Heart of Darkness illustrates three different depictions of women. These depictions are the naive woman, the mysterious woman, and the wealthy and influential woman. The sparse mentionings of women reveal the way the writer views their significance. They are never given names and are briefly mentioned throughout his work. In Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness, women are hardly mentioned but play a significant role in revealing the different aspects of imperialistic Europe.
One of the women that are mentioned by Conrad is the naive woman, who is called The Intended. The Intended is Kurtz’s fiancee and only appears for a brief moment. She is symbolic for what the Europeans believed imperialism to be. The Europeans saw imperialism to be the colonization and civilization of Africa. In reality, the imperialists were in Africa raping it of ivory and working the natives to death. Furthermore, the Intended only saw the good in Kurtz. “And all this, she went on mournfully, of all his promise and all his greatness, of his generous mind, of his noble heart, nothing remains nothing but a memory”(94-95). The Intended seemed to worship the ground Kurtz walked on, for she says “‘I would have treasured …show more content…
During this time in the European society, there was gender based sexism. “Its queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there had never been anything like it, and never can be. [...] Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over”(15). Marlow’s aunt is significant because she is the one who gets him the job as a steamboat captain. “ I, Charlie Marlow, set the women to work to get a job. Heavens! Well, you see, the notion drove me. I had an aunt, a dear enthusiastic soul” (10). By Marlow seeking help in his aunt proves she has significant power that many women during this time did not