Marlowe appears as the narrator in several of Conrad's stories and novels, but his role varies. As in Heart of Darkness (1902), the characters listening to Marlow in "Youth" are the Director of Companies, the man of finance, the man of law and the teller of the tale.

Marlow is, again, the principal actor and narrator of his own experience as second mate who gets his first command in a lifeboat of the ill-fated Judea and so lays eyes upon the East for the first time. Captain Beard and the first mate Mahon play important roles to Marlow who is bent on exploring the valor, strength, foolishness, optimism and evanescence of his own youth and youth generally.

The Marlow of Heart of Darkness is stronger than the present Marlow who is too deeply involved with his own past to avoid sentimentality and so becomes a victim of...