Women's Role in the Novel Heart of Darkness

【摘 要】小說《黑暗的心》的中女性角色一直是人們爭論的焦點，本文將這些女性角色分為主動和被動的兩類，通過對這兩類女性角色的分析，窺探出作者對于女性的態度以及作者通過這些女性想要闡述的主題。

【關鍵詞】《黑暗的心》；女性角色；主動；被動

There are totally five female characters in this novel： three black women and two white women. What role do women play in this novel is always a controversial issue on which many critics have voiced their opinion and argument. Generally speaking， there are two kinds of position on this question.

The first group： women play a passive role in the novel. The critics who hold this position believe that women are quietly ignored and sex discrimination is shown here and there. One of the typical representatives is Nina Pelikan Straus， who maintains that this novel propagates not only the colonialism but also the sex discrimination and Conrad has belittled the female in his novel. The main evidence is that Marlow brings the facts to the men but lies to the women. To her， Kurtz’s fiancée has been deprived of name and the right to know the truth. Johanna. M. Smith even points out from the psychological-analysis perspective that the dark forest in Africa is an embodiment of Kurtz’s lover， and the conquer to that mysterious forest symbolizes the conquer of women， body and soul.

In Marlow’s eyes， his aunt is “queer”. When he comes to say goodbye to his aunt， he gain such a feeling： “it is queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of her own， and there had never been anything like it， and never can be.” Here， “out of touch with truth” and “a world of her own” becomes the target of the argument， they think that women are excluded from the man’s world and they are deprived of rights to the truth.

Marlow once said： “girl？ Did I mention a girl？ Oh， she is out of it--completely. They –the women， I mean—are out of it –should be out of it. We should help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own， lest ours get worse.” Theses words best serve as evidence that Marlow does not expect women to enter their men’s world， they should “out of it”.

Marlow’s lie to Kurtz’s fiancée is also a hot topic. This group of critics deems that Marlow prevents her from knowing the truth. And by connecting her name “intended” with Kurtz’s last cry： Horror！ Horror； a conclusion can be deduced： women are horrible. To these critics， Marlow’s lie to the “intended” is a convincing argument that Marlow plays down women consciously.

Here are the three main point held by the critics of first group. While for the second group， their ideas are totally different.

In a word， they believe that women play a positive role in the novel， or we can say Marlow shows his praise， respect and sympathy to women. The arguments are as follows：

It is Marlow’s aunt who help him to get the post in the company. Although he despises it， he accepts it shamelessly at last. So， here， woman， his aunt plays an important role in the novel without whose help， there will be quite another story.

Marlow says that the girls “should be out of it’ and live in their own world. The critics have totally different explanation of these words. Put it in the context， they hold that “out of it”， it means the dirty colonization. So the whole sentence can be interpreted as the women have nothing to do with what men have done in this land， so they should not be involved in this dirty affair， which shows Marlow’s attempt to protect innocent women.

As on the question of Marlow’s lie to the “intended”， this group of critics has their own understanding. They consider it a “white lie”. We know that the “intended” worships Kurtz as god. After his death， she is pale and sad but “pound of that sorrow”. What’s more ， she begs Marlow to tell her Kurtz’s last words because she wants something to live with. Marlow always hates lies， but at that time when faced with such an infatuated and kind woman， he tells the lies to her and cannot have the heart to hurt her once more.

In addition， they point out that， two black women appeared at the beginning of the novel in the company’s office are portrayed as wise. The description goes like this “ She threw at them the same quick glance of unconcerned wisdom. She seemed to know all about them and about me too.” It seems as if the two women control others fate and they are not deprived of knowledge and truth， in contrary， they have the priority to know the truth.

What is the purpose for Kurtz to come to Africa in spite of the bad weather and danger of death？ We must say “for money”. And why he wants so much money？ Probing into the details of novel， we can find the answer or we can only say part of the answer quickly： He is poor and he wants to marry his “intended”. So we can say that “intended” is partly the motive power that drives Kurtz to Africa.

What mentioned above are two major opinions on this issue. Personally， I am inclined to the second one. Firstly， let us take the author’s living period and experience into consideration， the author can not totally get rid of the influence of the time when women’s self consciousness is rather weak. We are over -critical to him if we use modern standard to evaluate his works. In addition， Conrad has been a sailor for many years； it is natural that he knows little about women. So it is justifiable that the author pays more attention men rather than women.

Secondly， it is a fact that it is men who participate in the colonization at that time， and very few women will be involved in that affair. So the story itself decides the men are the heroes of the novel.

Works cited：

1.Zhu Yuan –de Dual Priority of Imperial tic Language of Joseph Conrad

Jul 2006 vol28 No. 4

2. Heart of Darkness and the Secret Sharer Joseph Conrad， New York： New York Press 2004.