Heart of Darkness Feminist Reading
Heart of Darkness Long Essay
Toby Anderson
Word Count: 2139
Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” from 1899 is set in a period where ivory was a very valuable commodity and was most common in Africa, thus was a time in which countries such as Belgium were involved in exploring and colonising the wild continent whilst extracting its valuable resources. “Heart of Darkness” is a three-part novella in which the story of Charlie Marlow’s adventure into the heart of Africa down the Congo River is told within the story of a sailor recounting Marlow’s own telling of the story on the deck of a ship as they sailed on the Thames River. The dominant reading that prevails through the thick jungle of adjectives and tangents that is “Heart of Darkness” involves notions of civilisation, comparing the advanced/evolved European to the savage/primitive African. However, there are several other rather concealed readings that can be drawn upon analysis. For example; “Heart of Darkness” contains examples throughout the story that enable a resistant feminist reading to be applied with regards to the western or European characters of the Aunt and the intended. When analysing the way in which ‘the African Goddess’ is portrayed in the story however, one is able to contrast the way in which western females are presented and the way in which gender roles are portrayed in a primitive Africa. It is clear that a resistant feminist reading doesn’t apply to her but rather an alternative feminist reading suggesting women have more power than men in a society of ‘savage natives’; Africa.
Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” provides a resistant reading that can be directly applied to the characters of the Aunt and the intended. As defined by Abrams’ “A glossary of Literary Terms”; it is a wide-ranging critique of the cultural identification of women as merely the negative object, or “other,” to man as the dominating “subject,” who is assumed to represent humanity in general. Both the Aunt and
Toby Anderson
Word Count: 2139
Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” from 1899 is set in a period where ivory was a very valuable commodity and was most common in Africa, thus was a time in which countries such as Belgium were involved in exploring and colonising the wild continent whilst extracting its valuable resources. “Heart of Darkness” is a three-part novella in which the story of Charlie Marlow’s adventure into the heart of Africa down the Congo River is told within the story of a sailor recounting Marlow’s own telling of the story on the deck of a ship as they sailed on the Thames River. The dominant reading that prevails through the thick jungle of adjectives and tangents that is “Heart of Darkness” involves notions of civilisation, comparing the advanced/evolved European to the savage/primitive African. However, there are several other rather concealed readings that can be drawn upon analysis. For example; “Heart of Darkness” contains examples throughout the story that enable a resistant feminist reading to be applied with regards to the western or European characters of the Aunt and the intended. When analysing the way in which ‘the African Goddess’ is portrayed in the story however, one is able to contrast the way in which western females are presented and the way in which gender roles are portrayed in a primitive Africa. It is clear that a resistant feminist reading doesn’t apply to her but rather an alternative feminist reading suggesting women have more power than men in a society of ‘savage natives’; Africa.
Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” provides a resistant reading that can be directly applied to the characters of the Aunt and the intended. As defined by Abrams’ “A glossary of Literary Terms”; it is a wide-ranging critique of the cultural identification of women as merely the negative object, or “other,” to man as the dominating “subject,” who is assumed to represent humanity in general. Both the Aunt and