Heart Of Darkness Women Essay

“It is queer how out of touch with truth women are” (pg 17) said Marlow in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Throughout Heart of Darkness, Conrad employs characterization to illustrate the twisted view some individuals have of women. Conrad utilizes Marlow’s aunt, Kurtz’s intended, and the African woman to reveal this idea. First, Marlow 's aunt is used to demonstrate the prejudice toward women that exists in the world. On page 17 when recalling his conversation with his aunt, Marlow says, that women have a pretty world that they live in and, if their world was put into practice in the real world, their world would fall apart almost immediately. That comment epitomises the lack of sense that women are sometimes portrayed to have even in the current day and age. When speaking about how he attained his job Marlow states that his aunt got the job for him because of some of her connections, implying that

Last, Marlow’s encounter with Kurtz’s intended portrays the atrocious thought that women 's lives should be governed and their naivety preserved by the men around them. On page 69, Marlow states “It was more than a year since his death” and also says the intended is still mourning showing her submission to the fact that the coming and going of men rule her life. Also, when Marlow lies and tells her that Kurtz’s last words were her name (pg 72), he is protecting her from the danger of the truth. This is once again implying that women are not capable of handling the truth. Throughout Heart of Darkness women are portrayed as incompetent and inferior to men. In closing, Heart of Darkness has very negative views toward women. The character and fate of three women in this book all demonstrate this prejudice. In an early encounter with women, Joseph Conrad said “They live in a world of their own, and there has never been anything like it, and never can be. It 's too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first