the battles of the sea and served the men of whom the nation is
proud from Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Franklin

The tidal current runs to and fro in its unceasing service, crowded with memories of men and
ships it had borne to the rest of home or to the battles of the sea.  According to technological
barriers, the tidal current represent the most important issue that the ocean energy sector
needs to address in the short-medium term.

c. Queen’s Highness is a style used to address or refer to some members of the royal families,
like princes or princesses. The Monarchs and their consorts are usually styled Majesty. We
addressed with ,,Your Royal Highness’’when we spoken or written. The style belongs too in the
English usage, the terms Highness, Grace and Majesty, were all used as honorific styles of kings,
queens and princes of the blood until the time of James I of England.

d. I think the period which reffered the knight was the times pas, Errant, were great Versifiers
and Musicians; for these two Qualities or Graces. A knight – errant represent a figure of
medieval chivalric romance literature. The adjective errant suggest how the knight-errant would
wander the land in search of adventure to show his chivalric virtues in the knightly duels or to
pursuit the courtly love.

Joseph Conrad reffered too: Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that
stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land,
bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river
into the mystery of an unknown earth!..The dreams of men, the seed of commmonwealths, the
germs of empires.