heart of darkness

Early on, Marlow happens upon two women: "a dead silence, grass sprouting between the stones, imposing carriage archways right and left, immense double doors standing ponderously ajar…as arid as a desert, and opened the first door I came to. Two women, one fat and the other slim…knitting black wool." The two witch like women, both in their appearance and in the way in which they foreshadowed the darkness that Marlow was to encounter …

…Africa as ‘the other world,’ the antitheses of Europe and therefore of civilization." Conrad unknowingly or deliberately attacks the Africans and their lifestyle in the jungle by assuming it uncivilized. He introduced Africans as vile creatures, hated by every white man. Achebe implies that Conrad is taking a shot at Africans with his dark description of them and their civilization. When, in actuality, the description adds effectively to the light and dark imagery. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**