In HEART OF DARKNESS, Marlow sees himself as an "imposter," ( p. 19 in Bantam edition; p. 77 in Signet Classics edition;) and he sees other people in similar terms: one man is a "papier-mache Mephistopheles," (p. 42 in Bantam; p. 93 in Signet;) another a "hairdresser's dummy," ( p. 28 in Bantam; p. 83 in Signet;) another as a "harlequin" (p. 89 in Bantam and p. 126 in Signet;) and another "in motley, as though he had absconded from a troupe of mimes. . . . His very existence was improbable, inexplicable," ( p. 92 in Bantam and p. 129 in Signet). And Kurtz, the central figure, is seen as a "hollow sham" (p. 116 in Bantam and p. 146 in Signet).