Heart of Darkness

Marlow is the protagonist of his own story. The very fact that Marlow is the man telling the story reveals to the reader than he survives his harrowing transformative journey; Marlow learns over the course of his endeavor about the depths of moral depravity involved in the ivory trade, as well as what happens when a man becomes untethered from the social norms that are meant to prevent the colonial forces from acting in an “uncivilized” manner.

In that sense, Marlow is the audience’s placeholder in the text. First published in 1902, like Marlow, the presumably white, Western audience is unfamiliar with life up the Congo River. The extent of what happens away from the watching eye of society is revealed to Marlow and the audience alike, shocking and appalling in equal measure. Despite this dislike of what he sees, Marlow is complicit in the scenes he witnesses. He describes scenes in which African men are beaten and forced into labor. Though he positions himself as the objective storyteller, he is taking a wage from the Company committing these acts. At no point does Marlow make a great gesture of interference; he does not try and halt the horrors of colonialism at the Outer and Central Stations, even though he witnesses and disapproves.