Conrad, Joseph - Heart of Darkness: Author vs Character

Heart of Darkness: Author vs Character

There is a distinction between author, narrator, and character: the author creates the story, the character lives the story. Albert Chinualumogu Achebe believes that the attitudes and opinions of Marlow, which can sometimes be quite harsh and racist, are also the opinions of Conrad even Though one could contend that Conrad, rather than endorsing Marlow’s attitude, might be holding it up to irony and criticism. He recognizes the many layers between Marlow and Conrad in the “story within a story” motif but suggests that if the really wanted to separate himself from his character, he would have hinted at “an alternative frame of reference by which we may judge the actions and opinions of his characters”. Also, he believes that Conrad is Marlow because of the similarity between their careers.
Achebe throws that out and expects us to accept it as fact without any substantiation. I believe that Marlow is drawn with a sort of mocking irony which, though quiet, distinguishes Conrad from his character. An example of the humour put into the character is in the description of Marlow as resembling an idol who sits like a European Buddha.
“Mind” he began again, lifting one arm from the elbow, the palm of the hand outwards, so that, with his legs folded before him, he had the pose of a Buddha preaching in European clothes and without a lotus-flower...” Marlow also claims to be very against telling lies, and yet he does so himself in at least two situations. Servan writes, “He condemns the Roman conquest and contrasts it with the “superior” European colonialism”:

“What saves us is efficiency – the devotion to efficiency. But these chaps were not much account really. The were no colonist, their administration was merely a squeeze.... They were conquerors, and for that you only want brute force – nothing to boast of, when have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could.... it was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale.... the conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses the ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at back of it, not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea....” (from “Heart of Darkness)
This quotation shows the obvious separation between the author and the character because the rest of the story shows that the conquest of the Europeans was actually worse than the conquest of the Romans which goes against Marlow’s claim above. The Forest on Suffering is an example of the treacherousness of the European conquest, and the bloodthirsty remorselessness that the Europeans show toward the Africans. Marlow is further separated from Conrad because of the view of the “glorious sailors” proudly talked about by Marlow who were, in reality, non better than pirates and plunderers.