While Reading Heart of Darkness I couldn't help but yearn for a strong female presence in the novella. The two knitters, Marlow's aunt and Kurtz Mistress, are all depicted in the story as non essential characters. Another important thing that should be noted about the female characters is that all of them are given titles rather than actual names. Conrad's choice of titles rather than names emphasizes the lack of importance females are given in society. Kurtz African mistress who is described as someone Marlow should fear could be an exception yet when analyzed at a deeper extent she actually holds no other power other than that which is given to her by the people around her, such as Harlequin who she scares off the inner station largely because of her threats but also because of Kurtz. She is much like Kurtz only in the sense that for the large part she remains a mystery to Marlow.
Furthermore, I searched deeper into the thought that maybe the heart of darkness was in actuality a Misogynist novella. Searching for evidence to support my theory, I came to the realization that the lack of depth of female characters, specifically Marlow’s aunt who supported the company's ideas of imperialism and saw the whole idea as something positive for the savages was in actuality just displaying the lack of information and maybe even denial of the events occurring in the congo river and surrounding areas. The female sex is oppressed into a naive state of mind that is found in almost every female character Marlow encounters.
- Alicia Cornejo
Women do not play much of a role in this novel, however, the input or ideas that they do introduce provide an immense amount of significance to the men that they are associated with. I think the reason Conrad speaks mainly about the men is because he wants to protect the sense of idealism that these women in this story embody.
ReplyDelete-T'Nia Tention
I agree with that statement in some aspects and differ with it in others. There were quite a few misogynistic features in the story that I noticed such as the scene where Marlow's aunt genuinely believed that the Europeans were on a "civilizing mission" and the scene where Kurtz' wife believed in the holiness of Kurtz. Both instances characterize women as being naive to horrid issues occurring in the world, which I believe is misogynistic. However, there were certain characters such as Kurtz' "African mistress" who embodied bravery and saw Kurtz for who he really was. But even in that instance, the mistress was a Congo slave so her voice would've never been heard by a European even though she did know the truth about imperialism. So I suppose the argument for and against misogyny could be interpreted both ways.
ReplyDelete-Rachel Robutti
It is true that this novel did not have a lot of roles portrayed by women in comparison to many of the other feministic books we have read, but I agree that the small parts they did play were significant in contributing to the theme Conrad was emphasizing throughout Heart of Darkness. Men, especially the white European men, are superior above all others which heavily implies the prejudice features of the novel against the inferior race and sex.
ReplyDelete- Valentina Mejia
In the book, women is not mention much in the story. But when women was included, they however played a significant role to Marlow and Mr. Kurtz. Conrad added the women in the book to show that women in general plays a subjacent position
ReplyDelete-Samantha Pubien
Even though there wasn't a "strong female presence" as you wanted, the small roles that were given to the handful of women were just as significant, maybe even more. For example, Marlow's aunt was the reason he went over there. She saw him as being the one who can bring light and truth to a place that needed it. I also think that having the women play such a small role supports the idea that men back then lived by a certain code in which they performed sort of acts of chivalry. Marlow even says, "We must help them stay in that beautiful world of theirs, lest ours gets worse."
ReplyDelete-Destiny Quinones
In reply to Destiny: Yes his aunt was one of the reasons for his journey to the Congo but the only reason she encouraged him to go is because her mentality is shaped by the little information she has gotten. Therefore she is stuck in oblivion and her opinion is shaped by the unreal ideas around her that have been manipulated by men.
ReplyDelete- Alicia Cornejo
I think that the lack of women's presence in this novel shows us the European's way of letting their women be oblivious to the current major problems because they know that it will be a mess. All the women is just there to observe the place sand make sure that everything is in place, meaning that they have no significance. Like Marlow's aunt, sure she does manage the company for the trade but that's all she does. So, I think that this paints a bigger picture of how the Europeans view women in their society, that they're just there to do the job so that men can do other "great things".
ReplyDelete- Vy Ly
Once again Vy is right, I also feel like the women in the novel are put to side with a task while the men go out and about to do "great things". It does give us the reader a bigger understanding of how Europeans truly view women as a whole in their society. They are only introduced to observe the situations that are surrounding them all at once. -Melenny Gallardo
ReplyDeleteThe women are just there as the "lookouts" watching for any chaos that comes up. They are over looked, the society puts men over women signifying their power. The women in their society have no significance what so ever.-Rebecca Jones
ReplyDelete