This paper introduces and discusses the book "Heart of Darkness," by Joseph Conrad. Specifically, it analyzes the role of women in this novella. The paper looks at how women are represented and what sort of comments are made about women "in general". Women in "Heart of Darkness" play an important and distinctive role in the tale. They represent civilization (and the lack of it) far away in the jungles of Africa, where the "darkness" lies in wait for every man.
From The Paper.
"The African woman in the novel serves another purpose. She is totally opposite of The Intended, and of what "perfect" women are supposed to be back home in civilization. She is a leader, she is strong, and so she is infinitely frightening to the men. "Only the barbarous and superb woman did not so much as flinch, and stretched tragically her bare arms after us over the sombre and glittering river" (Conrad 146). She is also proud and "wild and gorgeous" (Conrad 135), which are adjectives Conrad never uses to portray the women back home. She represents the wild beauty of the jungle, and how it can never be tamed - not by the colonists and not by the Europeans. This African woman shows the men of the novel what a woman can do, and because of that, they find her "barbarous" and frightening, and would kill her if they get the chance. She not only represents the beauty of the jungle, she represents a woman who men cannot control, and so she is even more dangerous to them. The fact that she appears so briefly in the novel shows how Conrad ultimately dismissed her, and by dismissing her, he dismisses all women everywhere.".