Part I In the novel, Second Class Citizen, the main character, Adah, is a strong, Nigerian women who faces sexism from within her own culture since she was born. She explains, "She was a girl who had arrived when everyone was expecting and predicting a boy... She was so insignificant" (Emecheta 7). In the Ibo culture that Adah grew up in, being a girl was looked down upon. Giving birth to a boy was a major accomplishment, whereas giving birth to a girl was an equally major disappointment. Girls were taught to be useful, not intelligent: "A year or two would do, as long as she can write her name and count. Then she will learn to sew" (Emecheta 9). In Ibo culture, girls were valued for their domestic abilities. Adah refused to be measured by this, instead she was determined to go to school and get an education. She worked had to overcome the sexist attitude that her culture held. This sexist attitude continued after she got married to Francis. Francis is a typical Ibo male. He held the view that the males should go and get educated and the female should stay home, or in Francis’ case, work to support his education. Adah knew his attitude, "The sharpness seemed to say to her: ‘It is allowed for African males to come and get civilsed in England. But that privileged has not been extended to females yet’" (Emecheta 36). Francis is a pure reflection of the values held by the Ibos. All Francis wanted from Adah was money, to pay for his education, and sex: "As far as he was concerned marriage was sex and lots of it, nothing more" (Emecheta 41). To Francis, Adah was a sexual object. As far as he was concerned, her feelings didn’t matter, she was not a real person. Adah knew she was up against the enemy when she challenged Francis, but she was able to rise about he sexism and leave Francis. Not only does she go against her own culture, but she wants her children to reject the sexist attitude as well: "My sons will learn to treat their wives as people" (Emecheta 121). Adah is a strong women who will not let herself be objectified and will not let the sexism of her culture keep her down. Adah would dislike the way that women are portrayed in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness because women are treated as though they do not belong in the real world. Women are treated as objects inst...
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... my station, my river, my-’, everything belonged to him" (Conrad 44). Kurtz’s Intended is grouped with his other possessions like ivory and his station. He sees her as a belonging instead of a real person. It is the objectification of Kurtz’s Intended that in the end stops Marlow from telling the truth about Kurtz’s death. With Kutrz’s Intended in mourning, Marlow tells her, "’The last word he pronounced was- your name’" (Conrad 71). Marlow knows Kurtz’s true last words, which were "’The horror! The horror!’" (Conrad 64), but he could not bring himself to tell her the truth. By telling her Kurtz’s true last words, Marlow would have place her into the real world and she would have had to face those realities. By keeping her in the dark, Marlow leaves her in her fantasy world where she will never realize she is more that someone’s possession, she is an individual. Through the objectification of women in the Heart of Darkness, the true nature of imperialism as displayed in Kurtz is never revealed to the world. Just as Marlow will not recognize the views of women as individuals, the world will never recognize the true nature of imperialism.
In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, many questions can be drawn from the reader. However, one that stands out is the question of one of the main character’s Kurtz. Kurtz is not present physically throughout most of the novel, but is there consciously and spiritually throughout Marlow’s journey. Kurtz is a character that has been through a lot in his life including being physically ill in his time in Africa; therefore his illness and new environment caused his madness.
Looking at the book from a psychological viewpoint, there are apparent similarities to the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud in its suggestion that dreams are a clue to hidden areas of the mind, and that at the heart of things--which Freud called the Id--we are all primitive brutes and savages, capable of the most appalling wishes and the most horrifying impulses. Through Freud, or other systems of thought that resemble Freud's, we can make sense of “the urge Marlow feels to leave his boat and join the natives for a savage whoop and hollar” (Tessitore, 42). We might even, in this light, notice that Marlow keeps insisting that Kurtz is a voice--a voice who seems to speak to him out of the heart of the immense darkness--and so perhaps he can be thought of, in a sense, as the voice of Marlow's own deepest, psychological self. Of course, we must remember that it is doubtful Conrad had ever heard Sigmund Freud when he set out to write the book. Although a psychological viewpoint is very useful, it does not speak to the whole of our experience of the book.
The Intended asks Marlow to repeat Kurtz’s last words because she wants “something to live with” (71). Marlow hesitates, realizing that Mr. Kurtz’s actual last words would crush his fiancée. Then, Marlow finally understands that, while he can despise evil and ungodliness, he can also understand why men are evil and ungodly; he understands Mr. Kurtz’s intentions and chooses to respond to the Intended by lying, “The last word he pronounced was—your name” (71). Conrad reveals the goodness in men that society would not expect to be good. Even today, people are racist and prejudice, seeing evil in people that are not necessarily evil. However, it is important to see the goodness in the people that society deems evil, like the Africans in Heart of Darkness, in order to achieve a greater understanding of the world and oneself.
The Novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is about an Ivory agent, Marlow, who is also the narrator of his journey up the Congo River into the heart of Africa. Marlow witnesses many new things during his journey to find Mr. Kurtz. In Apocalypse Now, the narrator is Captain Willard, who is also on a journey to find Kurtz. The Kurtz in the movie however is an American colonel who broke away from the American army and decided to hide away in Cambodia, upon seeing the reality of the Vietnam War. The poem “The Hollow Men” talks about how humans’ “hollowness” affects their lives and often leads to the destruction of one’s life. These three works all deal with similar issues, and are related to one another in many ways, and also share somewhat similar themes.
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, achieved classical recognition for its depiction of humanity’s struggle to reconcile good and evil. From the very opening pages of the Bible man has wrestled with choice, opportunity, propensity and instinct. The knowledge of good and evil has surely caused us to die to simplicity and burdened us with the curse of self-awareness. At first it was a struggle for me to get from page to page because of Conrad’s intricate details.
Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness uses character development and character analysis to really tell the story of European colonization. Within Conrad's characters one can find both racist and colonialist views, and it is the opinion, and the interpretation of the reader which decides what Conrad is really trying to say in his work.
The fact that these people were more educated and privileged, it did not mean that there were more rights for women. For instance, Archer said, “I’m sick of the hypocrisy that would bury a woman alive of her age if her husband prefers to live with harlots” (35). A common double standard throughout the novel is that a woman is shamed for her husband’s infidelities but he would not be. Ellen Olenska is one of the blacksheeps of the society because she left her husband who was having multiple affairs.This demonstrates the hypocrisy in society that still exists today in double standards and gender stereotyped roles. In addition to double standards and previously mentioned, there were many stereotypes women are expected to follow. The women has to fit these standards to be deemed as a part of the society. An example of this is May Welland. May represents all the standards that society has for women and what would make the perfect wife. Archer describes May as quiet, well-mannered, well educated, sweet-tempered and reasonable. She understands the rules of the society that she must follow. That is why she stays married to Archer despite knowing that Archer was in love with Ellen. She would never try to stray from what was “right”. May Welland’s behaviour leads onto the next point which is the fact the women in the society where almost completely unaware of the gender equality. All the double standards and the gender specific roles that the society places on the women are the social norms. The women do not know any better and so they think that there was nothing wrong with society. They act and pretend to be happy with their husbands even if her husband is cheating on her. This teaches the reader that gender inequality will always be a underlying problem in society because of double standards, stereotypes and ignorance of gender inequality. Through
In Joseph Conrad’s short story, “Heart of Darkness,” the narrator, Marlow language, and point of view to convey the conflicting emotions he has about Kurtz due to the image he fabricated Kurtz to be, and the reality of Kurtz. Marlow’s language throughout the piece reveals to the reader how he feels about Kurtz and how he perceives Kurtz’s actions. Marlow’s point of view also allows him to support both of his perceptions of Kurtz because he doesn’t see only bad or only good in
In this case, Marlow would represent the colonized, the powerless, and the native people, while Mr. Kurtz’s intended embodies the colonizers, the powerful, and Europe. Even though Marlow has a strong grasp on the truth of Kurtz’s last words, he is obligated not to tell the truth. This can be equated to the fact that the truth behind imperialism is not to enlighten non-Europeans to the “better way” of living, like it is told to be, but it is rather to exploit those people who fall subject to the practice. The intended wanted to know what her husband-to-be said before he died, and instead of being real with Marlow and give him the chance to tell the truth, she puts him in a position to where he must succumb to her wishes and give her something she could live with. In reality, she, like most people whose country is a colonizing power, cannot handle the truth; the realities of imperialism were “too dark” for Europeans to handle. This is why The Company hid their true motives and practices from Europe. Mr. Kurtz’s document will never be released because the people in Europe cannot stand to hear that imperialism is a flawed system and it equates to murdering off the natives that they are trying to “help”. Mr. Kurtz was privy to the truth of the practice and it haunted him until his last breath. Taking these observation’s into account, Marlow’s lack of power due to the intendeds need for her truth, and the power she gained because of it, can amount to the conclusion that Conrad uses Marlow and the intended to depict the harsh imbalance in the colonial landscape in the end of the
Most noted for use of language in Heart of Darkness is Kurtz, whom Marlow regards as remarkable purely for his ability to speak eloquently. At one point in his journey, realizing Kurtz is likely to be dead, Marlow states: “I didn't say to myself, 'Now I will never see him,' or 'Now I will never shake him by the hand,' but, 'Now I will never hear him’” (Conrad 123). Yet when one consciously examines what Kurtz actually says in the novel, it becomes apparent that although his words sound artistic and profound, they are in reality incredibly ambiguous and devoid of meaning. It can be concluded that eloquence and delivery, rather than intrinsic value, fuelled the false grandiosity of Kurtz’s ideas. Nonetheless, those who do hear Kurtz speak overlook the emptiness of Kurtz’s words and are deceived by his eloquence — most notably the Russian trader, who claims Kurtz has “enlarged his mind” (123). Inca...
What cannot be ignored about the ending of his story, however, is what Marlow ended up doing. When it came down to Marlow telling Kurtz’s Intended about her deceased husband, he continued on to let her believe he lived and died a moral, good-natured man. What strikes deepest is when she asked for his last words, Marlow lied completely and said, “The last word he pronounced was- your name”. He went on to justify himself because it would have been “... too dark altogether” to tell her the truth. Not only did Conrad intend Marlow’s quest for his own self-knowledge, but for that of the reader as well, leaving them to see how in order to keep society functioning, it will never be aware of its true darkness at
When questioning whether or not Joseph Conrad was an imperialist, a racist or both for that matter, the answer should be quite obvious after reading some of his works, such as, Heart of Darkness. Everywhere you look in this book, there is both imperialism and racism illustrated. Through Kurtz, Conrad's imperialist side breaks through and likewise, through Marlow Conrad's racist views come to life.
In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad presents the character of Kurtz as a man who is seen differently by all who know him depending on their individual experiences with him. His cousin knew him as a man with great musical talent, others knew him as a great leader, and his “Intended” fiance knew him as an admirable humanitarian; but all of these knew him to be a remarkable genius. When the narrator, Marlow, first hears of him, he is told that Kurtz is known as a great leader destined to hold high positions and fame. However, as he travels the river, he also learns that Kurtz has become insane during his time in the African jungle. After Marlow finally comes into contact with him, he discovers that Kurtz has become a god among the natives and has been brutally collecting the coveted ivory. Marlow finally convinces the deathly ill man to return to the ship where he finally dies. Upon his death, Kurtz’s facial expression causes Marlow to feel as though he may be seeing his entire life passing just before it ends; and finally, he murmurs his final words “The horror! The horror!” (Conrad, p. 64).
Marlow’s thoughts are so consumed by Kurtz, that he is built up to be much more of a man than he truly is. In turn, Marlow is setting himself up for a let down. He says at one point, “I seemed to see Kurtz for the first time...the lone white man turning his back suddenly on the headquarters, on relief, on thoughts of home...towards his empty and desolate station”(P.32). When Marlow reaches Kurtz’s station, he begins to become disillusioned. He begins to hear about, and even see, the acts that Kurtz is committing, and becomes afraid of him. He sees in Kurtz, what he could become, and wants nothing to do with it. He does not want people to know he has any type of relationship with him, and says in response to the Russian, “I suppose that it had not occurred to him that Mr. Kurtz was no idol of mine.” (P.59). It is at this point that he begins to discover the darkness in his heart.
Conrad uses the character of Marlow to make use of his own thoughts and views about the people in the Congo. He feels pity for them as he sees them falling down carrying heavy packages and Kurtz commanding them like a batallion of troups. This sight angers Marlow and when he gets to Kurtz, it’s too late. Even he has been pulled in by the darkness. Conrad makes an effective distinction between Marlow and Kurtz.