The Character of Marlow in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

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The Character of Marlow in The Heart of Darkness

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 Marlow’s 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

his childhood vision of being a captain. I didn’t 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 didn’t have his

dream job, but he was still well off. One day though Marlow’s 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 wasn’t sure how to get it himself This is where I start

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