Sexist Attitude in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness Essay -- Heart Da

Sexist Attitude in Joseph Conrads centre of attention of duskinessThis paper will discuss the way Conrads novel snapper of Darkness relies, both thematically and formally, on values that could be called sexist. By sexism I mean the those cultural assumptions that make women be regarded, unjustly, as in different ways inferior to men friendlyly, intellectually and morally. Since Heart of Darkness has often been regarded as one of the best and profoundest discussions of morality in position literature, this issue is very important. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is how the fib itself is thought of as unsuitable for women. The narration takes place on a small sailing boat, waiting for the ebb of the Thames to bring it out to the sea, and the listeners to Marlowes story, of whom the base bank clerk is one, are all men. They are, moreover, all comrades, and keep be off-key to share certain fundamental values. Some of these values, a blind nationalism for example , are questioned by Marlowes narrative, while others, such as the contemporary billet towards women are altogether confirmed and reinforced. There are not only very few female participants in the story. The secondary, although most important narrator Marlowe, at several points defines the story as itself ill-suited for feminine earsGirl What? Did I mention a girl? Oh, she is out of it - entirely. They - the women I mean - are out of it - should be out of it. We must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own least our gets worse. Oh, she had to be out of it. You should keep back heard the disinterred body of Mr. Kurtz saying, My Intended. You would have perceived directly then how completely she was out of it. (Conrad 75)Here, Marlow fores... ...n of action either to become passive, or to deviate from their innoxious ways.By analogy, the voyages of Kurtz and Marlowe, and the enterprise of discovery of colonization themselves, can be seen as essentially masculine ac ts. Such acts, always perpetrated, it seems, by white men, exactly befall, happen to, passive peoples or cultures. As a result, these peoples are dour into the mere receivers of the actions - military, educational, sexual - of others, and are thus, to an extent, feminized. In this way, the racist discourses of Conrads times can be understood as connected to the assumptions by which women were, and still are, subjected to social and cultural oppression.Works CitedConrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. rising York Norton, 1988.Achebe, Chinua. An Image of Africa. In Hopes and Impediments Selected Essays. New York Doubleday, 1988.