The Significant Role of Women in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

Another issue that has been raised continuously throughout time has been how women are depicted in novels. Conrad in particular, reflects his original context by objectifying the women he creates in his novel ‘Heart of Darkness’. The roles of women here are hardly acknowledged and are portrayed as naïve; senseless beings having to be protected, Marlow commenting that in essence, men ‘…must help them…stay in that beautiful world of their own…’ This is characterized in Kurtz’ Intended who is pictured as an ideal woman, ‘…smooth and white…illumined by the…light of belief and love…’ The soft gentle imagery, in particular the use of ‘white’ shapes this woman as pure, submissive and weak, but also isolated in her naivety of the real world. If not white, then the other kind of woman Conrad gives a role to is the savage African mistress. ‘…Savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent…ominous and stately…’ With such large and grand descriptions, Conrad portrays the native woman as defiantly capable however fearful. ‘Wild-eyed…ominous and stately…’ illustrate Conrad’s view that the black woman is untamed and uncivilized, akin to an animal and therefore not considered as graceful or a desired woman. These opposing ideas of woman in Conrad’s text inform the audience of today, the strict and patriarchal ideals of Conrad’s context that were imposed on women.

Joseph Conrad's novella, Heart of Darkness, describes a life-altering journey that the protagonist, Marlow, experiences in the African Congo.  The story explores the historical period of colonialism in Africa to exemplify Marlow's struggles.  Marlow, like other Europeans of his time, is brought up to believe certain things about colonialism, but his views change as he experiences colonialism first hand. This essay will explore Marlow's view of colonialism, which is shaped through his experiences and also from his relation to Kurtz.  Marlow's understanding of Kurtz's experiences show him the effects colonialism can have on a man's soul.

Carol Emshwiller didn’t start her writing until she was thirty, a mother, and married. Emshwiller, “was just learning the lessons of feminism on the front lines of domestic lines” (539). In Carol Emshwiller’s short story during the 1980’s “Abominable”, Emshwiller shows how men, in their sexual confusion, ethnic inexperience, and self-disasters, are not capable of understanding women and their needs, anger, and bitterness. The unnamed and self-styled man in the story shows his stereotypical, phallocentric attitudes to understand women becomes more humorous, rather than angry. From transforming the battle of sexes into the man’s search for an misleading species akin to

Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness is both a dramatic tale of an arduous trek into the Belgian Congo at the turn of the twentieth century and a symbolic journey into the deepest recesses of human nature. On a literal level, through Marlow 's narration, Conrad provides a searing indictment of European colonial exploitation inflicted upon African natives. By employing several allegoric symbols this account depicts the futility of the European presence in Africa.

Marlow has been an explorer and a dreamer his entire life; he says that he would “look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration” (Conrad 8). These vocations are fostered in modern 1890 Europe. This European mindset leaves the reader with little surprise that Marlow soon idolises Mr. Kurtz to be something of a legendary figure who exemplifies the proper conduct and attitude of an European adventurer in the ivory trade. Marlow becomes entranced by the many descriptions of Mr.

American Literature has always been about men and for men. In this essay, we are going to analyze the women’s role in the book, as inferior and weaker gender.

To analyze the impact of women in the picture, one must examine Philip Marlowe, the hero and epitome of masculinity. Throughout the

One of the most interesting aspects of the book is how the narrative itself is thought of as unsuitable for women. The narration takes place on a small sailing boat, waiting for the ebb of the Thames to bring it out to

In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the imperialism of Africa is described. Conrad tells the story of the cruel treatment of the natives and of the imperialism of the Congo region through the perspective of the main character, Marlow. Throughout the novel, Marlow describes how the Europeans continuously bestow poor treatment to the native people by enslaving them in their own territory. Analyzing the story with the New Criticism lens, it is evident that Conrad incorporates numerous literary devices in Heart of Darkness, including similes, imagery, personification, and antitheses to describe and exemplify the main idea of cruel imperialism in Africa discussed throughout the novella.

Alexandra, you have a keen sense of judging people’s character. I had not picked up on Charles Marlow’s attitudes towards women until you brought them front and center in your discussion. Then it is difficult to realize that women are still fighting to be considered equal today, more than a century after this story.

Joseph Conrad’s varying depiction of women in his novel Heart of Darkness provides feminist literary theory with ample opportunity to explore the overlying societal dictation of women’s gender roles and expectations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The majority of feminist theorists claim that Conrad perpetuates patriarchal ideology, yet there are a few that argue the novel is gendered feminine. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar claim “Conrad’s Heart of Darkness…penetrates more ironically and thus more inquiringly into the dark core of otherness that had so disturbed the patriarchal, the imperialist, and the psychoanalytic imaginations…Conrad designs for Marlow a pilgrimage whose

Conrad centers his story on the European colonization of Africa and how the exploited the wealth of Africa in the late 19th centuries. And how Darkness can be passed down into all people’s hearts. This stories bases with a man called Charles Marlow an adventurer and ivory transporter, who through inexplicable means became in charge of a small steam boat that he took through the rivers of Congo that took him into the heart of Congo where is spiraled into near doom.

A famous criticism of Conrad’s novella is called An Image of Africa, which was written by an African native named Chinua Achebe. In Achebe’s criticisms of Heart of Darkness, he points out the difference between descriptions of the European woman and the African woman, who was Kurtz’s mistress. The narrator describes the European woman as being calm and mature, and the African woman as being “savage” (341 Norton). Even though many writers claim that Marlow is kind to the Africans by bringing light to their situation, the real problem does not lie in his description of their situations, but his descriptions of the people themselves (30 Heart of darkness Interpretations).

Women have gained equality with men over the many centuries of the evolution of the modern western civilization. Hence, it cannot be overlooked that there still exist many literary examples of social disregard for woman potential. Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" exemplifies the Western patriarchal gender roles in which women are given the inferior status.<p> Not only are women portrayed as being inferior to men, but Marlow's (the protagonist's) seldom mentioning of them in his Congo adventure narrative symbolizes his view of their insignificance. There is a total of five women presented in Marlow's narrative but only three of them are significant minor characters: Marlow's aunt, Kurtz's African mistress, and Kurtz's "Intended." The

Johanna Smith gives many examples of Marlow’s contradictions that his ideological discourse of empire and gender work to mystify. In Heart of Darkness the women are often silenced. Smith points out the example of the laundress: the company’s chief accountant insists that she had to be taught to launder his clothes properly and that she had a strong disliking for the job. But you never truly hear her side of the story; Smith suggests “Marlow’s silencing of the laundress shows Marlow’s authority as the masculine narrator of his story, to conceal not only her story but also those of the other silent women in Heart of Darkness” (Smith 193). Marlow’s Way of self asserting his dominating silence of the women is a clear example of Marlow’s view towards women and is a key illustration of just how much Marlow believes he, as a male, is far more superior than a women.