Attribution of Transitivity Roles and Characterization in Heart of Darkness
Attribution of Transitivity Roles and Characterization in Heart of Darkness Correspondence: Surinder Kaur < sandhu.surinder85@gmail.com > PhD Candidate, Department of English, Regional Institute of Management and Technology (RIMT) University, Gobindgarh, Punjab, India (147301) Abstract The objective of this paper is to study the characters of Marlow and Kurtz from Joseph Conrad’s novel ‘Heart of Darkness’ and their roles in the action and why they are called counterfoil to each other. Therefore, the focus is not on what is done (action) but who is doing what (character). I propose to use systemic functional grammar to explore these characters and their roles in the novel. Especially, I will make use of character’s transitivity profile following Simpson’s (2004, p.119) statement that, ‘the transitivity profile embodied by a text is generally a useful indicator of character in prose fiction’