Heart of Darkness #6.1

Although Kurtz's painting is meant to represent justice, with the woman bringing light and seeing everything equally since she is blindfolded, Conrad uses it as an ironic symbol. It can be assumed that Marlow would disagree with the painting's intended meaning because of the frequent sarcasm that he uses to tell his story. In the context of the story, the woman no longer represents justice, but she instead represents the white Europeans who are taking over Africa and enslaving the natives. The Europeans claim to be bringing light, knowlege, and civilization to the darkness and, in some cases, may actually believe it. The woman in the painting who represents the Europeans is blindfolded, meaning that the Europeans do not realize and see the true evil nature of their actions. Furthermore, the sinister look that the light casts on the woman's face reveals that although the Europeans believe they are doing good by enslaving the Africans and "civilizing" them, they are in fact bringing out their evilness and increasing their savagery.

Heart of Darkness #2.1

Marlow starts off with an account of London in old times because he wants to compare London to Africa. He does this by saying that England used to be uncivilized just like Africa and, and so the Romans colonized England just like the English colonized Africa. The civilized cultures always think that it is their duty and their right to "civilize" the ignorant and less capable cultures. The civilized cultures think that they know what is best and so they ignore the protests of the cultures they are destroying.