Heart of Darkness

¶ … Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad [...] roll of women in this novella. How are they represented? What sort of comments are made about women "in general"? Women in "Heart of Darkness" play an important and distinctive role in the tale. They represent civilization, and the lack of it far away in the jungles of Africa, where the "darkness" lies in wait for every man.

WOMEN IN HEART OF DARKNESS Women in the novel "The Heart of Darkness" seem to fill a very small role, but in actuality, the women in the novel serve quite a vital purpose. At first, "The Intended" seems enigmatic and stereotypical of women at the turn of the 20th century. She is "out of it," and the men believe she should remain so. "Girl! What? Did I mention a girl? Oh, she is out of it -- completely.

They -- the women I mean -- are out of it -- should be out of it. We must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own, lest ours gets worse. Oh, she had to be out of it" (Conrad 115). This is why Marlow protects The Intended at the end, because in Victorian society she must be protected at all costs. She will never know "the horror," and the men believe she never should know. Men were stronger than women in the mind of the time were.

Women were weak creatures who were meant to drink tea and keep house, while the men did the real "work," and that is clearly Conrad's intention when he writes about women. They serve only a small role in the novel, and yet, the novel in many ways revolves around them. At the end, The Intended is the only one who does not know how Kurtz really died, and she is the focal point of the end of the book - a light in the darkness.

The story gains real significance in how The Intended sees it, and how Marlow covers up the truth. She represents civilization and normality, while Kurtz and his time in the Congo represents anything but. She also represents the goodness which awaited Kurtz, while he was stuck in the evil of the jungle. She knew a good and decent Kurtz, who disappeared in his quest for ivory, and she represents the civilization and kindness that was left behind in the rape and pillaging of the Congo, and all of colonial Africa.

In an interesting twist, Kurtz looks at his Intended as a belonging, a "thing" that waits for his return. "My Intended, my ivory, my station, my river, my-' everything belonged to him. It made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into a prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places. Everything belonged to him -- but that was a trifle" (Conrad 116). Men "owned" women during the time this novel was written (1899), and The Intended is a graphic example of this.

She mourns for Kurtz long after he dies, but to Kurtz, she was simply another possession that he was losing as he died far from home in the jungle. The book is peppered with Conrad's own feeling about women, which echoes most men's feelings at the time. Even the aunt who actually got Marlow the steamship job comes under fire for being "out of touch." "It's queer how out of touch with truth women are.

They live in a world of their own, and there had never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over" (Conrad 59). It seems nearly impossible for Conrad to give women any credit for anything - certainly not strength or understanding or even purpose.

His aunt gets him a job when he needs one, yet he cannot give her credit. This really repeats the social place of women at the time, and Conrad is showing that even if he was a gifted writer, he still went along with the common misconceptions of the time. The African woman in the novel serves another purpose. She is totally opposite of The Intended, and of what "perfect" women are supposed to be back home in civilization.

She is a leader, she is strong, and so she is infinitely frightening to the men. "Only the barbarous and superb woman did not so much as flinch, and stretched tragically her bare arms after us over the sombre and glittering river" Conrad 146). She is also proud and "wild and gorgeous" (Conrad 135), which are adjectives Conrad never uses to portray the women back home. She represents the wild beauty of the jungle, and how it can never be tamed - not by the colonists and not by the Europeans.

This African woman shows the men of the novel what a woman can do, and because of that, they find her "barbarous" and frightening, and would kill her if they get the chance. She not only represents.