The Symbolic Meaning of River in Heart of Darkness

【Abstract】Heart of Darkness is a? masterpiece about colonization， the story represented glamorous and dangerous of Congo river. The river in this work has significant meanings. The purpose of this paper is to uncover this meaning of this works.

【Key words】river; desire; symbolic meaning; darkness; human nature

【作者簡介】李英（1988-），女，朝鮮族，延吉人，延邊大學(xué)，英語語言文學(xué)碩士，教育學(xué)原理碩士在讀，研究方向：語言文學(xué)與教育學(xué)。

I. Introduction

Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness retells the story of Marlows job as an ivory transporter down the Congo. During Marlows journey he saw the inhumanity squeeze what the European traders have done to the natives. The river in Heart of Darkness conveys significant function in ongoing story. The symbolic meaning of river endow the story meaning in invisible way to give reader unforgettable impression and associative space. In other words， the river in Heart of Darkness has important metaphor function.

II. The symbolic meaning of river in Heart of Darkness

River as the necessary part of the life of human being， which cannot ignore， at first， Marlow was proud of Congo River in the novel very much.

…The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled at the decline of day， after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks…it had known and served all the men of who the nation is pound…it had borne all the ships…what greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth...（P-9）

This description shows a necessary part of river that it satisfies the requirement of human being. Ships through the river satisfied inner desire of human being. Foods get through esophagus satisfied inner desire of human being continuously. And Marlow is hunger man who wants to satisfy his desire with the river. The endless conveying of river would raise human beings desire disaster.

Now when I was a little chap I had passion for maps…it had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery…resembling an immense snack uncoiled…it fascinated me as a snack would a bird…P22

Marlow is eager to go to the river of Congo. He compared himself to a bird that wants to the snack for food， like all the hunger man， he decides to the getting food through the esophagus to his endless desire. Thus， Marlow has colonizers endless desire.

…They were going to run an oversea empire， and make no end of coin by trade… P24

The colonizer make use of the desire of man who wants to find fortunes through the river developed these man into instrument for colonizer to satisfy their desire. Just likes hunger men who try to find delicacy to satisfy human nature desire would need an instrument put the food in esophagus. Marlow is an instrument， it is the reason that he felt himself cheated and disgusted with the entire colonizer. Kurtz is also an instrument， but he realized it to build his own domain became the colonizer at the end. Although he is a colonizer but the endless of desire can be not satisfied forever. The human nature for food and the human nature for wealth are never stop.

Marlow saws the dark of darkness from Kurtz who is on the summit of desire. Its an endless inner desire that he gets either. The appetite and the desire to build wealth is the same and endless. In this sense， the function of Congo River presented by Joseph Conrad is obviously clear. The author explored human nature through description of river the river is important because it is the passageway to the endless desire of human being—heart of darkness.

III. Conclusion

Heart of Darkness gets implied meanings through the representation of river， thus， river is a skeleton of this novel. Meanwhile， river is the way to the final destination， to endless desire and to human nature. The theme of this work is the exploration of human nature.

References：

[1]Conrad， Joseph. Heart of Darkness[J]. London： Penguin Books， Inc，1978.

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