Women in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Name Date French van Errors 9 March 2014 Archimedes Teacher Training Institute, university of Utrecht Course Institute Highlights of English literary works Essay on the role of women in Heart of Darkness by J. Conrad Assignment Lovers In a Male-Dominated World the Witch and the Widow The remnant word he pronounced was your name. It is ironic that this utter lie to a woman concludes the tommyrot of a mans Journey into the dark African jungle. Marrow, the floor protagonist, is the one who lies to the fiancee of the infamous Mr.. Kurt, he reason for his African adventure.In Joseph Concords novella Heart of Darkness (1899), women be scarce. Men drive the story and the two women portrayed In the story are sketchy, nameless characters who unless serve as female prototypes the Witch and the Widow. Both have been lovers of the storys arctic Mr.. Kurt and symbolize his transformation. The first woman that appears is the Witch traditionally an unmarried woman outside the normal stru cture of society, a priestly woman who possesses ridiculous jazzledge of medicine and the supernatural. She comes on stage when the story Is well underway. Until then, totally men have played a role In the level sailors, company officials, soldiers, station managers, explorers, servants and other staff. The Witch be pines to the tribe where Mr.. Kurt ruthlessly curbd. When he is taken away on Marrows steamer, she stands at the river bank Along the illuminate shore moved a wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman. ( ) bizarre things, charms, gifts of witch-men, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at every step. She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent. Her long shadow fell to the waters edge.Her face had a tragic and fleece candidate of wild sorrow and of dumb pain. (up. 75-76 Penguin Classics) These words suggest she was Kurt lover, but nonentity beyond her awe-inspiring presence is revealed. Apart from the powerful African Witch, on that point is the bri ttle European Widow two opposites that symbolize the former Kurt (nurtured by European elaboration) and the new Kurt (transformed by African Nature). This black-clad woman also had an romanticist relationship with Kurt, but she is completely unaware of Quartzs ramification and new love.She was occupied to him, waiting for his return and hoping to get married to him one day. Little did she know of his intentions to stay in the Jungle forever, had Marrow not got him out. She is presented as the archetypal widow that only exists because of her loss She came forward, all in black, with a ghastly since his death, more than a year since the news came she seemed as though she would regain and mourn forever. (p. 92) We can conclude that males reign supreme in Concords novella.They rule the world and they conquer the dark interior of the African continent. The primps inter pares of these conquerors is Mr.. Kurt, who tight gets a mythical status in Marrows imagination. The two women th at love Mr.. Kurt are the only women that play a role, and they are presented as symbols the one a strong African Witch, the other a weak European Widow, enforcing the double-faced personality of Mr.. Kurt and his personal battle between the dark powers of Africa against the enlightening civilization of Europe.