In Heart of Darkness darkness symbolizes many things In the beginning of the book it represented the uncivilized the uneducated and death By the end of the book it represented the civilized and their true inner self the evil side of a person In the beginning of this book the darkness symbolizes the uncivilized Africans The Europeans say they want to civilize and educate the natives but in reality the Europeans are keeping the natives under their control To the Europeans the Africans are in dark