What literary devices does Conrad Use in Heart of Darkness?

What literary devices does Conrad Use in Heart of Darkness?

Symbols, Imagery, and Metaphor: Conrad emulates London’s fog and Africa’s darkness with his deliberately mystifying and dense prose. Heavily laden symbolic imagery and metaphor also contribute to a mystical element, which heightens as Marlow makes his way deeper into the heart of the Congo.

What figurative language is used in Heart of Darkness?

Metaphor: The biggest most obvious metaphor in the book is the title itself, “Heart of Darkness”. The title not only means the physical location of the story in Africa but also the consequences of imperialism and the dark capabilities of humans.

What is Conrad’s purpose in writing Heart of Darkness?

His purpose was to take readers into the world of imperialism, but a major question has been raised among readers. Is Joseph Conrad supporting or condemning imperialism in his novel, Heart of Darkness?

How does Marlow personify nature?

Check out how Marlow personifies “Nature” as wanting to “ward off” intruders. From this perspective, the Interior of Africa almost sounds like a woman trying to protect herself. Here, Marlow describes Nature as a gigantic living thing that puts up with man’s trivial attempts to conquer it.

How is imagery used in Heart of Darkness?

Dark imagery is used to describe the London offices of the Company, the wool that the women knit inside it, and the forest that Marlow ventures into. Fog is often described an evoking an ominous feeling of dread, as does the river, which evokes dread and threatens death at every moment.

What literary device is darkness?

Symbolism: Symbolism is a use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings different from their literal meanings. Here, the darkness symbolizes pain, destruction, and death.

What is the theme of Heart of Darkness?

The main themes of Heart of Darkness include darkness, alienation and loneliness, and chaos and order. Darkness: Marlow sees “darkness” in the practices of imperialism, though the book maintains the racist implication that it is the uncivilized land and people that led to Europeans’ corruption.

What are the major themes in Heart of Darkness?

Overview. The main themes of Heart of Darkness include darkness, alienation and loneliness, and chaos and order. Darkness: Marlow sees “darkness” in the practices of imperialism, though the book maintains the racist implication that it is the uncivilized land and people that led to Europeans’ corruption.

What is the main purpose of Heart of Darkness?

Heart of Darkness explores the issues surrounding imperialism in complicated ways. As Marlow travels from the Outer Station to the Central Station and finally up the river to the Inner Station, he encounters scenes of torture, cruelty, and near-slavery.

What does nature symbolize in Heart of Darkness?

The wilderness is a very significant symbol in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. The vastness and savagery of the wilderness contrast with the pettiness and foolishness of the pilgrims, and the wilderness also shows the greed and brutality that lie under the noblest of ideals.

What is the jungle in Heart of Darkness?

The jungle in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” functions simulatenously as a character and a setting for much of the short story’s plot. As a setting, the junlge is the location for Kurtz’s quest for ivory and his eventual descent into darkness.

What does Kurtz symbolize in Heart of Darkness?

Kurtz, one of the leading characters, the other being Marlow, the narrator of the soty, represents many symbols in the novel. Firstly, he symbolizes the greed and the commercial mentality of the white people of the western countries. Secondly, he symbolizes the white man’s love of power.

How does Conrad use reptition in heart of Darkness?

We must also be aware of Conrad’s use of reptition. Whenever the language in Heart of Darkness becomes at once more sophisticated and ambiguous, the phrases he uses resound and act as a kind of ‘motif’ throughout the text.

Who are the characters in heart of Darkness?

However, in both Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, the authors also use their characters to represent the corruption within the ideals of both colonialism and Victorian hedonism.

Is there such a thing as a personification of Darkness?

“Even those who had heard the most evil things against him- and from time to time strange rumours about his mod of life crept through London and became the chatter of the clubs- could not believe anything to his dishonour when they saw him.”

How is poetic language used in heart of Darkness?

Poetic Language in Heart of Darkness. The repetition, much like the function of rhyme, allieration, assonance, and so on, brings our attention to the words themselves, and gives us a heightened sensitivity to their function. In Heart of Darkness, the really radical point of this is to expose their lack of meaning.