Heart of Darkness: Marlow's Symbolic Character

Heart of Darkness: Marlow's Symbolic Character

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Marlow is one of the two narrators in “Heart of Darkness” and he is the more important of the two. Conrad has created a complex narrator in Marlow, a man who is not all good or all bad. Marlow narrates the story constituting the real substance of the novel. A mere narrator would objectively tell a story, keeping himself out of it. But in “Heart of Darkness”, Marlow himself is one of the central characters. As a narrator, Marlow is unreliable that he is not an objective teller of the story, but is instead emotionally conflicted about the events and people within his tale. He is also a figure who is alienated from the mainstream. He is also an observer, a thinker, and a commentator. Half of the interest and appeal of this novel would be lost if we were to ignore the role of Marlow in “Heart of Darkness”. Marlow also has a symbolic role. He stands for something bigger and larger than himself.

Marlow symbolizes the spirit of adventure and the love of exploration. The spirit of adventure is ineradicable and inborn but only some people possess it. The man seeks adventure to acquire knowledge. Marlow showed his spirit of adventure in his very boyhood when world-maps aroused his curiosity. He felt attracted by the African country, Congo, and fascinated by a river Congo. On growing up, he became a sailor, sailed upon many seas, and got an opportunity to explore the Congo and sail upon the river Congo. He does not go to there for trading purposes. It is to satisfy his spirit of adventure, and his boyhood longing, that he goes into the heart of darkness.

Marlow serves also as a symbol of the thoughtful observer of human life and the thoughtful student of human nature. Marlow symbolizes the class of curious people. He tries to probe the mind of everybody whom he encounters in the course of his travels. Firstly, Marlow observes the white men who have come to the Congo for trading purposes. He observes the chief accountant of the trading Company and feels much impressed by him who has kept up appearances even in a sordid environment and whose account-books are in apple-pie order. Marlow then observes the manager who is obeyed by his subordinates, but who can inspire neither respect, nor love, nor fear. To Marlow, he seems to be hollow. Next, Marlow observes the brick-maker and concludes that he is a papier-mâché Mephistopheles. The group of white traders, idling about, creates upon Marlow the impression that they are “faithless pilgrims”. Marlow clearly brings out the failings and the meanness of the white men. There is nothing admirable about what Marlow sees of their life in Congo.

Marlow observes the natives with same keenness and minuteness. He depicts the misery and the suffering of the poor, wretched and over-worked natives. He finds many of these starving to death slowly.

'They were dying slowly … They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly
now, - nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom.

He also sees a group of muscular natives paddling their boat in a carefree manner, enjoying their work. Then Marlow observes the self-restraint of his cannibal crew who are feeling very hungry but do not kill the white men to eat their flesh. Marlow also admits the hard-working helmsman on his steamship, but greatly laments the lack of caution on the part of that helmsman, leading to his death.

Marlow also gives us vivid pictures of the wild scenery on both banks of the river Congo, and he conveys to us fully the darkness of the jungle and its impenetrable thickness of trees, in addition to the dangers which lurk there.

Marlow as a keen observer, thinker and a commentator, appears even more in his study of the character of Mr. Kurtz. Marlow here appears as a philosopher-cum-psychologist by giving us a detailed portrayal of Mr. Kurtz. He conveys to us the evil which had taken control of Mr. Kurtz's mind and his actions. He tells us about the influence of barbarism of the natives that had begun to exercise upon Mr. Kurtz. He had begun to participate fully in the “unspeakable rites” and ceremonies of the savages and their mode of life. He had begun to gratify all his lusts, monstrous passions and had begun to experience all kinds of abominable satisfaction. Marlow also conveys Mr. Kurtz's inextinguishable gift of eloquence in speech and his irresistible influence upon those who encounter him. Here we must note that Marlow himself also falls to some extent, a prey to the evil in Mr. Kurtz. He also begins to experience the surge of primitive instincts in his own mind. Of course, much remains mysterious about Mr. Kurtz despite Marlow’s insight and Marlow’s vast knowledge of human nature; but the salient features of Mr. Kurtz have effectively and vividly been brought to our notice by Marlow who therefore becomes a symbol of the writer having a penetrating mind and a masterly way of writing.

Marlow also symbolizes self-exploration. Marlow’s journey into the Congo symbolizes a journey by Marlow into his own sun-conscious mind, and even into the sub-conscious mind of mankind in general. “Heart of Darkness” is not only a physical journey into an unexplored dark continent, but also a psychological and mystical journey. The Inner Station, where Mr. Kurtz lives, symbolizes the sub-conscious mind of man, and particularly of Marlow himself. On several occasions, Marlow reveals the working of his own mind to us in clear terms. Marlow shows a lot of bluntness when talking about himself and about the thoughts which cross his mind. He tells us freely about his hatred of lies, his assent in the brick-maker’s mistaken idea about him, his motive in telling a lie to Mr. Kurtz's fiancée at the end of the story. At least the lies have a pure motive, for they save the distraught fiancé. Just as he tells us frankly about the nightmare being the evil embodied by Mr. Kurtz, similarly he tells us of the inner strength which enabled him to withstand the dangers of his travel in the Congo, and he speaks of the dream-like quality of some of his experiences.

Unlike most Europeans who bought into the justifications for imperialism and saw it as a righteous cause, Marlow saw that it was nothing but greed. However, Marlow's ability to distance himself from the dominant thinking of the time does not fully free him from that kind of thinking. In the end, he accepts the injustice of imperialism by supporting the lies, which justify it.