Congo River is the road Marlow follows It is not straight but full of curves Marlow calls it An immense snake uncoiled The river is both real and symbolic It carries him into Africa but also into the inner heart of man Every turn hides mystery Every mile takes him closer to Kurtz The river is life but also danger It is the path to the unknown to darkness Kurtz s Painting Blind Civilization In the Brickmaker s room Marlow sees A woman draped and blindfolded carrying a lighted torch This picture is painted by Kurtz It is a symbol of Europe They claim to bring light to Africa But they are blind Their torch does not guide It burns Imperialism is blind destruction The Outer Station Death and Irony Marlow sees the French warship firing into the forest He says Incomprehensible firing into a continent This symbol shows the waste of the empire There is no enemy The shots mean nothing It is madness At the same station he sees black men starving under trees The empire says it brings order But Marlow sees only destruction cruelty and irony Ivory The Symbol of Greed Ivory shines white but in the story it is black with blood For the Company ivory is everything Marlow says The word ivory rang in the air was whispered was sighed This shows the madness Kurtz himself says My ivory my station my river Ivory is not beauty here It is greed slavery and corruption It destroys both the Africans and Kurtz The African Jungle Power of Nature The African wildlife is not silent It is alive It watches the Europeans Marlow calls the jungle more powerful than men It breaks the weak and takes over the strong Kurtz loses himself to it Thus the jungle is a symbol of nature s strength and man s weakness Kurtz s Last Words The Final Symbol Kurtz is not just a man He is a symbol of imperialism and the human soul At his death he cries The horror The horror These words are more than pain They are judgment They are the truth of his life of imperialism and of mankind Kurtz s words become the greatest symbol of the novel They stand for the final realization of evil and corruption inside man Symbols make Heart of Darkness more than a travel tale The river Brussels the warship the Accountant ivory the painting and Kurtz s last words all show the reality of imperialism Each symbol grows from a real event in Marlow s journey They turn the story into a message Conrad shows that the empire is not light but darkness Through these symbols the novel becomes a mirror of human greed and fear