Phycological journey

Often, when an individual is stagnant in his or her speech, the cause is largely because of uncertainty, a fear, or a lack of knowledge.  However, in Heart of Darkness, the reader is able to follow the phycological journey of Marlow through his speeches, of course, but even more subtly, though the patterns in his speech that can reveal certain emotions.  For example,  Marlow's stagnant speech, often broken up by a hyphen in the middle of his diction, can indicate fear or uncertainty in his train of thought as he is articulates a point and thinks about Kurtz.  Moreover, this stagnant consistency is Marlow's speech offers a nice contrast to the more formal, easy read narrator.  In conclusion, as the reader follows Marlow on this physical and phycological journey, it is important to analyze and interpret when pauses in Marlow's speech occur, and what they may reference to.