Women in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Name: Frenck van Orsouw
Date: 9 March 2014
Institute: Archimedes Teacher Training Institute, University of Utrecht
Course: Highlights of English Literature
Assignment: Essay on the role of women in Heart of Darkness by J. Conrad
Lovers in a Male-Dominated World: the Witch and the Widow
‘The last word he pronounced – was your name.’ It is ironic that this utter lie to a woman concludes the story of a man’s journey into the dark African jungle. Marlow, the story’s protagonist, is the one who lies to the fiancée of the infamous Mr Kurtz, the reason for his African adventure. In Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness (1899), women are scarce. Men drive the story and the two women portrayed in the story are sketchy, nameless characters who only serve as female prototypes: the Witch and the Widow. Both have been lovers of the story’s pivotal Mr Kurtz and symbolize his transformation.
The first woman that appears is the Witch – traditionally an unmarried woman outside the normal structure of society, a priestly woman who possesses unique knowledge of medicine and the supernatural. She comes on stage when the story is well underway. Until then, only men have played a role in the tale: sailors, company officials, soldiers, station managers, explorers, servants and other staff. The Witch belongs to the tribe where Mr Kurtz ruthlessly ruled. When he is taken away on Marlow’s steamer, she stands at the river bank: ‘Along the lighted 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 water’s edge. Her face had a tragic and fierce aspect of wild sorrow and of dumb pain.’ (pp. 75-76 Penguin Classics) These words suggest she was Kurtz’ lover, but nothing beyond her awe-inspiring presence is revealed.
Apart from the powerful African Witch, there is the brittle
Date: 9 March 2014
Institute: Archimedes Teacher Training Institute, University of Utrecht
Course: Highlights of English Literature
Assignment: Essay on the role of women in Heart of Darkness by J. Conrad
Lovers in a Male-Dominated World: the Witch and the Widow
‘The last word he pronounced – was your name.’ It is ironic that this utter lie to a woman concludes the story of a man’s journey into the dark African jungle. Marlow, the story’s protagonist, is the one who lies to the fiancée of the infamous Mr Kurtz, the reason for his African adventure. In Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness (1899), women are scarce. Men drive the story and the two women portrayed in the story are sketchy, nameless characters who only serve as female prototypes: the Witch and the Widow. Both have been lovers of the story’s pivotal Mr Kurtz and symbolize his transformation.
The first woman that appears is the Witch – traditionally an unmarried woman outside the normal structure of society, a priestly woman who possesses unique knowledge of medicine and the supernatural. She comes on stage when the story is well underway. Until then, only men have played a role in the tale: sailors, company officials, soldiers, station managers, explorers, servants and other staff. The Witch belongs to the tribe where Mr Kurtz ruthlessly ruled. When he is taken away on Marlow’s steamer, she stands at the river bank: ‘Along the lighted 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 water’s edge. Her face had a tragic and fierce aspect of wild sorrow and of dumb pain.’ (pp. 75-76 Penguin Classics) These words suggest she was Kurtz’ lover, but nothing beyond her awe-inspiring presence is revealed.
Apart from the powerful African Witch, there is the brittle