character change Charlie Marlow -- final essay

Character change Charlie Marlow

Charlie is the main person in the novel “Heart of Darkness”.

Marlow is ethical person and look like a nice guy the first time. His character changes until the end of the story. He is a helpless person, because he says nothing about the slavery he sees. The first question is why and who changed his view of the world? The answer is Kurtz from that Charlie hears at the beginning. At this time he isn’t interested in him and thinks he is a normal person. Time after time Marlow hears more about the mysterious Kurtz, who is the chef of the Inner Station. This makes Marlow more thinking about it. On his steamer he has natives after an attack of the savages a helmsman dies. He is throwing the corpse in the wild stream so that the natives don’t eat him. Then he sees Kurtz the first time. By that time he gets interested in Kurtz and is fascinated by the nature. Marlow can work on his own and is a bit philosophic in the topic nature. The evolution of his mind has do with the natives either. Important words for that are “And this also has been one of the dark places of the earth”. He says too, that “Strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others”, “This conquest of the earth, which means the taking it away from who has a different complexion [..] than ourselves, is not a pretty thing”. All these sentences acknowledge the theses that Marlow is a philosopher. It shows too, that he changed. He makes you think about the use of the words “criminals”, “rebels” and “savages”. The natives are called criminals by the whites in the station. Marlow thinks the opposite. One good example for it is that Kurtz is dead, although there is no proof of it. Later he says that he “got a savage”. So he learned from Kurtz how dark the real world is. At his change he makes you think about the use of lies. The whole story Marlow doesn’t lie, only at the end when he is talking to Kurtz’ girlfriend. With the time Marlow sees the natives as friends and wants to hear more about Kurtz. When he finally sees Kurtz the last time Kurtz says that he is waiting for the death.” The horror…the horror”. This last quotation also means that he knows, how the world really looks like. Marlow gets like the “new Kurtz” so he made a travel in his own psyche. So if we summarize all facts the most change in Marlow’s personality did Kurtz and the natives. In some sentences Marlow tells something about the Buddhism, which also a part of it. He identifies himself a few time with it. Marlow learned that the earth is still a dark place and will ever be and that slavery still exists.