Criticism In Joseph Conrad's The Heart Of Darkness

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In Joseph Conrad’s short story “The Heart of Darkness” we see many comments and terms that directly relate to people of color and women. We see that Marlow doesn’t believe that women are equal to him, and how Europeans viewed colored people differently at the time. I wouldn’t say that story was racist or anti feministic due to the time period that it came out in. Viewing it today I can see why people view the story as being racist. As for being anti feministic there are only a few comment that really stood out to me. At times Conrad makes points in which he views During the novella we see many quotes made by Marlow and others that relate to racism towards the native Africans. In the first section of the story we see some comments that relate …show more content…

Anti-feminism happen throughout the story, but at times some characters have different opinions on women. In the beginning of the story we see that Marlow’s aunt had helped him get his steamboat, and sent him to work. A woman was in charge because she had the backing of powerful people. The story didn’t always take away from women in this part it actually showed a woman who was in charge over men. But as the story kept going we comments relating to women and how they are in their own in world. "It 's queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there has never been anything like it, and never can be. It 's too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over."(s1) Marlow believed that women were very naïve and lived in their own little world. He believes that women believe in a world of paradise where everything is perfect, but Marlow knows that, that world isn’t ideal. Marlow also thinks that women aren’t in touch with reality at all. I think most men viewed women this way back in the early 1900’s. Women weren’t even able to work yet during the time the story released, so how could the men have viewed women …show more content…

We still see some racism and anti-feministic views in our world today but not like they were in 1899. It is totally understandable to say that the story is racists and anti-feministic for todays world, but not for when it was written. I agree that the views portrayed show racism and anti feminism but that’s because I grew up in different time period than when the story was

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