The symbolism of ¡§Heart of Darkness¡¨ and their relationship to the main themes of the story

As we know, any critics think that Conrad succeeded in adopting symbolism in ¡§Heart of Darkness¡¨ to express his theme. In this essay, I¡¦d like to discuss some symbolic representations in his story and try my best to explain the relationship between the symbolism and the theme.
I will begin with the ¡§rivers¡¨. Conrad mentions two rivers in the text----the Thames and the Congo River. The Thames is the matter that touches off Marlow¡¦s narrative and it becomes connected with all waterways in the world, including the river in the Hades. Marlow¡¦s first words are uttered as a fragment of an ongoing conversation, whose contents remain unknown to the reader:¡¨ And this also ¡K has been one of the dark places of the earth.¡¨ In the same way as the Roman conquerors once spread ¡§civilization¡¨ to England, the Thames, representing the heart of Empire, has continued to send out her missionaries and explorers to bring light into darkness. Then the Congo River. Conrad co...