If the Accountant represents the moral impasse of the colonial agenda, then the Pilgrims represent the Company’s senseless, inexorable greed. At times, the Pilgrims are so absurd in their fixation on the acquisition of wealth that they appear almost comical – particularly to Marlow, who does not understand their obsession with ivory. The pilgrims fetishise ivory – Marlow incredulously relays how the word ivory appears to “ring in the air” around them. This is particularly ironic considering the Pilgrims are seen carrying “long staves” – at least in appearance, they embody religious morality and piousness, though it soon becomes clear that the only thing they truly worship is material gain and self-aggrandisement. The Pilgrims thereby become patent signifiers of the hypocrisy of imperial propaganda.
