Instances of the word "dark" in Heart of Darkness
Part One
1- The air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth.
2- They had sailed from Deptford, from Greenwich, from Erith—the adventurers and the settlers; kings' ships and the ships of men on 'Change; captains, admirals, the dark"interlopers" of the Eastern trade, and the commissioned "generals" of East India fleets.
3- "And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth."
4- But darkness was here yesterday.
5- They were men enough to face the darkness.
6- It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind—as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness.
7- It had become a place of darkness.
8- Often far away there I thought of these two, guarding the door of Darkness , knitting black wool as for a warm pall, one introducing, introducing continuously to the unknown, the other scrutinizing the cheery and foolish faces with unconcerned old eyes.
9- The edge of a colossal jungle, so dark -green as to be almost black, fringed with white surf, ran straight, like a ruled line, far, far away along a blue sea whose glitter was blurred by a creeping mist.
10- To the left a clump of trees made a shady spot, where dark things seemed to stir feebly.
11- He sealed the utterance with that smile of his, as though it had been a door opening into a darkness he had in his keeping.
12- As I approached the glow from the dark I found myself at the back of two men, talking.
13- It had become so pitch dark that we listeners could hardly see one another.
14- A dark figure obscured the lighted doorway of the manager's hut, vanished, then, a second or so after, the doorway itself vanished, too.
Part Two
1- I saw him extend his short flipper of an arm for a gesture that took in the forest, the creek, the mud, the river—seemed to beckon with a dishonouring flourish before the sunlit face of the land a treacherous appeal to the lurking death, to the hidden evil, to the profound darkness of its heart.
2- We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.
3- There remained a rude table—a plank on two posts; a heap of rubbish reposed in a dark corner, and by the door I picked up a book.
4- 'It will not save him from getting into trouble if he is not careful,' muttered the manager darkly.
5- Moreover, he pointed out that if the warning to approach cautiously were to be followed, we must approach in daylight—not at dusk or in the dark.
6- Their headman, a young, broad-chested black, severely draped in dark -blue fringed cloths, with fierce nostrils and his hair all done up artfully in oily ringlets, stood near me. 'Aha!' I said, just for good fellowship's sake. 'Catch 'im,' he snapped, with a bloodshot widening of his eyes and a flash of sharp teeth—'catch 'im. Give 'im to us.' 'To you, eh?' I asked; 'what would you do with them?'
7- The man had rolled on his back and stared straight up at me; both his hands clutched that cane. It was the shaft of a spear that, either thrown or lunged through the opening, had caught him in the side, just below the ribs; the blade had gone in out of sight, after making a frightful gash; my shoes were full; a pool of blood lay very still, gleaming dark -red under the wheel; his eyes shone with an amazing lustre.
8- The point was in his being a gifted creature, and that of all his gifts the one that stood out preeminently, that carried with it a sense of real presence, was his ability to talk, his words—the gift of expression, the bewildering, the illuminating, the most exalted and the most contemptible, the pulsating stream of light, or the deceitful flow from the heart of an impenetrable darkness.
9- The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own.
10- Of course you may be too much of a fool to go wrong—too dull even to know you are being assaulted by the powers of darkness.
11- "The manager stood by the wheel murmuring confidentially about the necessity of getting well away down the river before dark at all events, when I saw in the distance a clearing on the riverside and the outlines of some sort of building.
Part Three
1- I looked around, and I don't know why, but I assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arch of this blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark , so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness.
2- They waded waist-deep in the grass, in a compact body, bearing an improvised stretcher in their midst. Instantly, in the emptiness of the landscape, a cry arose whose shrillness pierced the still air like a sharp arrow flying straight to the very heart of the land; and, as if by enchantment, streams of human beings—of naked human beings—with spears in their hands, with bows, with shields, with wild glances and savage movements, were poured into the clearing by the dark -faced and pensive forest.
3- I resented bitterly the absurd danger of our situation, as if to be at the mercy of that atrocious phantom had been a dishonouring necessity. I could not hear a sound, but through my glasses I saw the thin arm extended commandingly, the lower jaw moving, the eyes of that apparition shining darkly far in its bony head that nodded with grotesque jerks.
4- 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.
5- " Dark human shapes could be made out in the distance, flitting indistinctly against the gloomy border of the forest, and near the river two bronze figures, leaning on tall spears, stood in the sunlight under fantastic head-dresses of spotted skins, warlike and still in statuesque repose.
6- I felt an intolerable weight oppressing my breast, the smell of the damp earth, the unseen presence of victorious corruption, the darkness of an impenetrable night….
7- One of his pockets (bright red) was bulging with cartridges, from the other ( dark blue) peeped 'Towson's Inquiry,' etc., etc.
8- "When I woke up shortly after midnight his warning came to my mind with its hint of danger that seemed, in the starred darkness , real enough to make me get up for the purpose of having a look round.
9- The night was very clear; a dark blue space, sparkling with dew and starlight, in which black things stood very still.
10- "The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness , bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz's life was running swiftly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time.
11- It survived his strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence the barren darkness of his heart.
12- "His was an impenetrable darkness.
13- "One evening coming in with a candle I was startled to hear him say a little tremulously, 'I am lying here in the dark waiting for death.'
14- There was a lamp in there—light, don't you know—and outside it was so beastly, beastly dark.
15- Since I had peeped over the edge myself, I understand better the meaning of his stare, that could not see the flame of the candle, but was wide enough to embrace the whole universe, piercing enough to penetrate all the hearts that beat in the darkness.
16- He became darkly menacing at last, and with much heat argued that the Company had the right to every bit of information about its 'territories.'
17- He lived then before me; he lived as much as he had ever lived—a shadow insatiable of splendid appearances, of frightful realities; a shadow darker than the shadow of the night, and draped nobly in the folds of a gorgeous eloquence.
18- The vision seemed to enter the house with me—the stretcher, the phantom-bearers, the wild crowd of obedient worshippers, the gloom of the forests, the glitter of the reach between the murky bends, the beat of the drum, regular and muffled like the beating of a heart—the heart of a conquering darkness.
19- A grand piano stood massively in a corner; with dark gleams on the flat surfaces like a sombre and polished sarcophagus.
20- The room seemed to have grown darker , as if all the sad light of the cloudy evening had taken refuge on her forehead.
21- This fair hair, this pale visage, this pure brow, seemed surrounded by an ashy halo from which the dark eyes looked out at me.
22- But with every word spoken the room was growing darker , and only her forehead, smooth and white, remained illumined by the inextinguishable light of belief and love.
23- The darkness deepened.
24- 'It is the gift of the great,' she went on, and the sound of her low voice seemed to have the accompaniment of all the other sounds, full of mystery, desolation, and sorrow, I had ever heard—the ripple of the river, the soughing of the trees swayed by the wind, the murmurs of the crowds, the faint ring of incomprehensible words cried from afar, the whisper of a voice speaking from beyond the threshold of an eternal darkness.
25/26- 'Yes, I know,' I said with something like despair in my heart, but bowing my head before the faith that was in her, before that great and saving illusion that shone with an unearthly glow in the darkness , in the triumphant darkness from which I could not have defended her—from which I could not even defend myself.
27/28- It would have been too dark —too dark altogether…."
29- The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky—seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.
Total Word Count of Novella: 37915
Total Instances of "Dark": 54
Ratio: 702:1
Part of Text and Frequency of "Dark"
| Part of Text | Word Count | "Dark" | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | 14258 | 14 | 1018:1 |
| II | 12058 | 11 | 1096:1 |
| III | 11599 | 29 | 400:1 |
Marlow's Location and Frequency of "Dark"
| Location | Word Count | "Dark" | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | 2061 | 6 | 343:1 |
| Belgium | 1690 | 1 | 1690:1 |
| Africa | 28832 | 31 | 930:1 |
| Belgium | 3175 | 14 | 227:1 |
| England | 163 | 2 | 82:1 |
Africa Section Before Kurtz:
Word Count: 20480
"Dark": 17
Ratio: 1205:1
Africa Section with Kurtz
Word Count: 8352
"Dark": 14
Ratio: 597:1
European Sections
Word Count: 7089
"Dark": 23
Ration: 308:1
"Heart" appears in the same sentence as "dark" ten times. In two of these sentences (2.10 and 3.18 above) "heart" appears twice.
Heart appears in sentences without "dark" fourteen times.
Almost half of "heart"'s appearances are in sentences with "dark" (12 with, 14 without).
Marlow's Location and Frequency of "Heart"
| Location | Word Count | "Heart" | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | 2061 | 2 | 1031:1 |
| Belgium | 1690 | 0 | - |
| Africa | 28832 | 15 | 1922:1 |
| Belgium | 3175 | 8 | 397:1 |
| England | 163 | 1 | 163:1 |
Africa Section Before Kurtz
Word Count: 20480
"Heart": 7
Ratio: 2926:1
Africa Section with Kurtz
Word Count: 8352
"Heart": 8
Ratio: 1044:1
European Sections
Word Count: 7089
"Heart": 11
Ratio: 644:1