Comparing Women In Things Fall Apart And Heart Of Darkness

From a plethora of many authors and compilations over many centuries comes the fourteenth century The Thousand and One Nights, a Middle Eastern frame story during which there are as many as four implanted stories. In the outermost frame of this tale, a king who is betray by his wife vows to take a new wife each night and kill her the next morning in order to prevent further unfaithfulness. The main inner frame are stories from one of his wives which she continues each night to keep the king interested and thus postpone her death. Through these stories, the reader can examine the role of men and women in this time, specifically how women function in conjunction to men in the text. The reader may assume the men are superior while the woman are inferior, but through close reading of the text, the reader will discover that women in the text are only treated subordinately by men in the story but are revealed to the reader as the more powerful of the sexes. Authors reveal the power of women by their prowess at trickery or “women’s cunning” (The Thousand 1181), and their ability to force the actions of male counterparts. The reader can examine men’s attempt to stifle this power, which further acknowledges the women’s merit, through the excessively frequent occurring instances of men treating the women as insignificant, as well as instances when women are turned to ungulate animals, such

Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart both take place in the imperialist era. Authors Joseph Conrad and Chinua Achebe, respectively, created main characters that came from different continents, but experienced similar cultural clashes. Although Marlow and Okonkwo have different lifestyles, they are both led to question their identities and make life-defining decisions.

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.

Women are often thought of as the weaker, more vulnerable of the two sexes. Thus, women’s roles in literature are often subdued and subordinate. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, women are repressed by an entrenched structure of the social repression. Women suffer great losses in this novel but, also in certain circumstances, hold tremendous power. Achebe provides progressively changing attitudes towards women’s role. At first glance, the women in Things Fall Apart may seem to be an oppressed group with little power and this characterization is true to some extent. However, this characterization of Igbo women reveals itself to be prematurely simplistic as well as limiting, once

Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart illustrate the different ways of presenting Africa in literature. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad shows Africa through the perspective of the colonizing Europeans, who tend to depict all the natives as savages. In response to Conrad 's stereotypical depiction of Africans, Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart through the point of view of the natives to show Africans, not as primitives, but as members of a thriving society. Things Fall Apart follows Okonkwo 's life as he strives for prestige in his community. When European missionaries come to Umuofia, Okonkwo 's clan, Okonkwo tries to protect the culture that the missionaries would destroy in the name of "civilizing" the natives. However his rigid mentality and violent behavior has the opposite of its intended effect, perpetuating the stereotype of the wild African in the eyes of the European readers.

   In Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart, the Ibo people's patriarchal society has a strict system of behavioral customs according to gender. These customs strongly restrict the freedom of Ibo women and help to reinforce generation after generation the notion that Ibo men are superior to the women of their tribe.

By utilizing an unbiased stance in his novel, Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe promotes cultural relativity without forcibly steering his audience to a particular mindset. He presents the flaws of the Ibo tribe the same way he presents the assets—without either condescension or pride; he presents the cruelties of the colonizers the same way he presents their open mindedness—without either resentment or sympathy. Because of this balance, readers are able to view the characters as multifaceted human beings instead of simply heroes and victims. Achebe writes with such subtle impartiality that American audiences do not feel guilty for the cruel actions of the colonizers or disgusted by the shocking traditions of the tribesmen. The readers stop

This paper will discuss the way Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness relies, both thematically and formally, on values that could be called sexist. By "sexism" I mean the those cultural assumptions that make women be regarded, unjustly, as in different ways inferior to men: socially, intellectually and morally. Since Heart of Darkness has often been regarded as one of the best and profoundest discussions of morality in English literature, this issue is very important.

Women are not treated the same as men. The book Things Fall Apart, is a work of fiction by Chinua Achebe, it takes place in the Nigerian village of Umuofia in the late 1880’s. It follows the protagonist, Okonkwo through his times of tribulation. Throughout Africa in the 20th century, women were not treated the same as men, the novel depicts that it is anti-feminist because, everything is gendered, women are treated as property instead of people, and women are made to act a certain way.

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

Women are viewed by Marlow as ignorant little creatures above the press of imperialism—completely innocent, but entirely unaware.

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.

  Women were once little more than slaves to their male "betters." Some women might have been respected, but their places were limited to roles as wives and mothers. They might rule a home, but were not believed intelligent enough for any other role. This chauvinistic attitude is well reflected in the novels Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, and Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad.

The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a commanding account about the rise and fall of an African tribe. The powerful narrative depicts the life and customs of the people and how they change through the years. Theere are many different ideas and characters that are preseneted throughout the novel. The depiction of women is one aspect that is of extreme relevance. It can be shown through several passages in the novel that the women are actually the unseen power behind the mighty Umofian tribe.

Written in 1899, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad conveys a story of European colonization along the Congo River in Africa. Although his work lacks central female characters, some of those mentioned hold great influence in society and the power to predict the future. Despite these abilities, women are still largely ignored by the men in their midst. Conversely, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart features a multitude of female figures, including oracles and priestesses, but much like Heart of Darkness, the majority of women in his work are belittled and viewed as unimportant. These two authors both showcase sexism in their works, as they promote stigmas surrounding females and a sense of male superiority that leads men to treat women as inferior. While the writers of Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart highlight the values certain females possess, they chose to depict sexist societies in which women are viewed as largely irrelevant and impotent.