Darkness Gone Loose

The place where Marlow voyaged to was the place of his dreams. He says so himself. When he was little, from the first moment he saw that place on the map, he was fascinated. But as an adult, he travelled there and expected the disappointed. Even though the place charmed him, he knew “it had become a place of darkness.” (Pg 10.)

The light illusion is key when deciphering exactly why this place is a place of darkness. No one associates darkness with happiness. It is the complete opposite. Often, depressed people say, “I am in a dark place,” so this darkness has to be bad, very bad. The transformation that occurred to that place was negative. Something occurred to this, light full place that marveled Marlow that all the light was sucked out. The British came and destroyed a culture, exploited the natives, and took all the richness and happiness.

During his travels, he can´t believe that these people that their ribs were visible and “the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope” (25) could be considered criminals and even enemies. The start of his voyage is like the entrance of Dante´s Inferno, and Marlow just “stepped into the gloomy circle of some Inferno.” This place of darkness is hell. In Inferno, the only source of light is fire, which is very gloomy and negative. The same happens with this place. Also, in each circle, there are specific people, but they live half dead, scattered around. When Marlow goes up the mountain, the population is close to nil, except the occasional slaves, that look exactly like hell´s prisoners: you can see the unhappiness in the bodies and eyes.

This place of darkness is a real place. A territory used inhabited by it´s natives, until the British took over. From then on, hell broke loose. The same happened all over the world. When Europe colonized Africa and America, they saw the natives as an inferior race. Thy thought they had the liberty to come and exploit the natives and steal their richness. Some even had religious and other motives and thought they were doing them a favor by making them more civilized them.  The natives and Europeans were very different, but no favor was done. They turned many parts of the world, into places of darkness, very similar to hell.