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How Does Heart Of Darkness Affect Joseph Conrad's Portrayal Of Women

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Upon first glance, Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness appears to tell the tale of a riveting adventure which tackles issues such as imperialism, race, and corruption. Charles Marlow, a British man, is part of the ivory trading industry in the heart of Africa. Naturally, one would point to the colonization and its implications in their analysis of this work. I argue, however, that beyond the standard topics as previously mentioned lie insight into Conrad’s perception of gender and women. Furthermore, both the male and female characters in Heart of Darkness reveal the gender biases and societal sexism held by Joseph Conrad. In order to accomplish this, I will explore three ways in which Heart of Darkness excludes the female experience, …show more content…

In the same way that the African perspective is silenced and disregarded, British women are also overlooked as nonsensical and morally corrupt. Through the imperialistic ventures, Kurtz robs the Africans of their voice and autonomy. Similarly, the British women are denied voices, agency, and even names. We are only given Marlow’s bias and unfair assessment of women. The parallel between imperialism and women in Heart of Darkness is highlighted by Martine Hennard Dutheil De la Rochère in her work Heart of Darkness’ as a Modernist Anti-Fairy Tale. She writes “Heart of Darkness can thus be read as a deeply ambivalent reflection on the collaboration between imperial and patriarchal structures: it represents colonial exploitation as inseparable from the feminine and yet justifies the exclusion of women in the name of a feminine ideal that Marlow attempts to preserve” (De la Rochere, 8). In order to perpetuate his patriarchal idealism of women, he cages them and prevents any substantial female representation. Women in Heart of Darkness are nothing more than slaves to their male counterpart’s patriarchal efforts in the same way that the African population is regarded as no more than an object in an economic

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