Essays
Comparison between Kurtz’s Intended and Mistress
TENSES
SIMILARITY
Conrad was just as critical about the English society's treatment of women, as he was unconvinced about their treatment of African natives. He uses the bleak contrast between Kurtz's African mistress and his European fiancé to tell some important aspects.
The Intended has the social role of Kurtz's perfect female counterpart in the European society,
"The dusk was falling... A grand piano stood massively in a corner with dark gleams on the flat surfaces like a sombre and polished sarcophagus. A high door opened--closed. I rose. "She came forward all in black with a pale head, floating towards me in the dusk. She was in mourning... I noticed she was not very young--I mean not girlish... This fair hair, this pale visage, this pure brow, seemed surrounded by an ashy halo from which the dark eyes looked at me".
While the African cannot be considered to have any other role but that of a savage, socially lower than Kurtz, as she was a Black and Kurtz White. She is dark and savage, yet beautiful. Moreover, she is passionate and full of life "...a wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman”. "She walked with measured steps, draped in striped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly with a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments. She carried her head high, her hair was done in the shape of a helmet, and she had brass leggings to the knees... She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate process... the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her".
The African native may be dark of skin, but she carries jewelry and decorations on her body. This corresponds with her roles both as a mistress. On the contrary, her European opposite is pale even her hair is the color of ash - i.e. dusty grey, but she is
TENSES
SIMILARITY
Conrad was just as critical about the English society's treatment of women, as he was unconvinced about their treatment of African natives. He uses the bleak contrast between Kurtz's African mistress and his European fiancé to tell some important aspects.
The Intended has the social role of Kurtz's perfect female counterpart in the European society,
"The dusk was falling... A grand piano stood massively in a corner with dark gleams on the flat surfaces like a sombre and polished sarcophagus. A high door opened--closed. I rose. "She came forward all in black with a pale head, floating towards me in the dusk. She was in mourning... I noticed she was not very young--I mean not girlish... This fair hair, this pale visage, this pure brow, seemed surrounded by an ashy halo from which the dark eyes looked at me".
While the African cannot be considered to have any other role but that of a savage, socially lower than Kurtz, as she was a Black and Kurtz White. She is dark and savage, yet beautiful. Moreover, she is passionate and full of life "...a wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman”. "She walked with measured steps, draped in striped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly with a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments. She carried her head high, her hair was done in the shape of a helmet, and she had brass leggings to the knees... She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate process... the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her".
The African native may be dark of skin, but she carries jewelry and decorations on her body. This corresponds with her roles both as a mistress. On the contrary, her European opposite is pale even her hair is the color of ash - i.e. dusty grey, but she is