Charles Marlow
Marlow's name may be inspired by the Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe. Conrad's father was a translator of William Shakespeare who doubtless would have known of Marlowe's work as well. Some intertextual interpretations of "Heart of Darkness" have suggested that Marlowe's "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus" may have influenced Conrad. Charles Marlow describes a character as a "papier-mache Mephistopheles", a reference to the Faust legend. Marlow's and Kurtz's journey up the Congo River in "Heart of Darkness" also has similarities to another work by Marlowe, "Dido, Queen of Carthage", in which Aeneas is stranded on the shore of Libya and meets the African queen Dido.
Characters of Kingdom Hearts
is the main female protagonist of "Kingdom Hearts", and the best friend of Sora and Riku. As one of the seven Princesses of Heart, she is cast adrift from her homeworld of Radiant Garden at a young age as part of Xehanort's experiment to locate the key bearer, which eventually brings her to the Destiny Islands, piquing Sora and Riku's interest in other worlds. In "Birth by Sleep", it is revealed that her arrival on the islands is the result of an encounter with Aqua, who gives the four-year-old Kairi a protective charm to shield her from the darkness; Kairi additionally gains the ability to wield a Keyblade after touching the one belonging to Aqua.