Women in Heart of Darkness
„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 least our gets worse. Oh, she had to be out of it.”[1] This is an excerpt from J. Conrad’s „Heart of Darkness”, first published in 1902, which has been strongly critisised for sexism. The quoted sentence implies that women do not have any influence on the ‘real’ world. But does it reflect the factual situation from the book? Despite the women in this book appear relatively rare, I am going to go through of each single case and try to analyse the facts thouroughly. The purpose of that essay is to prove that women in „Heart of Darkness” are more significant than it may seem at the first glance.
The first woman, reader gets to hear about in the book is Marlow’s aunt. When the others fail, she lends him a helping hand, strongly contributing to his getting the job on a steamer. One has to realise how crucial to the story this act was, as the whole african adventure would not happen without the contribution of the caring aunt. She manages to use her influences efficiently, which changed Marlow’s view on her, because he had formerly underestimated her. A few pages later, he admits: „I found her triumphant”. The aunt is possibly the most plain example for the support of my thesis, as the change of one’s attitude towards her is mentioned straightforwardly. However she’s only one out of few women appearing in Conrad’s novel. Let’s take a look at the others.
The next women narrator happens to mention are those he meets prior to being introduced tto general manager at the central station. They guard the door. The job of the younger one is to introduce approaching people, the older scrutinises the newcomers, while knitting wool. It may seem, that they basically do nothing important, however there is a sort of extraordinarity in their activities. Marlow mentioned, that there is a notion of uneasiness around the older one. She seems, as though she knew everything about what is going to happen to all those people passing by her. The narrator notices, that those two accompany certain people during a turning point of their lives. It is not an accident, that they resemble mythical moirae, which were the godesses of fate.
Furthermore, there is also a blindfolded woman depicted on Kurtz’s painting. She’s carrying a torch, which is commonly known as a symbol of the wisdom (it enlightens the darkness which represents the stupidity). Moreover, a blindfolded women is also a popular representation of Themis, the goddess of justice. Both the moirae and the pictured women represent wisdom. Because of this they make impression that they have sort of metaphysical influence on the surrounding world, despite they could seem powerless.
Analysis of women’s role in „Heart of Darkness” could not be complete without considering both of Kurtz lovers. Even though they seem to be „out of touch”, living under illusions provided by men, they still inflict changes in behaviour on other people. Harlequin straightforwardly mentions, that when she was around, he was strongly focused not to make her angry, because she could easily lose her temper and eventually report to Kurtz, who would have no scruples to punish one inadequately harsh.
On the other hand, Kurtz’s european beloved unwillingly forces Marlow to lie about his lover’s last words. It is a crucial moment, as he detests lies. The book also suggests, that this lie was also sort of continuation of Kurtz’s legacy considering his attitude towards women. Both main characters of the book tried to keep women in their own world. This required signigicant changes in behaviour.
In Joseph Conrad’s novel women may seem to be of no importance, as they are barely mentioned there. However, as we’ve learned from the essay, they are effective, wise and influential, so they actually do have strong impact on the course of action. It’s not an accident, that not a single woman is being called by her name. It was authors intentional action in order to make readers reflect deeply on women’s role in general. What’s more to it he managed to make careful reader appreciate women more, even though their appearances are so rare and transitory.
[1] from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (Collins’ Classics p. 60)
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