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Role of Marlow in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness
Essay on the dual role played by marlow in heart of darkness
Conrad heart of darkness marlows journey
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In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Marlow can be seen as the hero of the story despite his alternating morals and the fact that Marlow ultimately does nothing to improve the situation in Africa. Throughout the whole narrative Marlow finds himself thrust into many shocking situations yet chooses the path of an observant bystander, giving his own opinion at the time, but no lasting action or motivation is conceived. On top of this fact Marlow’s morals are anything but set in stone; they waver innumerable times over the course of the plot. Yet Marlow is more often than not seen as the prominent hero of the plot. How is this possible? This is because readers aren’t looking for perfection in a character, but depth, and Marlow achieves this level of depth through his epiphanies and the changes that take place in his perception of the world. These revelations in turn challenge the reader to reevaluate themselves.
Marlow’s attitude towards colonization is made very clear in the first pages of the book. He is very critical about the whole process and is very cold towards affair. Marlow states: “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. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only.” (Conrad 70). Marlow’s gains this perspective on colonization throughout his journey, thus already foreshadowing change within Marlow’s character.
Marlow embarks on a journey to be the captain of a small steamboat to navigate the Congo river for a trading company. On ...
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...or their own benefit. Thus it can be concluded that predominantly Marlow is the also the moral hero of the story.
Marlow the accidental hero in the story not just because of his status as the protagonist of the book but because of the depth of his character and just how effective he is at conveying Conrad’s messages. Marlow never strived to become the hero of his story. Nevertheless he is the hero - the accidental hero. His believable flaws and personality allow Marlow to connect personally with the reader and through his speculations provokes self-reexamination. Yes, Marlow isn’t perfect, but it is these flaws that allow space for the reader to exercise sympathy and try to understand Marlow’s situation, just as Marlow strived to understand the natives’.
Works Cited
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness ; And, The Secret Sharer. New York: Signet Classic, 1997. Print.
Three Works Cited The story is about a man named Marlow, who is hired by The Company, which is a shipping company located in England. Although Marlow had sailed before, he had never sailed to Africa. The people who operated The Company (those located in England) are so far removed from reality, that they have no concept of the devastation caused in order to ship vast loads of ivory. The Company is a perfect example of how these profit driven industries obtain their wealth – through the blatant disregard of the environment and their fellow man.
Unlike other white men who went into the Congo River for unmoral or materialistic reasons, such as to Christianize the natives or to get rich by exploiting all the ivories in the jungle, Marlow does not feel right about how the Imperialistic European countries exploit of the rest of the world. This is shown very clearly when Marlow says “This devoted band called itself the Eldorado Exploring Expedition, and I believe they were sworn to secrecy. Their talk, however, was the talk of sordid buccaneers: it was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage, there was not an atom of fore-sight or of serious intention in the whole batch of them, and they did not seem aware ...
Marlow begins his journey with high morals and an ignorance of native Africa. He becomes acquainted with a seaman named Kurtz, a brilliant man in everyone’s eyes, who fights the same battle as Marlow but eventually gives into greed. Marlow thinks highly of Kurtz when they first meet but then realizes something about him is corrupt, “The point was in his being a gifted creature, and that of all his gifts the one that stood out pre-eminently, 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 (ch 2, ¶24).” Marlow discovers the shadiness of the company when he begins working with them. He describes their evil desires with, "It was as unreal as everything else - as the philanthropic pretence of the whole concern, as their talk, as their government, as their show of work. The only real feeling was a desire to get appointed to a trading-post where ivory was to be had, so that they could earn percentages. They intrigued and sla...
Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness revolves around the enigmatic character of Kurtz, a renegade that has split from the authority and control of his organization, that wants to put a stop to his extreme measures and "unsound methods" (Coppola, 1979; Longman, 2000). As a result of Kurtz actions, the character of Marlow is sent to retrieve Kurtz from the desolate outback and as the reader we are lead through the involvement of a tension-building journey up the great river Congo. Along the way, Marlow is given bits of information about Kurtz's actions and finds that he himself identifies with, and becoming somewhat fond of the man. Their relationship and ending moments helps to bring about a change in Marlowe’s very perceptions on colonialism as well as enlightening the reader to various components held within their characters.
Because of the way that Marlow has never experienced this crowd previously, he does not know how to cooperate with them or clarify their physical qualities. Case in point, when Marlow first sets his eyes on a gathering of African Americans he rapidly states, “You could see from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening. They shouted, sang; their bodies streamed with perspiration; they had faces like grotesque masks” (Conrad, 16). With only one look, Marlow is making generalizations about the whole African American populace. His cliché nature is seen again when a percentage of the locals are slouched under trees and he expresses that they are not foes or criminals, yet in any case he leaves as quick as he can as far from the indigenous as he can. Marlow does not know who these individuals are or what to consider them, yet that does not pardon his judgment and scorn towards them. Finally, Marlow demonstrated that he had no sensitivity towards the Africans when he watches them in the Congo 's thick woodland expressing, “They were dying slowly it was very clear … nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness 3rd Ed. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: Norton Critical, 1988.
In Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, multiple characters change based off of the series of events that occur around them. The easiest character to pick out of the book is Marlow. At first, Marlow ventures out with the intention of civilizing the Congo, but as he arrives, he is in shock to see that there is absolutely no effort to edify the natives. "And also this," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the darkest places on earth" (Conrad 3). Here, Marlow comes to the realization of how human nature is inherently sinful through viewing how the natives are treated. As the book continues, Marlow's moral code becomes like those who he has surrounded himself with. For example, as the Helmsman is speared to death, Marlow acts in a
Marlow also symbolizes the uncorrupted men that traveled to foreign lands to help the 'uncivilized' become cultured, but unlike the others Marlow does not become indoctrinated by an alternative motive. He is able to see through the materialistic ideals that had plagued the men before him. Marlow has the open-mindedness and sensitivity that was absent during Imperialism, but doesn't have the courage or power to stop the abuses that where ongoing. Marlow is proof that when confronted a man's evil side can be both informative and perilous.
Heart of Darkness has been reviewed by many different critics. There are many issues in Joseph Conrad’s book such as imperialism, cruelty, and how isolation can change a person. A noticeable topic in the book is the ending with Marlow. The book has an outer and inner story. Marlow tells the inner story because it is of his previous experience in Africa. In the beginning of the book, Marlow says that he hates lying yet he lies to Kurtz’s Intended. In order to figure out why Marlow lied and how it affects the story, evidence from different sources must be viewed.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer. New York: Signet Classics, 1997. Print.
At the beginning of the novel, Marlow is traveling the jungle and the many scenes of life can be seen. Africa has seems to be taken over by many travelers which makes one wonder what is there ulterior motive? Africa is a third world country, which makes it easy for someone to come in and talk on their soapbox. It is very easy to tell that these men are not the biggest fans of colored people, so it is plausible that they have come to instill a sense of imperialism. As Marlow passes through the waters of the Congo it is easily visible the trouble of the natives. “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth half coming out, half effaced with the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair.” (20) Show that the holding of these colonies has started. The soldiers have come in and taken the inhabitants and are destroying them and taking from them the one thing they deserve over everything, life. The imperialists seem to not care about the Africans and are just there for their land.
Marlow idolizes Kurtz because he cannot differentiate himself from him. Both men fall victim to the spell of the wilderness, although each choose a different path. What scares Marlow is how easily he could’ve chosen to become a barbarian like Kurtz and abandon his naive view of humans as basically equal. Marlow’s paradox of intention is yet another layer Conrad creates to distance himself from the plot. By making Marlow empathetic with Kurtz, the reader is forced to consider him as something other than a
Conrad uses the character of Marlow to make use of his own thoughts and views about the people in the Congo. He feels pity for them as he sees them falling down carrying heavy packages and Kurtz commanding them like a batallion of troups. This sight angers Marlow and when he gets to Kurtz, it’s too late. Even he has been pulled in by the darkness. Conrad makes an effective distinction between Marlow and Kurtz.
Marlow starts out as just as everyman, trying to put some bread on the table. His original plans were setting out to make money, but his journey turns into so much more. His expedition turns into a quest to find and save Kurtz, and to understand the people so many were prejudice against.
In the novel Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad, Marlow finds himself in a position in which he is forced to accept the fact that the man he has admired and looked up to is a madman. He realizes that Kurtzs methods are not only unethical, but inhumane as well. Marlow comes to realize that Kurtz is evil, and that he himself is also evil. Therefore, Marlows disillusion makes his identification with Kurtz horrifying.