![]() ![]() When Marlow revisits the European metropolis after his journey, he finds in his turn that the inhabitants are mad: I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. 1) The doctor who conducts his routine medical examination finds a welcome object for his phrenological studies and asks the revealing question: "Ever any madness in your family?" (15). Who would go into the wilderness of his own accord? Marlow's question to a secretary of the trading company as to why he did "not go out there" himself meets only with the brusque reply: "I am not such a fool as I look, quoth Plato to his disciples"(15). When Marlow first goes to a certain European capital-which can but need not be identified as Brussels-in order to sign his contract as captain of a river steamer operating in the heart of Africa, he is thought mad. ![]() The latter happens to Marlow, the narrator of Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness. Or perhaps we find that we have changed so much that the place has a completely different feel. Revisiting a place, we may experience a sense of either déjà vu or change. Places are meaningful, and second visits are particularly interesting because they invite comparison. ![]()
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