Light and Dark

Contrary to popular usage, light does not necessarily symbolize pure goodness or enlightenment here. Conrad’s vision is so dark that he does not even trust light. Marlow makes the comment that "sunlight can be made to lie, too." In fact, light often gives way to darkness in the novel. There are numerous instances of the sun setting and plunging the world into night. Darkness, of course, represents the unknown, that which is feared, evil, silence, madness, and death. Then you’ve got the white sepulcher city in London, the white ivory in the jungle, and the creepy women dressed in black. Everything gets complicated further when you consider the fact that Marlow compares white men to black men, and that Marlow concludes (potentially) that these men are all the same. If this is true, lightness is darkness, darkness is lightness, and it’s all a big hairy mess.