Ana Sofa Gonzlez Saravia Pea

Marlow and Kurtz in Heart of Darkness. The creation of a character through the narrative
layers in the novel.

One of the most remarkable things about contemporary fiction is the ability and
originality of modern authors to explore the creative possibilities in narrative, due to the
fact that prose has been the dominant form of literature for the last hundred years. A clear
and influential example of this is Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, where the structure
of the novel is formed by numerous and complex narrative layers in which the characters
alternate between being agents in the story and narrators. Thus, a distance is created
between the story and the reader, since the story is being narrated not only by the first and
main narrator of the story, the nameless sailor, but also through a series of characters within
the novel, and, mainly, through Marlow. This distance is not limited to reader alone, but it
also affects the relationship between the first narrator, Marlow, and the story; furthermore,
this distance between the narrated events and the reader helps in the developing of the main
characters in the novel.
One of the main purposes of this distance is to create a parallelism between the two
images of the most enigmatic characters in the novel: Kurtz and Marlow. Kurtz is
represented as the object of Marlows search in Congo and, together with darkness, is the
main influence and force throughout the story. However, his depiction is never clear. The
recipients of Marlows narration never actually meet or hear Kurtz talking, but are given an
image of a man created out of other peoples reactions and feelings towards him. He is
constructed as a mythological character by means of a series of narrative layers that depict
him through multiple discourses. The reader never experiences an approach to Kurtz at first
hand, but the reader has to pull together the narrative fragments found here and there in the
story in order to create a concise image of Kurtzs physical appearance and personality.
Yet, even though Kurtzs image is mostly conveyed through the descriptions made by the
secondary characters, it is Marlows narrative perspective of Kurtz which stands out the
most.
Through this disambiguation of Kurtzs image, he is turned into a figure that grows to be
a myth. His actual image or speech is never depicted in the story, but he is famous because
of other peoples reaction towards him. He is a fantastic character not only to the reader but
to the rest of the characters as well. Just as mythological figures are built with the
transformation of an original event through its continuous retelling by different people, so
is the figure of a character such as Kurtz, who has an immense influence over a great
number of people, through his adventures and anecdotes (whether they be true or not),
despite him been seen by only a few. At the same time, his mythological depiction is
formed by the union of different elements from other mythological figures. His main
function in the story is to become a quest, a sacred object, just like the Holy Grail. At other
times he is a fallen hero, stranded in his search for adventures just like Ulysses. To some,
he is a prophet, to other he is and idol. He is a demon and a god at the same time, and, yet,
nobody seems to know anything concrete about him.
The effect of this fragmented and ambiguous description of Kurtz creates what Luz
Aurora Pimentel calls a principle of uncertainty which, according to her, is an ideological
proposal for this novel (145). This uncertain depiction of Kurtz is what makes turns him
into an interesting character and a strong influence to Marlow, the narrator, and the reader.
The reason for this effect is that the narration is divided into three main layers: the
narrators metadiegesis-the story- which is told to the reader, Marlows diegesis, told to the
sailors, and the different anecdotes told by the characters within Marlows narrative. The
complexity of all these different interwoven diegetic layers creates a completely
contradictory and ambiguous character due to the unreliability of the different narrators
because la mediacin se multiplica al infinito (Pimentel 146).
The first layer, the extradiagetic level as Pimentel calls it, is the narration that serves as a
frame to Marlows intradiegesis (149). It is the space, the setting, which brings about the
motivation for the story told by Marlow, and it is also the setting in which darkness first
appears: And this also said Marlow suddenly has been one of the dark places of the
earth. (Conrad 33). The unnamed narrators circumstance serves as an excuse, a trigger,
for the second narrators story; darkness is the element that unites both narrative layers:
darkness within the human heart, civilization and geographical darkness van tejiendo
sutiles conexiones de orden temtico y simblico que se complementan, complementando
as la significacin global del relato. (Pimentel 153)
Through the extradiegetic narrator, Marlow is presented both as an active agent- or a
narrated object according to Pimentel (145)- of his narration, and as the narrator of the
diegesis: his tale. This double role that Marlow plays in the novel deepens his
characterization and brings him closer to the reader because he can be appreciated through
two different and direct perspectives: the first narrators impression and description of
Marlow and Marlows discourse.
Through his narration and his discourse, Marlow becomes a defined and complex
character which appears round and clear to the reader. However, the readers approach to
Marlow is not completely direct; it is through the narration of the nameless sailor that the
reader perceives him. There stands a narrative layer, a metadiegesis (Pimentel 153),
between the reader and Marlow that in spite of creating a distance that should render him as
an ambiguous and shady character just like Kurtz, it conveys an atmosphere of intimacy
which actually brings him closer to the reader. The reader can perceive Marlow as being
close to him because the narrative frame under which he is presented creates an atmosphere
of intimacy by having him tell his story to the narrator. That way, the narrator places
himself in the position of the reader, and while Marlow tells the sailor his story, he is telling
it to the reader as well.
Another element that helps create this atmosphere of intimacy is darkness. The first
narrators metadiegesis takes place at twilight, where the gloom to the west, brooding over
the upper reaches, became more sombre every minute as if angered by the approach of the
sun. (Conrad 33) Thanks to this darkness, Marlow begins to tell his story and his voice, his
narrative, draws all the sailors together. Not only that, but by eliminating the visual element
in the metadiegesis, the narrator erases all physical boundaries between the characters, and
so the existing addressees disappear, making the reader share the same narrative space as
Marlow and the rest of the crew. Furthermore, the fact that Marlow becomes an
autodiagetic narrator enables both the listeners and the reader to accompany him through
his story and to fill the darkness of the setting with the images and sounds born out of
Marlows narration. Thus, the distance that separates the narrator and the receptor of the
story is shortened, because there is no existing physical boundary between them.
The darkness within this metadiegesis has a close structural correlation with the darkness
in Marlows Congo. Just as the darkness in the ship creates intimacy between Marlow and
the sailors, the darkness in the jungle shortens the distance between Kurtzs mythological
image and Marlow, who feels drawn to the colonel because of what he symbolizes in the
middle of the horror and the violence inherent to human nature. This horror is conveyed
through darkness, an almost self-conscious force that inhabits inside and outside human
kind, and whose remedy lies in the idolatrous worship of a powerful idea. (Moore X) For
Marlow, conviction and faith alone can save a man from darkness; that is why he so
fervently searches for Kurtz, because Kurtz is an idol, a symbol that stands for conviction
and eloquence, and whose last cry The horror! shines through as a beacon of light, as a
moral victory paid for by innumerable defeats (Conrad 99).
Marlows admiration and loyalty towards Kurtz is the key element in the elevation of
Kurtz as a mythological character. Unlike the other narrators who just repeat different
anecdotes and depictions of Kurtz, he is able to meet him and to talk to him. However, his
rendering of Kurtz is the most ambiguous one, because it is based on a reflection of their
encounter filled with mixed fillings and contradicting opinions. He idolizes Kurtz because
of his eloquence and radical ideas; however, he never reproduces Kurtzs speech or
explains to the reader what his ideas were. He respects his honesty and authenticity in the
middle of a hypocritical colonial society, and yet, he lies to Kurtzs fiance about the true
nature of his last words. He feels both admiration and horror for Kurtzs actions and ideals,
but instead of drawing a clear portrait of this idol, Marlow chooses to center his narration
on the personal development of his heart and mind while searching for the myth in the
darkness.
That is why Marlow is the character in the novel that best exemplifies the complexity of
the human mind and moral code, because of his proximity to the reader through the
immediacy of the narrative layer. He is our narrative focus into this world of darkness, and
through him we approach the idol, who appears as a distant shadow, a gossip mythicized
due to the distance imposed by the multiple, fragmented diegesis which construct him. The
way the different tales about him build a myth, also represent a political autopsy of
imperialist myths (Stewart 319).The first narrator, on the other hand, serves not as a round
character, but as a subjective point of view where the reader should place himself. Both the
narrator and the reader are witness and listeners to the tales told by Marlow, and what the
narrator feels, subtly determines what the reader feels when reading Marlows story: a
sense of fear and disturbance caused by the presence of darkness stalking and acting
everywhere, inside and outside the human soul.

WORKS CITED:

Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad
Wordsworth Editions.
Hertfordshire, Great Britain, 1999.


Introduction to Heart of Darkness
Gene M. Moore
Wordsworth Editions.
Hertfordshire, Great Britain, 1999.


El relato en perspectiva
Luz Aurora Pimentel
Co-edited by Siglo XXI Editores and the Facultad de Filosofa y Letras UNAM.
Mexico City, Mexico, 2008.


Lying as Dying in Heart of Darkness
Garrett Stewart
Source: PMLA, Vol. 95, No. 3 (May, 1980), pp. 319-331
Published by: Modern Language Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/461876 .
Accessed: 11/05/2011 15:28