The Fates in Heart of Darkness

When Marlow is in Belgium, he encounters two women dressed in black who are knitting with black wool. When I read about them my mind immediately jumped to the three fates of Greek mythology. First of all, their knitting obviously represents the thread that the fates spin, measure, and cut. Second, the fates are often portrayed as ugly old women, which, based on the description of the older one (mole on face, glasses on tip of nose, etc), these women are both ugly and old.

The women's actions also reflect the jobs of the Fates. One of them, the younger, is greeting people as they enter the building. She represents Clotho, the one who spins the thread of life. She's introducing people to their life with the Company, and she guides them into the building to create a contract. The older woman who sits and watches people represents Lachesis, the sister who measures the thread of life. The way she looks at them, how she seems to know all about their lives, captures the essence of the second sister, because after Lachesis measures their lives, she also has control over their destiny.

However, we don't see the third sister, Atropos. This final sister is the one who ends peoples lives by cutting the thread of life. Perhaps she will appear later in the story when Marlow has a close call with death, or maybe when others around him are dying. Or maybe the third sister isn't represented by a woman, but by the plump man that Marlow shakes hands with. The man is described as having a "grip on the handle-end of ever so many millions" (14). This man clearly has control over the lives of millions of people, which would make sense if he represents Atropos, as she controls when millions of people die.