Analysis: The heart of darkness
Introduction
How was your understanding of the cultural and contextual considerations of the study work through interactive oral activity?After interactive oral activity, I could notice the importance of contexts in understanding the heart of darkness. This short adventure novel was written by the European Joseph Conrad in 1902. This work is in the midst of the "colonizing" expeditions of the Belgians to Africa. Next, I will analyze the biographical, social, economic contexts and their influence on the construction of the novel. First, Joseph Conrad (1857 – 1924) was part of the British merchant navy in the expeditions made to Congo (1891). Consequently, he was able to experience the abuse of Europeans to Africans.
Developing
So, I understood that Marlow is the author’s alter-ego, used to represent his experiences as literary material from his perspective without being censored. Therefore, I understand that the biographical context stipulates the content of literary productions. Second, at the end of the 19th century European expeditions began to the African continent, specifically to the Congo. These excursions with apparent "colonizer" ends, resulted in arbitrariness such as the exploitation of natural resources and slavery to the settlers. This activity allowed me to warn how the topography (Thames river) and facts (rubber extraction) of the novel were inspired by the reality of its author. I also understood that the author reflects racist conditions in the plot originated by the stereotypes of the time.
These are evident with the use of adjectives such as "beasts", "wild" and even "animals". Third, the Berlin Conference (1884 – 1885) held the distribution of the African continent between European powers. Consequently, the monarch Leopold II founded industries that brutally exploited Congo’s resources. Thanks to the AOI, I could develop my understanding about the way in which the financial situation of the time generated figurative poverty in the work. Show this is the exploitation of resources such as the rubber exposed in the work. Interactive oral activity allowed me to warn how cultural and contextual considerations influence the understanding of a work. Thus, the plot and characters evidenced in this novel.
Expose topics of this era from a perspective inspired by the author’s life. Likewise, the transcendence of the work is that Marlow is an autobiographical functional character that reflects the dimensions and scope of the human condition expressed in the work according to the context in which it was written. The female characters of the work The heart of darkness as a representation of social stereotypes in Europe in the 19th century. In the nineteenth century, European expeditions to the African continent consolidated a time of large prejudices and stereotypes. Because of this, writers were avoided to criticize the harsh social reality of the time. In this context, the heart of darkness (1902) is a short adventure novel written by the Polish Joseph Conrad.
That refers to the vulnerability and moral instability of the human being. In this way, the author concerns the modernist and realistic movement, resorting to their own memories and experiences to use them as literary material when writing this novel. In that sense, it is key to question, how do the social stereotypes of the context in the heart of the darkness of Joseph Conrad? Next, a literary and psychological study will be carried out on how the women of the work embody the social stereotypes of Europe in the 19th century. In this sense, the animalization of African women, the submission of the so -called "weak sex" and gender segregation is evident. To begin with, the African women from the heart of darkness
They are presented as beings encouraged through prosopography and language forms. That, he is expressed from the first moment a black woman, "was fierce and superb, with wild and splendid eyes, looked at us, standing and without moving, and like the jungle itself, with an air that she wasconsidering an inscrutable purpose ». In this fragment, the way in which the linguistic morphological level conditions the conception of women is observed, since the qualifying adjectives are attributed to black women ("wild", "fierce") in favor of insinuating dismissal, as ifThey were lower. With respect to the above, "like the jungle itself" uses a simile to establish a relationship between Congolese females and the dense jungle.
Therefore, the savagery conceived for African women is consolidated, because although they aspire to majesty, for society they do not hold a design of relevance in life ("inscrutable purpose"). At the same time, it is key to highlight that the author dilapidated a scrupulous story in which the meticulous details about Kurtz’s Congolese lover transfer beast features signs of dehumanization ("fierce"), so it is inferred that theantithesis of delicacy and human cunning. Consequently, it is stated that the prosopography attributed to African women encourages them and presents them as insignificant for the content of the work. In the same way, the etopeya and the technique of multiple narrator used in the novel expose female submission.
As for Etopeya, a clear sample of the resigned and submissive female attitudes is "I had an enthusiastic aunt wrote me: it will be magnificent, I am willing to do anything, everything that is in my hands for you" (Conrad, 2010, p. 16). Etopeya, understood as the description of the behavior, demonstrates an exaggerated yearning for satisfying obsolete needs of the opposite sex ("willing to do anything"). It is because of this, it follows that female submission is interference in the characters almost usual, so the stereotypes that enraged women were even accepted by them subconsciously. In the same way, the protagonist narrator exhibits gender stereotypes in nineteenth -century Europe through an analepsis that shows his own experiences.
"I, Charlie Marlow, put women to work for a job". Although this fact can be confused as love, that does not remain the marked suggestion that women considered themselves as a male support and support tool. With this statement, the protagonist narrator (Marlow) gives voice to a woman based on representing the exaggeratedly impatient and anxious attitude to satisfy the desire of a male at all costs. The previous thing, more realistically accentuates a context in which women are subject to male preponderance when considering that the protagonist narrator is the alter-ego of the author himself. In addition, unnecessary women are considered in the social, political and economic context.
As Marlow states "they, I mean women are on the sidelines, they should be". With this, a neat tendency of men is exposed to establish the feminine inferiority in Europe during the 19th century. In that sense, women are laughed to serve as a mere object, according to the macho ideas of the time. This is observed even when it is mentioned «it is extraordinary to see how far from reality women can place. They live in their own world, and has never existed nor can there be similar, if it had to stand up, it would collapse before the first twilight ». The foregoing, exposes a concept full of stupid assigned to the female gender, Kurtz’s girlfriend was ignored because he believed herself unable to resist the truth ("it would collapse").
So she is condemned to live deceived ("far from reality" and "in their own world"). Consequently, women were lagging and hidden in the shadow of male characters, which assume prominence, authority and importance. Therefore, ethopeya and multiple narrators exhibit female submission in the novel The heart of darkness. It should also be noted that the hierarchy of importance between characters alludes to gender segregation present in Europe during the 19th century. The above is reflected even at the beginning of reading, since it is exposed «adventurers and settlers from Deptford, Greenwich and Eash, ships Reyes and de Mercaderes;Captains ». Focusing on the context of the time, only men worked and assumed relevance positions.
Therefore, it is inferred that in all those adventures that the first narrator recalls there were no women, is it that they did not even deserve the right to work? In that sense, we are given subtle clues so that the reader understands how importance to the role of the woman was subtracted, denying another function other than that of the home or accompanying of a man of a man. That is, they were characters of merely characterizing dimension. Likewise, by exalting the importance of men as protagonists, the need for a weak and dependent counterpart is satisfied, women. «She advanced, all black with a pale head, floating to me at sunset. I was mourning. He took my hands among his and murmured: "I had heard that you were coming" ".
Through the protagonist narrator, the way in which Kurtz’s girlfriend is noticed, is included in the work as the typical European woman who was seen as fragile ("floating"). A being so dependent that he needed without a doubt of male support ("he took my hands among his") to subsist. In that sense, the figure of an seized and idealistic woman is enhanced, so regardless of its origin or degree of development, it was considered inferior to men. Thus, it is easier for the reader to understand the presence of that erroneous conception of gender stereotypes in Europe during the 19th century. Consequently, it is stated that the hierarchy of importance between characters reflects the presence of gender segregation in Europe during the 19th century.
conclusion
In conclusion, the heart of darkness reflects gender differentiation from the European point of view in the 19th century and clearly shows the stereotypes of women. Thus, the animalization of African women, the submission of the so -called "weak sex" and gender segregation is evident. Therefore, the transcendence of the novel is that it is a human story that contributes to the understanding of the human condition in a period of concrete history, emphasizing the role of women. On the other hand, the importance of even the author’s own life is affirmed, since I largely condition the plot of the work. Considering that, in addition, it can be questioned: to what extent does the novel act as a historical testimony?
Bibliography
Conrad, j. (2010). Heart of Darkness. Mexico d.F, Mexico: Volume
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