In Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, color as symbolism plays a large role. Colors, specifically black and white, are used to symbolize evil and good. Other colors are also used, to portray different aspects of the novella such as death, industry and cowardice. The use of these colors helps the author to convey his message.
             The colors white and black, which are two archetypal colors, are known to stand for purity and death. After he receives his job, Marlow travels to Brussels the city that reminds him of a "whited sepulcher." The sepulcher which is something horrid that represents death and confinement is a reminder that Europe is the place that originally brought native people to their deaths. Its whiteness contrasts the black, as having beauty within it, underneath all the black. The reference to Brussels as a "whited sepulchre" is meant to allude to the Book of Matthew. In the passage, Matthew describes "whited sepulchres" as something beautiful on the outside but containing horrors within the tombs; thus, the image is appropriate for Brussels, given the hypocritical Belgian rhetoric about imperialism's civilizing mission.
             Throughout the story, people are thought to have white souls or black souls depending on their innate "goodness" or "badness" or the role they are fulfilling at the time. The color of a person's soul is often contrasted to the color of their skin. A black- souled, white-skinned person is thought to be evil and dishonest. "I met a white man in such an unexpected elegance of getup..." This demonstrates how a white man was not expected to be a good person. Elegance of dress was unexpected because the man was white. In comparison, a white-souled, black-skinned person is thought to be truthful and full of integrity. "An athletic black belonging to some coast tribe and educated by my poor predecessor....thought all the world of himsel...