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Ethos
Key Examples in Heart of Darkness
Part 1
Explanation and Analysis—Marlow's Story:
Most of Heart of Darkness consists of one massive flashback: Charles Marlow tells a group of other sailors about his trip to the Congo several years before. Just like other works of fiction use flashbacks to explain a character’s personal history and motivations, Heart of Darkness tells Marlow’s story through flashbacks in order to emphasize how his time in the Congo turned him from a starry-eyed idealist into the bitter cynic he is today. In fact, he seems to dwell on his time in the Congo even though he knows that his audience probably doesn’t care, which suggests that he’s still haunted by it. This is evident in Part 1:
“I don’t want to bother you much with what happened to me personally,” [Marlow] began, showing in this remark the weakness of many tellers of tales who seem so often unaware of what their audience would like best to hear; “yet to understand the effect of it on me you ought to know how I got out there, what I saw, how I went up that river to the place where I first met the poor chap.”
Related Themes:
Part 3
Explanation and Analysis—Marlow's Story:
Most of Heart of Darkness consists of one massive flashback: Charles Marlow tells a group of other sailors about his trip to the Congo several years before. Just like other works of fiction use flashbacks to explain a character’s personal history and motivations, Heart of Darkness tells Marlow’s story through flashbacks in order to emphasize how his time in the Congo turned him from a starry-eyed idealist into the bitter cynic he is today. In fact, he seems to dwell on his time in the Congo even though he knows that his audience probably doesn’t care, which suggests that he’s still haunted by it. This is evident in Part 1:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“I don’t want to bother you much with what happened to me personally,” [Marlow] began, showing in this remark the weakness of many tellers of tales who seem so often unaware of what their audience would like best to hear; “yet to understand the effect of it on me you ought to know how I got out there, what I saw, how I went up that river to the place where I first met the poor chap.”
Related Themes:
