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.
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.
In Heart of Darkness, all of Joseph Conrad’s characters seem to have morally ambiguous tendencies. The most prominently morally ambiguous character is Kurtz, whose distance from society changes his principles, and leads him to lose all sense of decorum. Conrad takes a cynical tone when describing Marlow's journey. Marlow's voyage through the Congo gives him insight to the horrific, dehumanizing acts that his company and Kurtz conduct. Conrad creates a parallel with the tone of his writing and the misanthropic feelings that the main character experiences. Furthermore, Conrad creates a frame story between Kurtz and Marlow, adding to the symbolism and contrast between contextual themes of light and dark, moral and immoral, and civilization and wilderness. After being sent on a horrific journey into the Congo of Africa, as an agent for the Company to collect ivory, Marlow finds the infamous and mysterious Kurtz. Kurtz, who has totally withdrawn from society, and has withdrawn
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).
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.
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.
1. The protagonist of Heart of Darkness is a person named Charlie Marlow. Oddly, his name only appears once in the novel. Marlow is philosophical, independent-minded, and generally skeptical of those around him. He is also a master storyteller, eloquent and able to draw his listeners into his tale. Although Marlow shares many of his fellow Europeans’ prejudices, he has seen enough of the world and enough debased white men to make him skeptical of imperialism. An example of Marlow being independent-minded and philosophical is when he takes a trip up a river, as a break from working on ships. Marlow describes the trip as a journey back in time, to a “prehistoric earth.” This remark on how he regards colonized people as primitive, which is his philosophical viewpoint.
Kurtz was not always the power hungry man portrayed in Conrad’s book. According to his Intended, Kurtz was an admired man who had a “generous heart” and a “noble mind” (Conrad, 70). However, after his expedition into Africa, he became a changed man; an “insoluble problem” (Conrad, 50). The new Kurtz “[kicks] the very earth to pieces” (Conrad, 61). “Let us say – nerves, [go] wrong, and [causes] him to preside at certain midnight dances ending with unspeakable rites” (Conrad, 45). He has dropped all sense and morality and continues to live on according to his various lusts.
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.
Heart of Darkness ?gHeart of Darkness?h, written by Joseph Conrad, holds thematically a wide range of references to problems of politics, morality and social order. It was written in a period when European exploitation of Africa was at a gruesome height. Conrad uses double oblique narration. A flame narrator reports the story as told by Marlow, assigned to the command of a river steamboat scheduled to transport an exploring expedition. Kurtz is a first-agent at an important trading post of ivory, located in the interior of the Congo. Both Marlow and Kertz found the reality through their work in Africa. Marlow felt great indignation with people in the sepulchral city after his journey to the Congo region because he discovered, through his work, the reality of the universe, such as the great virtue of efficiency, the darkness in society and individuals and the surface reality. When Kurtz found himself on his deathbed and he said ?gThe horror, The horror referring to his life in inner Africa, which caused him disintegration. Marlow emphasized the virtue of ?gefficiency?h throughout the story because he thought of it as the only way to survive in the wilderness. After seeing the dying natives in the forest of the outer station, Marlow described them as ?ginefficient.?h Under ?gthe devotion to efficiency,?h incompetent people were excluded from society. Only efficient people can survive. For example, since Kurtz was the most efficient agent, with regards to producing ivory, his employers respected his achievement and regarded him as an essential person.
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
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
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.
Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, was written in the year 1902, a time of modernist literature. Heart of Darkness talks about the problems with alienation and confusion as much as it does about imperialism. In the early 1900’s, the lifestyle in England veered towards the Victorian values. Conrad’s novella makes a bridge to connect the Victorian values with the ideas of modernism. Thus “it belongs to a period of change.”(Sardar) For example, the natives are following in the footsteps of their predecessors, following a life of tradition, and their ideas of life are constantly being attacked by people like Mr. Kurtz who think they are doing what is best, when in reality they are creating more confusion
The imagery, like that of Marlow being able to “see the cage of [the native’s] ribs all astir; the bones of his arm waving”, does not reveal how Marlow reacts to such a traumatic sight and leaves readers to form their own opinions on both what Marlow thinks and their initial impressions (Conrad). Marlow’s actions are also questionable and lack the moral consequence assumed when pursuing an action, which demonstrates that for much of the novel, Marlow is untrustworthy and even fictitious at times, like, when he falsifies Kurtz’s last words “I was on the point of crying at her, ‘Don’t you hear them?’ The dusk was repeating them in a persistent whisper all around us, in a whisper that seemed to swell menacingly like the first whisper of a rising wind. ‘The horror! The horror!’ ‘His last word—to live with,’ she insisted. ‘Don’t you understand I loved him—I loved him—I loved him!’ ‘I pulled myself together and spoke slowly. ‘The last word he pronounced was—your name,’” (Conrad). By having an unreliable narrator, Conrad demonstrates that by using someone else’s impressions, we are not fully given a chance to understand for ourselves and can only do so when we are in complete isolation from Marlow’s own
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.