Women in Heart of Darkness - 2004 Words

In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the portrayal of women takes a backwards step and is reverted back to the primitive, more demeaning viewpoint. Conrad employs characters that reflect the archaic perspectives concerning women. The main character, Marlow, generalizes all women and depicts every woman as living in a dream-like state merely â€Å"going through the motions† of life. His five women characters were kept unnamed and their speech limited, highlighting the belittlement of women in the male-dominated society. Thus, Conrad offered no advancement to the cause of women by following convention and minimizing the agency of females through the creation of two separate, engendered spheres. Depicting women as unnatural entities, voiceless and†¦show more content†¦Only the men of the story know the whole likeness of Kurtz. Thus, Marlows lie is not as heroic as it appears at first read but is really designed to maintain the brotherhood of males - the bond that links Marlow to Kurtz even in death. Only one woman sees the transformation of men removed from civilization. Conrad presents Kurtzs mistress with more powerful language than any other woman in the novella. As savage and superb and ominous and stately, she inspires immediate attention from all around her, but she is a silent presence and therefore not able achieve true agency unlike her lover, whose greatest attribute is his voice. Even voiceless, however, she remains a force of her own. The reader can easily understand why Kurtz took this splendid woman as his mistress by Marlows description, but Kurtzs attraction to the exotic other ultimately proves fatal. The native woman is like the wilderness itself, and like the wilderness, she cannot be tamed and only serves to fracture Kurtzs self-control. The simple affair turns south for Kurtz because the vegetation of female menace breaks the homosocial bonds keeping Kurtz from losing himself in the freedom of the jungle. By taking a mistress, he crosses the boundary between the worlds of men and women and loses the stability of brotherhood bonds, ultimately causing his sordid demise. Marlow describes the NativeShow MoreRelatedHeart Of Darkness By Joseph Conrad And The Portrayal Of Women1679 Words   |  7 PagesLucia Zhu Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and the Portrayal of Women Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness is an adventure tale about the narrator’s journey through the mysterious Congo River. Marlow, the narrator, becomes a sea captain as he travels the world in a steamboat. His journey starts from the Thames River in England to deep in the Congo River of Africa. Marlow’s mission is to locate and retrieve Europe’s best agent–Mr. Kurtz. 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