Studying The Heart Of Darkness Symbols

Kurtz's painting. It is a woman, blindfolded and carrying a lighted torch. Although women did not take part in the imperialistic actions, she represents the civilized blind white men coming to Africa to enlighten the natives. She is blind because the Europeans were not able to see the damage they were doing to native Africans with their enterprises, and they were also blinded by the greed.The whited sepulcher. It refers to the hypocrisy of the Companies and the European civilized society, so beautiful in their intention of civilizing the savages from Africa but black and corrupted in their real actions and purposes.

It alludes to a biblical passage in the book of Matthew when Jesus talk to the Pharisees and call them hypocrites (Matthew 23: 27-28 ¨27 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.¨).Two knitting women. They are knitting the destiny of a human life according to the Ancient Greeks. The thread made of black wool represents