What kind of storyteller is marlow

Furthermore, the political impact is shown in the narrative and the character of Mr. Kurtz, and the social significance of the time is highlighted by the theme of racism and the portrayal of two prominent European characters in the text. The incorporation of these historical circumstances in Heart of Darkness indicates how much of an effect the outside world can have on a text.

It also illustrates the importance of knowing what some of those circumstances are before making assumptions or conclusions about the text and its meaning. On another level, it is about the journey into the soul of mankind. This contemplation leads him to remember an incident in his past when he commanded a steamboat on the Congo River.

When retelling his story, Marlow is a young man anxious to see the unexplored African jungles. An influential aunt in obtains an position as captain of a Congo steamer for Marlow. Marlow is asked by "the company", the organization for whom he works, to travel to the Congo river and report back to them about Mr. Kurtz, a top notch officer of theirs. When he sets sail, he doesn't know what to expect. When his journey is completed, this little "trip" will have changed Marlow forever.

Heart of Darkness is a story of one man's journey through the African Congo and the "enlightenment" of his soul. It begins with Charlie Marlow, along with a few of his comrades, cruising aboard the Nellie, a traditional sailboat.

Anchored at the mouth of the Thames river, five old friends pause their journey to wait out a tide at sundown. As they repose, they reminisce about the many great men and ships that travelled on river to complete multiple voyages for trade. He enters the Congo as an innocent sailor and leaves as a changed man. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad creates an allegory and archetypal journey that consists of: the task, the journey, the initiation, the fall, and the unhealable wound created during the expedition.

Through it all this narrator Marlow , gains a new understanding of the suffering that occurred back during this dark era of time. Kurtz, a Belgian ivory merchant whose barbaric control and influence over the indigenous people had changed him into a corrupt and revolting despot. The book is on the surface a dreamy narrative of adventures into the jungle in central Africa. Conrad 's novel, Heart of Darkness, depends on the authentic time of dominion keeping in mind the end goal to depict its hero, Charlie Marlow, and his battle.

He lies to Kurtz's Intended to save her from a broken heart and ultimately returns to Europe and his home, despite his having been convinced by the Company and Kurtz that civilization is, ultimately, a lie and an institution humans have created to channel their desires for power.

As Heart of Darkness progresses, Marlow becomes increasingly sensitive to his surroundings and the "darkness" that they may embody or hide. When he visits the Company's headquarters, for example, he is slightly alarmed by the doctor's comments and puzzled by the two women knitting black wool.

When he arrives at the Outer Station, however, he is shocked at the amount of waste and disregard for life he sees there. By the end of the novel, Marlow is almost unable to reintegrate himself into European society, having become convinced of the lies and "surface-truths" that sustain it. He tells his story to the men aboard the Nellie to share with them what he has learned about the darkness of the human heart — and the things of which that darkness is capable.

Previous Part 3. Indeed, Marlow does not populate his story with exaggerated tales or highly improbable occurrences, nor does he skimp on details. For this reason, Marlow is not unreliable due to a suspicion that he is misreporting or underreporting. Instead, he is unreliable due to his inability to make sense of his experience.

If he is not fully in control of his story and the meaning it contains, why, the reader wonders, is he telling it at all? Because Heart of Darkness makes use of a frame narrative, there is a second narrator. This second narrator also speaks in the first person, and in his narrative, the reader sees Marlow from an outside perspective.

This narrator is skeptical of Marlow, and he uses irony to indicate this.