Essay on Feminist Theory in Heart of Darkness

One of the main motifs in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is the comparison between various interiors and exteriors. As Marlow tells the men aboard the Nellie the story about his travels in the African Congo, this recurring pattern is explored. This comparison between interiors and exteriors is a symbol for the light and darkness that can be found in humans. The exterior symbolizes the light, while the interior represents the darkness. The bright exterior often masks the darkness that can be found within a person.

In “Heart of Darkness” there are many social constructs that are used. I feel that the most important is gender. Throughout the story gender plays a big part in how the story plays out. During the time period in this story woman were pushed to the side, they were not seen as being powerful beings. Multiple times Conrad makes woman powerful figures that have a large impact on the men, and on the story. There are four woman that are talked about during the story, all are very powerful and strong .

The horror!" to the Intended, letting her believe instead that his last words were her name. This manipulation of endings, with which Marlowe pretends to please Kurtz's bride-to-be, does not only change Conrad's hard-boiled modern tragedy into a romance story, with a love-sick Kurtz longing to get back from the jungle to the arms of his beloved. Kurtz' activities in the Congo are now to be seen as an adventure designed to bring him back to civilization as a morally and economically enriched being. This, Marlowe's comrades are told (and by extension, the men who are reading the novel), is mere female bogus: just as the Romans who, Kurtz-like, entered a savage Britain two millenia ago, "we" (the male readers) have to be "men enough to face the darkness". (Conrad 7)

The two women knitting the black wool seem to signify the Greek embodiments of fate, the Moirae. The Morirae were believed to spin thread representing the life of every person. The fact that these two women are knitting black wool could symbolize a deathly fate for Marlow since they are knitting it in his presence and black usually symbolizes darkness or death. The Fates were also believed to be immortal and they supposedly knew the fate of every man. This symbol can be justified further on pg.15 with the sentences “She seemed to know all about them and about me too. An eerie feeling came over me. She seemed uncanny and FATEFUL

Heart of Darkness, is not only an intense tale of pursuit, but also a psychological roller coaster as, through the characters of the story, Joseph Conrad shows us a powerful struggle between the Freudian personalities of id, ego and superego. The main characters of the novel, Marlow and Kurtz are mainly identified with the id and the super-ego type of personalities, and throughout the novel, these characters are placed in intense situations which makes them question their own beliefs and reactions, and ultimately their human personality. Hence, in between the characters, not only is there a battle in the physical sense, but also on the meta-physical level. This leads to a psychological imbalance between the human personalities of both the

Despite the fact that the women are marginalised and devalued by Marlow and the other men in the text, they play an integral role in the story. Jeremy Hawthorne’s writes “it is salutary to recall that three female characters each play an indispensable role in Heart of Darkness- Marlow’s aunt… Kurtz’s African mistress, and Kurt’s intended.” It is because of his aunt that Marlow lands his place in the company. She views Marlow's involvement in Africa as a way to bring the natives enlightenment about the Western world and Western ideologies, “weaning those ignorant millions [the Africans] from their horrid ways." She believes he will bring truth and light to a dark place in the world. Interestingly, Marlow is highly critical towards his Aunt,

The novella being one of contrasts and contradictions, this essay, in responding to the question, will suggest a number of reasons and assert that the frame narrative style, imagery and symbolism of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness ensures that readers need to provide their own answers and come to their own conclusions. The various interpretations of what constitutes a lie, will be delineated in an attempt to understand Marlow’s stance and if he, indeed, would have considered this particular lie to be in the same category as those he hates and detests.

In classic and modern literature, the significance of some titles are easy to discover, however, in some instances it might not be and the full significance of the title becomes apparent to the reader only gradually. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad is one of those few, the novella seeks to show how the “darkness” represents various part of human reality, the corruption of decency when faced with overwhelming obstacles. Throughout the novella, a theme present is that without some form of restraint people tend to devolve into savagery. Marlow the main character in the novella has to deal with being in opposition to his society which in this case are the imperialists. Conrad’s skilful use of tone, setting, symbolism, and imagery helps the

Introduction In my extended essay I will discuss how women are portrayed in Henrik Ibsen’s play - A Doll’s House and Margaret Atwood’s novel - The Handmaid’s Tale, the reasons and implications of such portrayal. Throughout history women have had different roles in society some of which we can see today in literature. Literary works sometimes reflect the society in which they are created and published.

The symbolism of light and darkness could also emphasise the mental disintegration that we witness, as a result of one being removed from their normal social surroundings. “They were men enough to face the darkness”, Conrad insinuates the possibility of this “darkness” taking over one’s mind. Conrad emphasises the darkness within mankind that is beneath the surface. He explores this through the characters of Marlow himself and Kurtz. He repeatedly forewarns of those “who tackle a darkness” and arguably Conrad uses darkness as a metaphor, perhaps signifying the inability to see. It could be interpreted as Marlow’s inability to see and understand others.

At the ripe age of 12, I received my first shiny new hockey stick, and before the blade touched the ice, I named her Lucy. A few years later, my friend was fortunate enough to inherit her family’s beat up station wagon, and we all collectively agreed to call him Wilfred. For many, this idea of gendering something new and beautiful as female is second nature to us. Similar to my 12-year-old self’s new hockey stick, we often gender nature as feminine, because of its irrefutable beauty and power. While Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is set in a patriarchal society, the jungle that is recognized to have female qualities, enforces the main commanding force over the men in the Congo. Conrad’s two contrasting representations of women are shown through the influential Congolese woman, who is a personification of the jungle, and the Intended, who represents the Western women who are oblivious to the true horrors in modern day society.

In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad limits the amount and activity of his female characters, especially through the protagonist Marlow. Marlow merely reduces women into creatures of a different world and fails to see the importance of females. However, through this oppressive view on women, Conrad demonstrates Marlow’s ironic subjugation of women. Although in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, women simply serve as symbols while Marlow attempts to display himself as masculine, Conrad reveals the influence of women on the world through the application of stereotypically feminine qualities on Marlow and seemingly passive, yet essential, female roles. Thus, in the superficially anti-feminist novella, the ubiquitous impact of females undermines the patriarchal view of women as powerless and inferior, suggesting that men oppress women out of fear of inferiority.

Feminism goes all the way back to the 1800s and it is the belief of Women’s Rights with the equality of the different sexes. Hester Prynne was a strong woman in The Scarlet Letter. Her ability to overcome the judgment of the townspeople after committing the crime of being an adulterer. The town publicly humiliating her after a mistake that she had made that resulted in her having a child with another man, and her husband finding out and is hiding his identity, so he doesn’t lose his good reputation. Resulting in her to forever have to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest to show to everyone the crime that she committed, which would affect her for the rest of her life. When Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter, he used feminism as a way to tell about Hester Prynne’s life as a criminal, and how she did not fit in within the community because she had to wear a letter “A” on her chest to represent her crime, and to be treated like an object.

Modernism emerged onto the literature scene with many purposes, one of which being the experimentation with normative ideals in literature. The emergence of modernism in the western world arrives at a pivotal time during the women’s rights movement (Ross 25). Dorothy Richardson’s The Tunnel, the fourth book in a thirteen book series titled Pilgrimage, is an influential and early feminist novel for its date of publication of 1918. Miriam Henderson, the protagonist of this novel leads a life completely independent from the financial and social stability that a man may bring to a marriage. Though Miriam experiences a certain level of tumult towards her role in society as a new woman, Richardson provides the entirety of the novel for Miriam’s growth and agency of her own life. Joseph Conrad, a prominent author during the modernist period, claims in his Author’s Note that his novel The Secret Agent is “telling Winnie Verloc’s story” (Conrad 36), despite Mr. Verloc’s self-proclaimed nature as a ‘secret agent’. Conrad’s attempts at creating a feminist and modernist image of Winnie are shadowed by the constant presence of a man behind her actions. Conrad’s use of repetition of the words ‘free woman’ in the text falsifies this claim even further. If the purpose of modernist literature is to break conventions of the past such as gender ideals of women in marriage, why do The Tunnel and The Secret Agent differ so wildly in their

Conrad’s novella describes that men are mentally superior, while women are not smart enough to have their own ideas surrounding reality. Marlow talks about women by saying, “They live in a world of their own, and there has never been anything like it, and never can be” (Conrad). Marlow is describing that women are naive and believe in an impossible world which is a utopia. Conrad uses diction to express that women’s idealistic world is impossible since reality is harsh and cruel. Marlow’s view of women being naive shows that they are innocent and not strong enough for reality. The belief that women are too naive for reality contributes to the patriarchal society because women are too innocent for reality. Not only are women too naive for reality but they must also