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’. This paper also aims to show how an investigation of process
types can function as a rewarding analytical tool for character analysis. Following this, it has been observed that
Marlow is a sensor while Kurtz turns out to be in an actor’s role which means that Marlow reflects while Kurtz acts.
Marlow observes everything but does not participate in action while Kurtz’s role is in clear contrast to him as he
is more of an action guy and his dominant process types are material processe
