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.
Heart of Darkness (horse)
Heart of Darkness (11 February 1988 – 25 May 2011) was a British-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He showed by far his best form a juvenile in 1990 when he won two of his three races including the Washington Singer Stakes and the National Stakes before his career was interrupted by a serious leg injury. He failed to win again for two years before taking two minor races in the autumn of 1992. He later stood as a breeding stallion in Australia with limited success.