The Character of Marlow in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness :: Heart Darkness essays

The Character of Marlow in The Heart of Darkness  Ã‚      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