Heart Of Darkness Literary Analysis

In Joseph Conrad’s novel, “Heart of Darkness,” the main character named Marlow goes through a journey through which Conrad gives us an important message. This message is that despite everyone having the inclination to give in to Id, we must resist this temptation by staying on guard against ourselves and others who have given in to Id. Id is the part of the mind that deals with innate and instinctive impulses that often come without reason or rational thought. Conrad uses Marlow as an example of losing one’s soul and ability of rational thinking because of the fact that he gave in to his Id. Other than Marlow, he uses other light and dark imagery symbolically, such as the River Thames, the Three Fates, the book, Kurtz, and England. At

She seemed uncanny and fateful. Often far away there I thought of these two, guarding the door of Darkness, knitting black wool as for a warm pall, one introducing, introducing continuously to the unknown, the other scrutinizing the cheery and foolish faces with unconcerned old eyes. Ave! Old knitter of black wool. Morituri te salutant. Not many of those she looked at ever saw her again—not half, by a long way (14).
This image of the women knitting, is unsettling by itself, but as people walk in, they say “Ave! Old knitter of black wool. Morituri te salutant.” The original statement made by the Roman Emperor Claudius who said “Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant.” This directly means ‘Hail Emperor, those who are about to die salute you.’ In the case of the novel, Conrad manipulates this quote to mean ‘Hail Old knitter of black wool, those who are about to die salute you.’ The job that Marlow took, and the trip that he would go through were basically a death sentence given to him by the Three Fates. The book that Marlow finds at the Central Station, that was owned by the Russian, who later was referred to as Patches, was a symbol of hope for Marlow. At the time, Marlow had no idea that Patches left the book and thought that it belonged to