The character of Marlow with his "sunken cheeks" and "yellow complexion"brings to the reader a Marlow who is well-travelled as a seaman and who has suffered on account of nutritional deficiencies common to men who have been sailing for long periods.Marlow is described as an "ascetic", "a Buddha", hinting that the reigns of the narrative action will soon shift to Marlow. And right on cue,from the 'outside narrator', who spans the past, present and future, the ephemeral as well as concrete details , Conrad moves to Marlow,who then takes up the threads of the story and continues the story of the journey up the Congo river in search of the white man's agent-Kurtz. Here Conrad makes use of Marlow's limited perspective, in the manner that the film -director uses the lens of a camera and the various attendant camera angles. " I left in a French steamer, and she called in every blamed port, they have out there, for as far as I could see, the sole purpose of landing soldiers and custom-officers. I watched the coast. Watching the coast as it slips by the ship , is like thinking about an enigma... The edge of a colossal jungle, so dark green as to be almost black, fringed with white surf ran straight like a ruled line, far far away along a blue sea whose glitter was blurred by a creeping mist. (p.18 )... The sun was fierce, the land seem to glisten and drip with steam. Here and there greyish-whitish specks showed up clustered inside the white surf, with a flag flying above them perhaps...Now and then a boat from the shoregave one a momentary contact with reality. It was paddled by black fellows. You could see from afar the white of their eye-balls glistening. they shouted sang; their bodies streaming with perspiration...(p.19)
Part of the Dream Weave Walk 1999-2007