The Harlequin

I’ve always considered the Harlequin one of the most difficult characters to analyse. This is possibly because he appears so immediately different from the Pilgrims, and the General Manager, and the Brick-maker – he isn’t cruel, and he doesn’t seem to lack substance. One of the Harlequin’s most noticeable traits is his style of dress – he is adorned almost completely in multi-coloured rags, in some ways resembling the map that is pinned up in the Company Director’s office at the beginning of the novella. He thus appears clownish, excitable and absurd. We begin to realise that the Harlequin, like Marlow’s Aunt, romanticises the imperial agenda. In some ways, he resembles a narrator of the archetypal imperial adventure quest Heart of Darkness was believed by some to represent. However, that the Harlequin appears so parodic and incongruous within the Inner Station affirms that the novella is not a heroic tale of imperial adventure, but something much darker.