Exploring the Feminist Potential in the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was first published in 1899 and while it remains one of Joseph Conrad’s most celebrated works, it has also attracted its fair share of criticism and controversy due to the way that it depicts its female characters.
This article will explore more on how the author’s portrayal of women, both black and white, can be seen as a potential form of feminist commentary on colonialism and its negative effects on people from all walks of life, including but not limited to the few female characters in the story.
Conrad’s Portrayal of Women
Feminist criticism holds that Conrad fails to fully flesh out his female characters as he does with male ones. Women are not given deeper context as complex people but are used as meaningless symbols when isolated from one another — empty vessels for what Conrad wishes them to represent. Also, despite being set in the Belgian Congo, where women hold a large cultural significance, few female characters are featured in the story at all.
His African Queen becomes a representation of dark nature and an eroticized symbol of her atavistic allure. Meanwhile, Kurtz’s “intented” (aka fiancee) is only significant as far as she demonstrates society’s illusionary reality. Neither…
