Theme, Character The Horror Justify the title Narrative-mode
Joseph Conrad, the greatest modern romantic novelist was born in Ukraine. He sought his subjects, wherever he could expect to find adventure in an unusual or exotic setting. His own experience of the sea, particularly of Malayan waters was of immense value to him and most of his works are in these settings. Heart of Darkness is the outcome of Conrad’s own experience. Through this he wanted to share his Congo Experience. The novel is remarkable for an overwhelming sense of evil and corruption and for its excellent tropical background.
One finds Conrad not very serious towards the women characters in his present novel. This can be depicted in the lines where he says,
It is the story of Congo. There is no love in it and no
women-only incidentally.
The women characters are neither dynamic nor round; particularly when
compared with powerful male characters that we meet in his novels. The attitude
seems to be, as voiced by Marlow, the women cannot bear too much reality and so
they must be at once protected from truth. Thus, in the novel Marlow lies to
Kurtz’s ‘Intended’ possibly because he believes that the girl needs a bulwark
to protect the saving illusion.
In Heart of Darkness, the women characters appear to be
minor ones in comparison with characters like Kurtz or Marlow or even the
Russian, from whom we learn a great deal about Kurtz. However, a closer
scrutiny would reveal that in the novel women play important functional roles
and they are treated in different ways. Sometimes they are saints whereas; at
other times they are seductresses. If the ‘Intended’ is an embodiment of
innocence and fidelity, the helmeted native girl, ‘superb and savage’ is an
embodiment of voluptuousness. Also, she is described as,
…the image of the wilderness’s own tenebrous and passionate
soul.
If Marlow’s aunt is specimen of Victorian model of motherly women- loving
and affectionate; the women knitting black wool at the Company’s Office are
stern and severe,
guarding the door of
darkness.
without any touch of tenderness about them. When Kurtz dies, Marlow goes
looking for his ‘Intended’. But no sooner had he mentioned the girl he says,
Girl! What? Did I mention a girl?
Oh, she is out of it- completely.
They- the women I mean- are out of it-should be out of it. We
must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own, lest ours get
worse.
The account seemed to be the most controversial judgement on women and
feminists thirsted for Conrad’s blood on account of this ‘indiscriminating
evidence’.
It is not true that women characters of Conrad are only expression of
Marlow’s idealized conception of womanhood, though it may be only partly true. When
Marlow had a longing to go to Congo and decides to go there ‘by hook or
by crook’ and fails to get the job in the normal way, he decides to use
the influence of women. He says,
I tried the women. I Charlie Marlow set the women to work-to
get a job.
The idea lying behind the statement is the belief that women constitute a
strong possession. The Other woman in the novel is the picture painted by
Kurtz, that is, the oil painting that Marlow had a glimpse at Central Station.
Here, the lady was blindfolded with sombre background. Not leaving the chance,
here also Marlow discerns the enveloping darkness inspite of the white marble.
Though Conrad himself admitted that the role of women in Heart of
darkness is incidental, he himself states that
Women for him are not culpable. They are not only mere tools
in the hands of men…they have influence over men.
One can find justification to the above statement through various
examples given above from the novel.
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