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Heart of Darkness Good vs. Evil Quotes Page 27
Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
"She [the Intended] came forward, all in black, with a pale head, floating towards me in the dusk. She was in mourning…The room seemed to have grown darker, as if all the sad light of the cloudy evening had taken refuge on her forehead. This fair hair, this pale visage, this pure brow, seemed surrounded by an ashy halo from which the dark eyes looked out at me. Their glance was guileless, profound, confident, and trustful." (3.52)
For once, the light and dark imagery seems to be conventional. The shining brow and hair of the fair girl indicate her goodness and purity while the darkness represents her sorrow.
"’You knew him best,’ I repeated. And perhaps she did. But with every word spoken the room was growing darker, and only her forehead, smooth and white, remained illumined by the unextinguishable light of belief and love." (3.56)
As the Intended sinks deeper and deeper into the certainty of her own lie and as Marlow ceases to correct her, the darkness grows. In her ignorance, however, she remains illuminated.
"I said with something like despair in my heart, but bowing my head before the faith that was in her [the Intended], before that great and saving illusion that shone with an unearthly glow in the darkness, in the triumphant darkness from which I could not have defended her – from which I could not even defend myself." (3.62)
The Intended believes unwaveringly in the goodness of Kurtz. However, her image of him is rendered somewhat dark because of its falseness.
