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
lighthod Detachment in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
Detachment in Heart of Darkness
In the book Heart of Darkness, Marlowe only allows himself to
form only one bond. Marlowe allows himself to form a small “safe”
attachment to Kurtz because Kurtz is already very attached. He does not
form any other bonds. In fact, he uses his racism to eliminate the
possibility of having feelings for about ninety nine percent of the African
population. Marlowe not only looks at the African people as being to
different from him to be normal, but he goes so far as to describe
Africa as being another world, a world containing savages. He would not
let himself become attached to this land, or it’s inhabitants. Anytime
he feels himself having a relationship with anyone, he purposely stops
himself from feeling, fearing that opening himself up may result in
rejection and/or heartbreak.
He claimed that he felt a connection with Kurtz this, I believe,
is because he knew that this was “safe.” This was “safe” because he
knew that Kurtz would die before any real attachment could be made. He
also knew that Kurtz would not have the same feeling for him as he had
for Kurtz. This is because Kurtz already had two girlfriends, and a
best friend (the Russian). This was something that Marlowe could deal
with because Kurtz was already deeply involved so it held little risk
for intense attachment. This is also shown when the helmsman,
man who steers the ship, gets killed. Marlowe says that he liked that
man because he was reliable, and not mush else. He did not even shed a tear for a man that he worked everyday with for the last
six months. He simply threw him overboard, thinking about it for only a
few minutes and then, he walked away. The Cannibals on the ship were
starving. They had almost no food with them, and were not given the
opportunity to buy food. The helmsman body could have been enough food
for all of them for awhile. Marlowe, acting in character, did not care
about this. He said that it may start a bad chain of events. Because
of this all of the Cannibals went hungry for the rest of the trip.
Going along with his inability to have healthy relationships
with people and his inability to care, is his racism. This racism acts
as a good buffer against attachment.