Charles Marlow

Charles Marlow is a recurring character in the work of Polish-born English novelist Joseph Conrad. Marlow is an alter ego of Conrad; both are sailors for the British Empire during the late-19th and early-20th century during the height of British imperialism.

Marlow narrates several of Conrad's best-known works. The character Marlow narrates Conrad's novels Lord Jim, Chance, as well as the framed narrative in "Heart of Darkness", and his short story "Youth". The stories are not told entirely from Marlow's perspective however. There is also an omniscient narrator who introduces Marlow and some of the other characters. Then, once introduced, Marlow proceeds to tell the actual tale, creating a story-within-a-story effect.

In Heart of Darkness the omniscient narrator observes that "yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut. But Marlow was not typical and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze."