The Heart of Darkness may just be the title of a book to some people, but I believe that it goes much deeper than that. I think that this title describes the books main character, Charlie Marlow. Throughout this story I saw the many confusing and ever changing sides of Marlows character and his heart of darkness. Charlie Marlow appeared to be a man of great pride and civilization. He always spoke very proper and was a classic example of a man of his time. Throughout this novel though, this painted image I have of Marlow begins to slowly drip away.
There were several instances where I was confused about Marlow. The first one was at the very beginning of the story. Marlow began talking about his childhood and how he had dreamed of becoming a captain or a skipper on one of the glorious steamboats. He went on and on about it in such great detail that you almost began to believe that he was a captain, though he was only a young boy at the time. His determination and love seemed eternal, and nothing was going to take his dream away from him. At least that is what we were lead to believe.
Marlow soon grew old and so did his dream. I slowly saw the determination side of Marlow slipping away into the river along with is childhood vision of being a captain. I didnt think that something like age would stop Marlow from taking on this challenge. After he talked about it so much you would think only death itself would stop him. Unfortunately, Marlow gave up and decided to move on with his life. That was the way it was going to have to be, or so he thought. I saw Marlow as a seemingly comfortable old man now.
He didnt have his dream job, but he was still well off. One day though Marlows fantasy job basically just fell into his lap. A steamboat captain was killed and Marlow was not about to let another soul take this job away from him. He was fixed to get the job, but wasnt sure how to get it himself This is where I start to get even more confused with Marlow. Marlow didnt want to have to work to get the job, so he asked his Aunt to get the job for him. This struck me as very odd considering the way that Marlow felt about women.
He felt that women should just do there own little house chores and nothing else, for they werent needed and basically would just be in the way. After asking his Aunt to get him the job he made a comment that really made me angry. Marlow stated, “Then-would you believe it? -I tried the women. I, Charlie Marlow set the women to work-to get a job. Heavens! Well, you see it was the notion that drove me. ” ( Conrad 4 ) This is the point in the story that I find Marlow to be rather lazy.
If he had been so manly and wise dont you think that he could have gotten the job himself? I do. Of course his Aunt came through for him and Marlow was off to roam the river of his desire. Throughout the rest of this story Marlow just continues to confuse and at some times even frustrate me. There was one point in the story that Marlow almost seemed to have a heart. He saw a homeless man and stared at him, tarted to feel a bit sorry, but quickly caught himself almost as if having a conscience was a bad thing.
This is where I saw a big part of Marlows heart of darkness. Another thing that really bothered me about Marlow was how he got so caught Up in the image of Kurtz, even though he didnt even know him. I didnt think a man like Marlow would be a follower, but that just turned out to be another side of Marlow that I would begin to know. He began to lose sight of everyone around him and concentrated on just the illusion and image of a man that he had never even seen. Now that I have read this story I do not like Marlow at all. He is a self entered, and cold hearted man.
He didnt care about anything or anyone around him, except for the people that could give him something in return. Maybe I didnt get to what I was supposed to get out of this book, but I did get that Marlow is an extremely puzzling character. I know that people have many sides to them, but Marlow seemed to change so fast and drastic. I do however think that it was a good decision on Conrads part to make Marlow so dimensional. It really added a lot of interest to the novel. It almost kept you on your toes, because you never knew what type of character transformation Charlie Marlow was going to under go next.
