zation and the uncivilized world, respectively. In some cases, the description of darkness appears racist, yet it serves to reveal how the opposite of the European colonialist way of thinking is true. Marlow tells his shipmates about his childhood dreams of visiting uncharted places on maps. However, once a space had been discovered by Europeans, "it had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery - a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. It had become a place of darkness" (22). Once the location had been discovered by the civilized world, it was exposed to the light of development. Without the arrival of the light of the Europeans for use in comparison, the Congo would be neither light nor dark; it is civilization that creates the primitive darkness. The initiative that compels imperialism is the idea that the radiance of civilization will bring light to the darkness of uncivilized nations. However, since the darkness does not exist until the light arrives, the notion of imperialism places a result before its cause. The irony of imperialism is introduced in the first scene of the novel, where the narrator states that London "seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth" (17). The pinnacle of European civilization is covered in darkness, the same darkness that surrounds the uncivilized Congo, "a colossal
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