The Rime of Marlow: Echoes of Coleridge s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in Conrad s Heart of Darkness

الخلاصةAbstract Romanticism touches the thematic and structural features of Joseph Conrad s Heart of Darkness. The play of the memory across time and the juxtaposing of an older poet with his younger self are apparent in Conrad s modernist piece. The character-narrator of Conrad is a Buddha-like speaker in a particular and localized outdoor setting speaking with a silent human audience. He begins with a fluent vernacular speech which changes quickly into a very formal one. This makes Marlow s tale a rime in the Romantic tradition of Coleridge s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Keywords: “Ancient Mariner” syndrome, interposed narrator, frame narrative, mystery, chiaroscuro, quest, solitude.