Heart of Darkness characters

Appears from the start

An English seaman and veteran river captain who tells the others aboard the Nellie about an earlier command in Central Africa. Restless from childhood and drawn to blank spaces on maps, he takes a job piloting a trading company's steamer up the Congo. He is observant, skeptical of official ideals, and increasingly disturbed by the gulf between the company's language and what he witnesses.

Also known as The Narrator

Appears from the start

An unnamed member of the group waiting for the tide aboard the cruising yawl Nellie. He frames Marlow's account and records the listeners' reactions as evening settles over the Thames.

Also known as The Director of Companies

Appears from the start

The Nellie's captain and host, a trusted seaman whose guests wait with him on the Thames while Marlow relates his African journey.

Appears from the start

Marlow's well-connected relative, who uses her influence to secure his appointment with the Continental trading company. She believes the enterprise will bring improvement to Africa, an idealized view Marlow does not share.

Also known as The Chief Accountant

Appears from the start

The company's immaculate bookkeeper at the Outer Station. He preserves an almost theatrical neatness amid noise, sickness, and disorder, and is the first employee to tell Marlow about the exceptional ivory agent Kurtz.

Also known as The Central Station Manager

Appears from the start

The company's manager at Central Station, outwardly ordinary but secure in authority because he remains healthy where many Europeans fall ill. He informs Marlow that the steamer has sunk and expresses concern about Kurtz, whose success and influence make him uneasy.

Appears from the start

An employee at Central Station who is supposed to make bricks despite having neither the materials nor any completed bricks. Smooth and ambitious, he probes Marlow's connections and hopes to advance through influence rather than useful work.

Appears from the start

The company's celebrated agent at the remote Inner Station, known to Marlow first through other people's praise and anxiety. He sends out more ivory than the other agents together and is credited with eloquence, broad talent, and ambitious plans for his career. Reports that he is ill make reaching him the steamer's urgent purpose.

First appears in chapter 2

A local member of Marlow's crew who steers the riverboat. Marlow has trained him for the work, but during the attack near the Inner Station he abandons the wheel to return fire and is struck by a spear.

Also known as The Harlequin

First appears in chapter 2

A young Russian wanderer at the Inner Station, recognizable by his brightly patched clothing. He has traveled with little protection or support and regards Kurtz with fervent admiration, crediting him with transforming his understanding of the world.

First appears in chapter 3

A commanding African woman who appears on the riverbank near Kurtz's station, richly ornamented and visibly connected to him. Her grief and defiance contrast with the company's insistence on removing Kurtz.

Also known as Kurtz's Intended

First appears in chapter 3

Kurtz's grieving fiancee in Europe. Still mourning more than a year after his death, she remembers him as a gifted and generous man destined for greatness and looks to Marlow for confirmation of that belief.