Heart of Darkness Essay

The harlot was always considered primordial and did non be get on civilised after being with Kurtz, showing she had authorisation to stay who she was and not be influenced by the white man, as many black people were. Her office on Kurtz, however, was far in addition big and he could not help but be influenced by this wild woman and also by the country, in which she lived. Kurtz was also influenced and changed by the business office of Africa.He could have control over the natives but he would never be able to succumb to the heart of darkness. The mistress, herself was in truth a representation of Africa deal the wilderness itself which emphasises her power and compares it to that of her land into which level off white men were afraid to venture too deep. When Marlow looked at a map of Africa he described the Congo river as looking like a snake.This again makes the audience relate back to Adam and Eve. A snake which symbolised the devil convinced Eve to tempt Adam. So by means of with(predicate) this we ordure see that the mistress received some of her power with a greater source. Her inability to speak makes readers think of her as to a greater extent(prenominal) animal and primitive but this just adds to her mystery and makes her appear to a greater extent like Africa and at one with the power in it. the immense wilderness, the considerable body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had been looking at the image ofits own tenebrous and overzealous soul. Emphasising these three characters power, Conrad uses a contrasting character for comparison. This character is Kurtzs think who was genuinely much opposite to the other females, in particular Kurtzs mistress. This woman was a typical Victorian fantasy This beauteous hair, this pale visage, this pure brow her forehead, smooth and white her fair hair seemed to catch all the remaining light in a glistening of gold. She is the type of woman any Bri tish man would want.The use of terminology such as fair, white, smooth and pure conveys her as being innocent and good and she was never spoken about in a sexual way- she seemed not to have any sexuality- which is a real powerful attribute to have. Someone with these characteristics is usually not very powerful. likewise her background she is British and British women were often marginalised from power or laterality due to males values so too would she be- she is no exception to this- more like an example of it. A year after Kurtzs remainder she still mourned him and tells Marlow I have survived. This tells readers she finds it great(p) to like without Kurtz- she is finding it hard to find the power to struggle on. Then when Marlow lies to her about Kurtzs brook words- readers are aware that he is does not believe she has enough military unit (power) to handle that kind of truth. This lie is made to maintain womens great and saving illusion. For this powerless woman Marlow w ants to help (her/women) to stay in that beautiful piece of their own This is contrasted with the other three powerful women as they were not in that beautiful world of their own.The aunt was intimately in a mans world- finding power from others in high places. The knitting women were represented as being in the after world having power over peoples lives and guarding the accession of Darkness therefore having the power (like the men believed they had over women) of deciding who could come in to their world and who could not. Then there was the mistress her personality and her world was the complete opposite to the intended (who was the representation of powerless).The mistress was considered wild, very sexual and uncivilised, living in an almost animal world obtaining her power from nature. The typical woman in the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, is represented as not possessing much or any power.This is seen through the eyes of a man therefore women are marginalised . They are excluded from the pop out of the story but when they do make an appearance, the aunt, the knitting women and the mistress all convey some sort of amazing power that is not typical to Marlows views and that men (of those times) do not consider or want women to have. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text edition This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Joseph Conrad section.