Discuss Heart of Darkness from a feminist perspective. Discuss the female
characters—their purpose, significance. What is revealed about the place and
image of women?
First of all, there are very few female
characters in Heart of Darkness, and
of those there are very few that are actually significant. The most prominent
are Kurtz’ African mistress and his intended European wife. These women are
both just to satisfy Kurtz’ desire to live in these two different worlds. They
are just objects that serve as spoils of each life style, in Europe he enjoys
the “perfect companion” while in the Congo he keeps company with the woman who
is independent, mysterious, and fierce; everything that his culture rejects.
Conrad is only concerned with how the females interact with his male
characters, besides that they are irrelevant. The women of this novel are viewed
just as inhuman as the natives; it is the same issue of Conrad’s racism. It is
just less poignant because of the lack of female characters. This reinforces
the idea that the only reason women are even included in Heart of Darkness is to portray the difference Kurtz
feels between Africa and Europe.
These are very good points considering the role that women play in Conrad's novel. There are no greatly important women in this story, when a woman character is brought up she is always closely tied as an extra layer of personality for a man. Both Kurtz's intended and his mistress are not major characters and only exist in the story because of Kurtz personality. I agree both of these women represent their respective continents and cultures. Kurtz's intended is more plain and naive in trusting that Kurtz is simply on an exploration and that he is remaining faithful to her. While Kurtz's mistress is wild and unbridled in her appearance which represents the natural beauty of Africa.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your viewpoints. Kurt's desire to live in two different worlds comes through in his actions with the women. The issues of feminism and racism were about the same at this time period. Prejudice against women has been just as big of an issue all throughout history. It is interesting how he uses things such as the woman to his feelings of the two different countries.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your view on how his mistress and wife are only there to simply satisfy Kurtz want to live in two worlds, along with the comment Meg made on how this time period women and prejudice were equally a big issue throughout history. Yet, both women used represent their cultures and this relates to how Kurtz can live in two different worlds with these women. Also I agree with you that the only true purpose in Heart of Darkness was to differentiate the difference between Africa and Europe.
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