Feminist Criticsim

Feminism is the state of women in particular culture .It is the set of female qualities attributed specifically to women and girls by a particular society .It is both an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seek justice for women and the end of sexism in all form .The complement to femininity is masculinity,which take their led from feminism .In Joseph Conrad's novel The Heart of Darkness, Marlow the narrative character view of women embodies the typical nineteen century view of women as the inferior sex .Marlow mentions the female character his aunt, the Intended and the Native woman in order to give his tale more substance. These three women really don't take an important role in the novel. They seem to be categorized into a separate group ,serving as supplements to men's action, character and behavior .All of them seem to live in the realm of their own ,built on the idealistic conception of the surrounding world, governed by fair rules and laws .Even they don't relate with the primary themes of novel .The primary themes focus more on how Marlow's journey in the heart of darkness contrast the white souls of the black people with the black souls of white, it exploit them and how it led to Marlow's self-discovery. This is not surprising as the text first published for magazine in 1898.

Conrad's negative attitude toward women is clear in his novel. Women play an ambiguous role in their contrast with men .He established an identity as a strictly masculine writer by his narrative that contained only masculine men in the world of sea .He sees a women as naïve and idealistic, believing in fantastic worlds that would never work in the reality he knows .Though he scorns them for their dreaming ,he also admires and compassionates the purity for their hopes and dreams.

It's queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there have never been anything like it, and never can be .It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset (1, 18).

We see his lack of skill when it comes to creating the women characters .Even his feminine creation are often dismissed as a secondary and ineffective to the plot and theme of the story .The two women Marlow encounter in the company's office knit black wool , their appearance is foreshadowed by the tow black wools which signify the thread of life .The represent of tow women are less important than the represent of the wools (guarding the door of Darkness, knitting black wool as for a warm pall(1,15).

Marlow's aunt a European woman who is described with an underlying irony" a dear enthusiastic soul" with point to an illusive existence of a white woman in her civilized imagined world .She was lack of intelligent and wisdom. She was "ready to do anything" for Marlow in the name of a "noble cause" that is colonizing the blacks and complementing civilization in the darkness of Congo .She firmly believes her nephew to be the "emissary of light", overlooking the dark level of exploiting the Natives for financial benefits (1, 11). She seems powerful woman but that because she knows wife of a powerful man.

Kurtz' Intended is the naïve character. She is a lone and waiting for Kurtz as long as she has too. She is pure and "guileless," especially noting the honest expression of pain in her eyes.She is like a European, wealthy and useless women. Who has nothing better to do than waiting for their fiancé to return with love. She lives in her own world with out concern for reality or other people. When Marlo visit her at the end of novel her first question what were his last words, even she does not asked how he died. Marlow keep her with an idealistic image of her husband and the illusive world based on the false image of his greatness. The truth about Kurtz would be too dark and would destroy her dreams. She is naïve about the true motivations of men, which we have

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