The Theme Of Lies In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

Moving to our main topic which is defending Marlow 's lies in Conrad 's Heart of Darkness, Marlow tells two lies in the novel, as mentioned before, the lies that Marlow tells are for the sake of good intentions. The first lie is Marlow 's lie to the brickmaker. The brickmaker is one of the corrupted men among the crew, and Marlow knows that everyone is jealous of Kurtz 's success. According to Marlow, the brick has dreams of his own, “He, don 't you see, had been planning to be assistant-manager by-and-by under the present man, and I could see that the coming of that Kurtz had upset them both not a little.” (Conrad 51) it seems to Marlow that Kurtz is in the way of the brickmaker and the manager. So, hate and jealousy are not only a very obvious but also cause Marlow to do something for Kurtz, although he hasn 't met him by then. Marlow knows that Kurtz is a hard-working man and Marlow himself is a hard-working man, so Marlow and Kurtz are similar. Apparently, as they seem similar, one can say that Kurtz is or at least is as good as him. Mostly, Marlow must have felt that way, so he shows some sympathy, and that is by lying to the brickmaker. “The original Kurtz . . . was good enough to say himself—his sympathies were in the right place” (Conrad 102). Marlow has lain on the brickmaker by convincing him that he is really helpful, and he is more influential to the company than he thinks; "You are the brickmaker of the central station. Everyone knows that."