Marlow And His Quest for Enlightenment

Marlow is the narrator of the story in “Heart of Darkness” whereas the first narrator, Conrad, also appears on the surface but only for a while. The plot and the theme of the novel depend on the experience which Marlow had narrated.

From his appearance “he had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect”. In the very beginning of the novel, Conrad equates Marlow with Buddha, a mystic figure. This is because Marlow will tell a very important lesson about human life at the end of the novel.

Marlow was appointed as a captain of steamboat and was assigned a duty to bring the most important trader of the Company, Mr. Kurtz back to Europe. In his journey to Africa through River Congo, he observed a lot of things including most importantly the inefficiency of the European people and their cruel attitude towards the native Africans. In this novel he narrates the whole story to his companions who are also sitting aboard for some journey.

Marlow is different from other European characters in many ways. First of all, he honestly performs his duty and reaches Africa despite bad circumstances. At time he was deliberately stopped from his journey to the inner station. By the orders of General Manger, the only steamboat at outer station was plunged into water. Due to this, Marlow had to stay there for a long time to get the steamboat fixed.

As he Marlow was on an official duty, he did not accept an invitation for a bowl and dance party held at a shore of the River Congo. This proves that Marlow was an honest employee of theCompany.

Another quality of Marlow is that he was a man with inner and spiritual strength. It is his spirituality that makes him feel the atrocities committed by his fellow Europeans. He openly criticizes the way the Europeans were treating thenative Africans. Similarly he highlights the inefficiency of the Europeans appointed in Africa. It is his spiritual self of which makes him think that he is an “imposter” in the company of cruel and selfish Europeans.

Marlow is a sensible person who looks at things with a critical point of view. He did not appreciate the Europeans pretending to be “civilizers”. He rightly said that the Europeans were in Africa just to grab the resources of the country. Since Africa was very much rich in ivory the Europeans arrived there and in the name of civilization they exploited the native citizens of Africa. A famous quotation of the novel, “conquest means having an idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea” is an indication towards his belief that the Europeans in Africa were just pretending and there wasn’t any sound idea behind their coming to the country. The only reason for which they were there was ivory.

While highlighting the real intention of the Europeans he said; “the only real feeling was a desire to get appointed to a trading post where ivory was to be had”.

Since Marlow was not an angelic figure, there were some flaws in his character. Two incidents can be quoted in this regard. First, Marlow became harsh towards the natives when they denied lifting a sick road-mender on his hammock because they were already loaded with heavy stuff on their backs. Here, Marlow’s harsh attitude is not something that can be justified. Second, he depicted a fireman in a very inhumane way. He called him “a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat”. Again, using abusive connotation for a poor black man is an act that has no justification. These incidents show that Marlow was also like typical Europeans in considering the natives inferior.

The most important characteristic of Marlow is that he got inspiration from Mr. Kurtz. He was enlightened by the final words uttered by Kurtz, “The Horror! The Horror”. Though he had heard much about the cruelties of Kurtz, yet he did not loose a chance of enlightenment. He took Kurtz as an inspirational source who gave him a lesson that a life full of cruelties is no more than a “horror”. Now it can be said that Marlow’s journey to the inner station was in fact to his inner-self learning a truth regarding life and spiritual side of humanity.

After enlightenment, Marlow becomes loyal to Kurtz. He does not hand over to the Company Manager the post script on which Kurtz had written “Exterminate all the brutes”. So it can be said that Marlow was a distinguished English man whose physical journey to Africa became a symbolic journey. Honesty, devotion and humanity are the dominant features of his personality.