Heart of Darkness

Marlow begins his tale of a journey with London in the old times to show how London was "when the Romans came here." It was a place of darkness with death, disease and depression. Marlow tries to show how London, now a place of luxury and civilization was once a place of savagery. The connection between London in Roman times and the colonization of Africa is that they think that Africa is a place of darkness, uncivilized and needing to be conquered. Using their power, hate, and ignorance they want to take over what was once a place of mystery (white) and lead it towards darkness. It is this idea itself that leads these men towards "the heart of darkness" as they ignorantly think one culture is better or less detestable than another. It is this blindness on a massive scale that leads them to a desire to conquer what is present- "the white patch" - Africa.