Marlow Character Analysis in Heart of Darkness

One of the five men on the ship in the Thames. Heart of Darkness is mostly made up of his story about his journey into the Belgian Congo. Marlow is a seaman through and through, and has seen the world many times over. Perhaps because of his journeys, perhaps because of the temperament he was born with, he is philosophical, passionate, and insightful. But Marlow is also extremely skeptical of both mankind and civilization, and, to him, nothing is simple. As the Narrator describes him: "to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze." The one thing Marlow does seem to believe in as a source of simple moral worth is hard work.

Marlow Quotes in Heart of Darkness

The Heart of Darkness quotes below are all either spoken by Marlow or refer to Marlow. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

"And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth."

Related Characters: (speaker)

Related Symbols:

Page Number and Citation: 3

Explanation and Analysis:

In some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him—all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. There's no initiation either into such mysteries. He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is also detestable. And it has a fascination, too, that goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination—you know. Imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate.

Related Characters: (speaker),

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Page Number and Citation: 4

Explanation and Analysis:

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 4

Explanation and Analysis:

Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech—and nothing happened. Nothing could happen.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 11

Explanation and Analysis:

The word 'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it. A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse. By Jove! I've never seen anything so unreal in my life. And outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 20

Explanation and Analysis:

I let him run on, this papier--mâché Mephistopheles, and it seemed to me that if I tried I could poke my forefinger through him, and would find nothing inside but a little loose dirt, maybe.

Related Characters: (speaker),

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Page Number and Citation: 23

Explanation and Analysis:

Do you see him? Do you see the story? Do you see anything? It seems I am trying to tell you a dream—making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is the very essence of dreams... [...] ...No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one's existence—that which makes its truth, its meaning—its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream—alone.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 24

Explanation and Analysis:

In a few days the Eldorado Expedition went into the patient wilderness, that closed upon it as the sea closes over a diver. Long afterwards the news came that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals. They, no doubt, like the rest of us, found what they deserved. I did not inquire.

Related Characters: (speaker)

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Page Number and Citation: 29-30

Explanation and Analysis:

It was a distinct glimpse: the dugout, four paddling savages, and the lone white man turning his back suddenly on the headquarters, on relief, on thoughts of home—perhaps; setting his face towards the depth of the wilderness, towards his empty and desolate station.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 28

Explanation and Analysis:

The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.

Related Characters: (speaker)

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Page Number and Citation: 31

Explanation and Analysis:

It was unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—the suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you—you so remote from the night of first ages—could comprehend.

Related Characters: (speaker)

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Page Number and Citation: 32

Explanation and Analysis:

It was very simple, and at the end of that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment it blazed at you, luminous and terrifying like a flash of lightning in a serene sky: "Exterminate all the brutes!"

Related Characters: (speaker), (speaker)

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Page Number and Citation: 46

Explanation and Analysis:

There was something wanting in him—some small matter which, when the pressing need arose, could not be found under his magnificent eloquence. Whether he knew of this deficiency himself I can't say. I think the knowledge came to him at last—only at the very last. But the wilderness found him out early, and had taken vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude—and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating. It echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 53

Explanation and Analysis:

I was within a hair's-breadth of the last opportunity for pronouncement, and I found with humiliation that probably I would have nothing to say. This is the reason why I affirm that Kurtz was a remarkable man. He had something to say. He said it. [. . .] He had summed up—he had judged. "The horror!" He was a remarkable man.

Related Characters: (speaker),

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Page Number and Citation: 65

Explanation and Analysis:

I heard a light sigh and then my heart stood still, stopped dead short by an exulting and terrible cry, by the cry of inconceivable triumph and of unspeakable pain. 'I knew it—I was sure!' . . . She knew. She was sure. I heard her weeping; she had hidden her face in her hands. It seemed to me that the house would collapse before I could escape, that the heavens would fall upon my head. But nothing happened. The heavens do not fall for such a trifle.

Related Characters: (speaker), (speaker),

Related Symbols:

Related Literary Devices:

Page Number and Citation: 71-72

Explanation and Analysis:

Marlow Character Timeline in Heart of Darkness

The timeline below shows where the character Marlow appears in Heart of Darkness. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

The Hollowness of Civilization Theme Icon

...men on board the ship—the Director of Companies, the Lawyer, the Accountant, the Narrator, and Marlow, old friends from their seafaring days—settle down to await the changing of the tide. They... (full context)

Suddenly Marlow interrupts the silence. "And this also," Marlow says, "has been one of the dark places... (full context)

Marlow observes that none of the men on the boat would feel just like those Romans,... (full context)

Yet Marlow adds that conquest is never pretty and usually involves the powerful taking land from those... (full context)

Marlow then reminds the other men that he once served as captain of a freshwater riverboat,... (full context)

Marlow travels to the unnamed European city where the Company has its headquarters. He describes the... (full context)

At the Company's office, Marlow is let into a reception area presided over by two women, one fat, one slim,... (full context)

Marlow has a farewell chat with his aunt, who sees her nephew as an "emissary of... (full context)

Marlow boards the steamer that will take him to the mouth of the Congo with a... (full context)

At the mouth of the Congo, Marlow gets passage for thirty miles from a small steamer piloted by a Swede. The Swede... (full context)

...place. Machinery rusts everywhere, black laborers blast away at a cliff face for no reason. Marlow comments to the men on the Nellie that he had long known the "lusty devils"... (full context)

Marlow then stumbles upon what he calls the Grove of Death, a grove among the trees... (full context)

At the station, the Chief Accountant impresses Marlow with his good grooming. One day the Chief Accountant mentions that further up the river... (full context)

A few days later Marlow joins a caravan headed the two hundred miles upriver to Central Station. After a fifteen-day... (full context)

At the station, Marlow is greeted by the first man he sees with news that the ship he was... (full context)

Marlow, on the Nellie, says that though he can't be sure, he suspects that it's possible... (full context)

Marlow is immediately taken to see this General Manager, who is thoroughly unremarkable in intelligence, leadership,... (full context)

The General Manager explains why he took the steamship onto the river before Marlow, its pilot, arrived: Kurtz, the Company's best agent, is sick. The General Manager takes special... (full context)

Marlow sets to work fixing the ship and watches the absurd happenings of Central Station, where... (full context)

One night a shed bursts into flame. As Marlow approaches he sees a laborer being beaten for setting the blaze and overhears the General... (full context)

Marlow follows the Brickmaker back to his quarters, which are much nicer than any but the... (full context)

The Brickmaker, whom Marlow now calls a "papier-mâché Mephistopheles," continues to speak about Kurtz, and asks Marlow not to... (full context)

...because they have a "taint of death" and telling them is like "biting something rotten," Marlow pretends to have as much influence in Europe as the Brickmaker thinks he has in... (full context)

Suddenly, Marlow breaks off telling his story in order to try to explain to the men sitting... (full context)

Marlow resumes his story. When the Brickmaker leaves, Marlow boards his broken steamship, which he has... (full context)

Without rivets, Marlow can't do any work either. He has lots of time to think, and begins to... (full context)

Some time later, as Marlow rests on his steamship, he overhears the General Manager talking with his Uncle about Kurtz.... (full context)

...few days later the General Manager's uncle and his Eldorado Expedition head into the jungle. Marlow later heard that all their donkeys died, but never heard what happened to the "less... (full context)

After three months of work, Marlow finishes repairing the ship. He immediately sets off upriver with the General Manager, a few... (full context)

The trip is long and difficult. Marlow describes the jungle as a "thing monstrous and free" and the natives as beings "who... (full context)

Still, Marlow tells the other men on the Nellie, he often has a sense of the "mysterious... (full context)

...concludes the hut must belong to the trader he wants to hang. Inside the hut, Marlow discovers a technical book on sailing that seems to have code written on it. He... (full context)

Eight miles from the Inner Station, the General Manager orders Marlow to anchor the ship in the middle of the river for the night. Marlow wants... (full context)

...can't see anything. The cannibals want to catch and eat the men on the riverbank. Marlow realizes the cannibals must be incredibly hungry, and marvels at their restraint in not turning... (full context)

...a mile from Inner Station, a tiny island in the middle of the river forces Marlow to choose the western or eastern fork of the river. He chooses the western, which... (full context)

The pilgrims open fire into the bush, putting out smoke that blocks Marlow's vision. (full context)

A shotgun blasts just behind Marlow: the helmsman has dropped the wheel and started shooting out the window. Marlow jumps to... (full context)

Marlow realizes Kurtz is probably dead and feels an intense disappointment at the thought. Marlow then... (full context)

Suddenly, Marlow once again cuts short his story in order to address the men who are on... (full context)

After a long silence, Marlow says that Kurtz wasn't dead, and launches into a series of thoughts about him. Marlow... (full context)

Marlow returns to the dead helmsman, saying that Kurtz was a remarkable man, but wasn't worth... (full context)

...The pilgrims are happy, though, that they probably killed so many savages with their rifles. Marlow, however, is certain all the pilgrims shot too high, and killed no one. (full context)

When they arrive at Inner Station, Marlow and the other men on the ship are amazed to discover it in perfect shape.... (full context)

When the Russian says that the hut with the stacked wood was his old house, Marlow returns the book about sailing to him. The Russian in his joy tells Marlow that... (full context)

Marlow stares at the Russian in astonishment, and thinks that the Russian "surely wants nothing from... (full context)

Meanwhile, the Russian begs Marlow to take Kurtz away quickly. He tells of his first meeting with Kurtz, in which... (full context)

...he raids the jungle and other tribes for ivory. This comes as troubling news to Marlow, who had expected that Kurtz, with his morals, would trade for ivory, not take it... (full context)

...adds that Kurtz "suffered too much. He hated all this and somehow couldn't get away." Marlow, meanwhile, lifts binoculars to his eyes and looks at the building where he thinks Kurtz... (full context)

...the native chiefs came to see Kurtz they crawled up to him. This information disgusts Marlow, who comments that in contrast "uncomplicated savagery was a positive relief, being something that had... (full context)

The Russian can't understand Marlow's scorn at Kurtz's savage actions. He says that the Company abandoned Kurtz, who had such... (full context)

The pilgrims come out of the house bearing Kurtz on a stretcher. Marlow describes Kurtz as looking like "an animated image of death carved out of ivory." The... (full context)

The General Manager exits from the cabin. He tells Marlow that Kurtz is very ill and that Kurtz's "unsound methods" ruined the district for the... (full context)

When Marlow is alone, the Russian approaches. He has decided to slip away, correctly sensing that he's... (full context)

Marlow goes to sleep, but wakes suddenly just after midnight. As he looks around he notices... (full context)

The next day the ship departs. Kurtz, in the pilothouse with Marlow, watches the natives and his mistress come to the shore. Marlow spots the pilgrims getting... (full context)

...the General Manager will be secure in his position without having to do a thing. Marlow is often left alone with Kurtz, who speaks in his magnificent voice and with his... (full context)

The steamship soon breaks down, which doesn't surprise Marlow. But Kurtz becomes concerned he won't live to see Europe. He gives Marlow his papers,... (full context)

Soon after, Marlow himself falls ill. He calls his struggle with death "the most unexciting contest you can... (full context)

Marlow returns to the "sepulchral city" in Europe, where his aunt nurses him back to health... (full context)

A representative of the Company comes to get Kurtz's papers from Marlow, who offers him only On the Suppression of Savage Customs (with the scrawled "exterminate all... (full context)

Kurtz's cousin soon shows up. The cousin, a musician, tells Marlow that Kurtz was himself a great musician, then leaves with some family letters Marlow gives... (full context)

...great speaker. He could have been a great radical political leader—he could electrify a crowd. Marlow asks what party Kurtz would have belonged to. The journalist says any party: Kurtz could... (full context)

At last, Marlow works up the nerve to go to see Kurtz's Intended and give her the last... (full context)

Marlow, full of pity, does not dispute her claims. Finally, the Intended asks to hear Kurtz's... (full context)

Marlow, on the Nellie still at anchor in the Thames, goes quiet. The Narrator looks off... (full context)

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Marlow Character Analysis

Marlow Quotes in Heart of Darkness

Marlow Character Timeline in Heart of Darkness

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