Heart Of Darkness: The Symbol Of Ivory

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those hearts of
darkness: the Inner Station and Kurtz. Kurtz's relationship with ivory
seems to have been reiterated by every company member through the course of
the story. Of course Kurtz “harvested” more ivory than all the other
stations combined, and therefore it almost seems appropriate that Conrad
would use extensive ivory imagery in describing Kurtz. Earlier, during his
digression on Kurtz, Marlow says, “The wilderness had patted him on the
head, and, behold, it was like a ball—an ivory ball”. By the time that
Kurtz is carried out on a stretcher the evil has so overtaken him that, “I
could see the cage of his ribs all astir, the bones of his arms waving. It
was as though an animated image of death carved out of old ivory had been
shaking its hand with menaces at a motionless crowd of men made of dark and
glittering bronze”. The evil has now grown to encompass his entire body,
and soul. Kurtz's lust for ivory is recounted by the Russian. Once he
threatened to shoot the ...

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