The General Manager can be read as a representation of the archetypal imperial man. Note that everything about the General Manager (even the name of the title itself) is average, mediocre, commonplace, and ordinary. He is, like the Accountant, cold and indifferent, but he lacks the Accountant’s impeccable order. He has little initiative or ambition, but is successful at “keep[ing] the routine going”. The only thing remarkable about the General Manager is the “faint” and “indefinable” smile he attaches to the end of his sentences, which Marlow likens to a kind of “seal”; a lacquer that disguises the uneasiness inspired by his words and makes it impossible to determine his true meaning. This makes his words – however asinine they may actually be – seem profound. In a way, this can be said to resemble the whole imperial enterprise – its cruelty and inanity veiled by claims of benevolence.
