Oppositions in the Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is full of oppositions. The most obvious is the juxtaposition of darkness and light, both present from the beginning, in the imagery and in the metaphor. The short story is a confusing mix of anti-imperialism and racism, civilization and savagery, idealism and nihilism. How to reconcile them? One might expect the final scene, in which Marlow confronts Kurtz's Fate, to provide a solution. However, it rather seems like this is simply meant to focus the book's dilemmas, rather than resolve them. Throughout the first part of his interview with Kurtz's Intended, Marlow talks about saving her from darkness: "Yes, I know," I said. with something like despair in my heart, but bowing my head before the faith that was in her, before this great and saving illusion which shone with a supernatural glow in the darkness, in the triumphant darkness of which I would not have could defend it - against which I could not even defend myself. He has a somewhat sexist view of women; as he stated earlier in his story, he believes that women cannot cope with reality and therefore need illusions to survive. interview with the interview Scheduled in the narration sequence, the story is told after the interview has taken place, and it is therefore not unreasonable to assume that Marlow's views on women were formed at from this same middle of paper. ......Adelman, Gary. Heart of Darkness: In Search of the Unconscious. Boston: Little & Brown, 1987. Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Ross C Murfin. Second ed. New York: Bedford Books, 1996. Levenson, Michael. “The value of facts in the heart of darkness.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction 40 (1985):351-80. Professor's Comments: Very well done – subtle, insightful and well argued. A very sophisticated and beautifully written article overall. I would have liked you to include the details of the setting, but more importantly, see the question on p. 4 [Well, recognize that its “certainty” only exists, and that it is only “inextinguishable,” because it is a blind illusion. Do you think this is what Conrad offers us as a source of hope?]: you stop just before moving to Conrad, and what he can offer us as "certainty" and even hope at the amidst all the fog.