“She stood looking at us without a stir, and like the wilderness itself”. To a female reader, this excessively masculinised language may render the text inaccessible, an impression reinforced by Conrad’s overt association of Kurtz’s mistress with the wilderness: “savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent”. By describing his mission in sexual terms, Conrad implicitly associates women with “darkness”, a word laden with connotations of confusion and ignorance. For example, he adopts the phallic metaphor of penetration when recalling his journey up the Congo River: “We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness”. Several critics have claimed that Marlow relates his tale using a constricted, overly “male” form of language which largely alienates female readers. Taking the form of a “tale within a tale”, the story is recounted to the reader through an unnamed male companion of the protagonist, Charles Marlow. When these factors are taken into account, it becomes apparent that Conrad’s female characters are vital to his bitingly satirical critique of the characteristically masculine domain of imperialism and exploitation. Furthermore, it could be claimed that several female characters play an instrumental – albeit understated – role in the narrative for example, Marlow’s aunt secures his employment as a riverboat captain. As such, interpreting the protagonist’s narration on a superficial level undermines the powerful scepticism at the core of Heart of Darkness and neglects the author’s notable unease with dominant British narratives. However, it is important to recognise that the world of masculine activity depicted in the novel is far from ideal rather, it is one of futility, psychological degradation, and shameful cruelty. This fraternity, they argue, is largely the result of Conrad’s use of overtly masculine language, coupled with his flat and superficial portrayal of female characters and the feminine domain. Writers such as Nina Pelikan Straus and Leslie Heywood identify an exclusive sense of “brotherhood” shared between a male author, male characters, and a largely male readership. Provocative and influential, Achebe’s criticisms served as an impetus for a range of theoretical perspectives on the implications of Conrad’s work, with some feminist critics suggesting that his narrative displays misogynist overtones through its exclusion of women.

While presenting a lecture at the University of Massachusetts, the Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe expressed his alienation from the imperialist and patriarchal themes of Heart of Darkness, famously decrying Joseph Conrad’s novel as the work of “a bloody racist”.

Heart of darkness symbols women