Brendan Stewart
The Hero’s Journey of Marlow
Joseph Conrad
Febuary 8th, 2013
Ms.Hall
1st period
As a child Marlow loved maps and was especially fascinated with the white blank spaces
on maps and this was his call to adventure. These spaces signified the unknown which intrigued
him. But as he grew up these blank spaces were explored and settled and no longer interesting.
A picture of a long coiling river in Africa especially fascinated him and after many voyages
through India he wanted to captain a steamboat up that river.
After Marlow decides he wants to become a freshwater steamboat captain he reaches out
to his aunt who has connections with the company. She writes a letter to have him appointed and
the appointment comes very quickly and they want him to take the place of Fresleven. He was
the former captain who was killed in a altercation with natives. Marlow travels across the
channel to finalize his contract with the company.
Marlows aunt is the one that gets him the job as the steamboat captain that he wanted and
the company is the one that gave him the opportunity to explore Africa.
Marlow faces many challenges throughout his journey. The biggest challenge is
the environment itself. Marlow is in a new, strange, and violent environment that could be
extremely dangerous. It is full of dangers from savages to illnesses and even the jungle itself can
drive you mad. Another major challenge was the sinking of his steamboat and being attacked by
savages in which the helmsman was killed.
The abyss in “Heart of Darkness” Is the point where Kurtz dies from disease and Marlow
falls incredibly ill. This is very important because Marlow idolized Kurtz and was very
fascinated with him. Kurtz’s final words especially bothered Marlow “The horror!, the Horror!”.
In Marlows revelation he realizes how ordinary he is compared to Kurtz. Kurtz was a
legend and idolized as a god my many and accomplished many great feats. Marlow is just an
ordinary sailor and his accomplishments are dwarfed compared to his.
Marlow vows to keep Kurtz’s memory alive and will allow Kurtz to live through him.
He also plans to protect and maintain Kurtz’s documents and does not turn them over to the
company.
In Marlow’s return to European society, he discovers that he no longer fits in to this
“civilized life” and cannot live in this society.