Heart of Darkness Prompt #1

In the scene when Marlowe is in the European office of the ivory company, discuss the significance and symbolism of the following:  the knitting women and their black wool; the yellow patch on the map; the manager’s paleness and corpulence.

 

The knitting women are there to act as symbols of fate. First off their knitting is very similar to the Fates of Greek mythology. The Fates spun string that would be the fate of a person, and they would cut it when that person died. The women are also described as “fateful,” further strengthening their connection to the Fates. The elderly women sitting at this building where young men come in and sign up to go to the uncharted parts of Africa shows that they are the young men are beginning their fate. Once more people start coming in the elderly women start knitting “feverishly,” as if for every soul that came through the door they had to knit a fate for them.The black in the wool represents death. The doctor says that he barely sees any of the people he examines come back, implying that many of them will die. The map that Marlow sees is filled with many colors. It is predominantly filled with red, which was a symbol for the blood shed to claim those areas. The book ironically says that the red was “good to see…one knows that real work is done in there.” The yellow patch was at the center of the map, in the heart of the land. But the yellow is a vibrant color; it comes to represent excitement, adventure, and discovery.