Heart Of Darkness
In Joseph Conrad's novelette Heart of Darkness, Marlow's view of women embodies the typical 19th century view of women as the inferior sex. There are only three relatively minor female characters in Heart of Darkness: Marlow's aunt, Kurtz's mistress, and Kurtz's "Intended." Marlow mentions these female characters in order to give the literal aspect of his tale more substance. While they definitely play specific roles in the story, they do not relate with the primary theme of the story. The primary theme focuses more on how Marlow's journey into the heart of darkness contrasts the "white" souls of the black people and the "black" souls of the whites who exploit them, and how it led to Marlow's self-discovery. In the beginning of Marlow's story he tells how he, "Charlie Marlow, set the women to work--to get a job."(23) He tells this in the context that he was so de
The two other female characters are not mentioned until much later in the story, after Marlow has arrived at the Inner Station. When Marlow reaches this point in his tale, he jumps ahead and tells a little bit about The Intended, Kurtz's fiancee who was to marry Kurtz when he returned. The Intended woman does not appear until the very end of the novelette, in which Marlow visits her and lies to her about Kurtz's dying words. The Intended had a more significant role in the story than Marlow's aunt; however, her role as a whole was somewhat limited and did not affect the main theme of the story. sperate to travel in the trade industry that he did what was unthinkable in those times: he asked a woman for financial assistance. The woman, his aunt, also transcended the traditional role of women in those times by telling Marlow that she would be delighted to help him and to ask her for help w
Some common words found in the essay are:
Charlie Marlow, Heart Darkness, Intended Marlow, Intended Kurtz's, Darkness Marlow's, Marlow Kurtz, Kurtz's African, Station Marlow, Russian Russian, heart darkness, female characters, Joseph Conrad's, theme story, view women, 19th century, main theme story, story marlow's, women inferior, main theme, marlow's opinion, marlow's aunt, typical 19th century, heart darkness marlow's, view women inferior,
Approximate Word count = 610
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
