Feminist Theory in Heart of Darkness

Angels and Monsters in Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad’s varying depiction of women in his novel Heart of Darkness provides feminist literary theory with ample opportunity to explore the overlying societal dictation of women’s gender roles and expectations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The majority of feminist theorists claim that Conrad perpetuates patriarchal ideology, yet there are a few that argue the novel is gendered feminine. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar claim “Conrad’s Heart of Darkness…penetrates more ironically and thus more inquiringly into the dark core of otherness that had so disturbed the patriarchal, the imperialist, and the psychoanalytic imaginations…Conrad designs for Marlow a pilgrimage whose guides and goal are…eerily female” (DeKoven 233). This short essay will use Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness to highlight Gilbert and Gubar’s theory of angel/monster dichotomy within male-authored literature. Heart of Darkness provides us with few female characters, however, Conrad uses these characters to highlight certain aspects of human nature and expound his comparison of civilization versus savagery, light versus dark. The first female character introduced to the reader is Marlow’s aunt, whom Conrad writes as “a dear enthusiastic soul” (Conrad 9) and who works hard to find Marlow a job on a ship to Africa. This self-sacrifice and enthusiasm towards the job at hand perpetuates the role of an angel in a man’s life. Gilbert and Gubar speak of this desire to please men in their essay The Madwoman in the Attic, saying “The arts of pleasing men, in other words, are not only angelic characteristics; in other more worldly terms, they are the proper acts of a lady” (816). This supports the ideology of the time that women’s role was linked primarily to family as a caretaker and domestic goddess or angel. The aunt plays the role of Marlow’s mother and guardian angel, concerned with his health and acting out her proper role in

Cited: Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. United Kingdom: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1902. Kindle AZW File. DeKoven, Marianne. Rich and Strange: Gender, History, Modernism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1991. Print Gilbert, Sandra & Gubar, Susan. "The Madwoman in the Attic."   Literary Theory: An Anthology. 2nd ed. eds. Julie Rivkin and MIchael Ryan. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. Print. p812-825.