Heart of Darkness - Reliability in Narration
...must have been like for past travellers into the Congo he says, “Imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate” (106). He pauses immediately, then says “Mind, none of us world feel exactly like this” (107). Between his dark description of the desperation of past Congo-goers and his calm continuance there is pause that is able to be read into. From his experiences in the Congo and now his reflection on what the Congo does to people, he is grabbed by these desperate emotions again before he pauses and regains his composure. This pause is an example of the darkness of the Congo and shows that even the memories it has left in Marlow are enough to send him into a rant listing these feelings. Another example of reading into little details such as this is how Marlow is sitting when the reader is first introduced to him. This is possibly the most meaningful piece of detail that is able to be revealed by having the story retold instead of the events simply being described in third person as they happened. Marlow was sitting “with his legs folded before him, he had the pose of a Buddha” (106). This description comes very early, only four pages into the book. This position he is in, as far as the reader is aware for the duration of the story, is symbolic of the wisdom Marlow believes himself to have obtained. This image of Marlow prepares readers to be told of the story of how he gained this enlightenment. This idea that he is more spiritually knowledgeable of the human race’s true colours is strongly reinforced at the very end of the book. With his story told and nothing else to say, Marlow sits silently “in the pose of a meditating Buddha” (186). This idol-like position, having endured the story and now meditating on its meaning, is a testament to its deep spiritual repercussions. We would have none of this detail about its effect on Marlow and in turn just how such an experience like this will leave a person if third person narration of the story was used instead of first person narration retelling the story. First person narration, aside from giving more detail on the emotions and motivations of characters also poses a risk that, because the narrator is human and not omniscient that they may be unreliable. For instance, when Marlow is describing an African as a man or a boy he says it was “hard to tell” (118) which of the two the African was. This is an example that what Marlow speaks is what he has inferred and guessed rather than facts. In this way a first person narrator is limited by what they “experience, infer, or can find out by talking to other characters” (Abrams 167). It does not mean that Marlow is dishonest, as he even says at one point that “I hate, detest and can’t bear a lie” (Conrad 129). He is not trying to deceive his listeners, but his story is told from experiences which he has made from inferences and assumptions into facts in his mind. His own influence and participation in the events he is relaying to the listeners are all slanted with his own thoughts and emotions, such as his opinion of women; “It’s queer how out of touch… women are. They live in a world of their own” (113). Marlow presents this as fact, just as he does the rest of the events in his tale which may all be slanted by his opinions. This seems to be apparent to Marlow though, as he even says that “It seems to me that I am trying to tell you a dream” (129). Dreams, which are in the eye of the beholder and not able to be accurately recreated and all Marlow is performing is “a vain attempt” (129) because “it is impossible to convey… any epoch of one’s existence,- that which makes its truth” (130). While this indicates Marlow knows he has difficulty expressing the story, it does not mean that he believes what his story contains is all completely accurate or understandable by his listeners. Through his meeting with Kurtz and what he believes to be his insights into Kurtz’s heart of darkness and the moral decay that can still take hold of whites in this apparently civilized age, Marlow comes to think of himself as enlightened. When talking of others ...