Conrad’s Lord Jim and Modernism 153 Journal of Literature, Culture and Media Studies

shift between two narrative paradigms, nor even a

disparity between two types of narration or narrative
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness :
organization, but a shift between two distinct cultural
spaces, that of “high” culture and that of mass culture-
Negotiating Space for the Women
is not the only gap or discontinuity that Lord Jim
symptomatically betrays. (p. 431) ASIT K. BISWAS

Strangely enough, Conrad mixes up naturalism, realism, My purpose in this article is to evaluate the roles played by the
Jamesonian materialism and elements of modernism in his art women characters in Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, and to show,
of fiction. We find a breakdown of older realism from which contrary to the general view, that the women in the novel may and
comes not modernism alone, but two literary and cultural struc- do serve to give more meaning to the text than they are supposed
tures–the production of mass culture and of high literature. The to do. I have taken into the purview of my critcal analysis only three
novel-Lord Jim may be read as a novel of imperialist penetration, of the women-Marlow’s old aunt, Kurtz’s Intended, and his African
ideological expression of capitalism, study of existentialism and Mistress. I have kept the two receptionists in the Company’s office
so on. Whatever may be focal point of analysis of the novel, in Brussels aside, primarily because the “Two women, one fat and
the moral and the psychological question cannot be excluded. The the other slim,(who) sat on straw-bottomed chairs, knitting black
English novel with Conrad becomes a psychological study of wool” (Conrad 31) are mostly symbolic abstractions and have very
human mind and moral problem of an individual in an alien little to add to the probable total meanings of the novel. The
world. While Henry James brought foreign influence, Conrad‘s case ‘compassionate secretary’ who made Marlow sign some documents
is more interesting because he was a foreigner who introduced in the Brussels office and who may possibly be a woman is also not
modernism in English fiction. considered on the same ground.
There is a general critical consensus that the world of Joseph
References Conrad’s fictions is basically a male-dominated world. The colonial
adventures, imperial businesses, hazardous navigations, startling
Barry, Peter, 2008. Beginning Theory Delhi. Viva.
explorations and such other activities and experiences which usually
construct the plots of most of the novels and short stories of Conrad
Conrad, Joseph, 2004. Lord Jim. A Norton Critical Entition Ed. TC. Moser were, in fact, the concerns of men, not of women, in the late Victorian
Londoni Norton & Co.
society. The Victorian women were happy with their immediate
Dahiya, B. S. 2005. A New History of English Literature. Delhi : Doaba. domestic-social realities, and had only vague and idealistically formed
Drew, Elizabeth, 1995. The Novel. Calcutta : Radha Publishing House views about the larger external issues such as colonial-imperial
activities. Therefore, in Conrad’s novels the women characters are
Jameson, Frederic. 1983. The Political Unconscions. London : Routledge fewer in number and are almost nowhere found to occupy the centre-
Mencken, H. L. 1917. A Book Prefaces. New York : Knopf. stage, controlling or shaping the plot. They are made to appear at
the peripheries and are allowed to play only secondary roles. They
are never found to either be equal to or at least very close to the
impotant positions given to their male counterparts.
Heart of Darkness is, by no means, any exception to this fact
about the position of the female characters in Conrad. Brinda Bose
*Reader, Dept. of English, Bankura Christian College.

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in her introduction to the Oxford edition of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Conrad’s youth was spent on the seas and oceans, away from the
observes : sophisticated English society. Again, as one born in Poland, he had
no earlier idea of the British society. Hence it would have been
Women, to begin with, are hard to come by at the impossible for him to write on the social themes or problems of the
centre of this male colonial enterprise. Even at the peripheries Victorian England. And he never, quite judiciously, attempted to do
where they roam, the roles they are given are problematic. it. He has discarded the Victorian social realism, and turned his eyes
Not only are Marlow’s aunt, Kurtz’s African woman and his to colonial-imperial exercises which he watched and scanned from
Intended ultimately powerless in the colonial exercise that the a very close quarter. And he has adopted a symbolic-impressionistic-
men carry out, they are satirized by the colonial male for critical mode of narration to explore the inner realities of the world
misguided perceptions of ‘the idea’. (Bose 14) he presents in his novels. Heart of Darkness is a novel of this category,
and therefore the women characters in the novel are so sketchy and
Such a view of the women in Heart of Darkness is not at all apparently under-developed. In the novel itself the novelist makes
rare. Most other critics are of the view that Conrad has given only his spokesman Marlow say that the women hardly have any role to
pyrrhic and peripheral roles to his female characters in Heart of play in the colonial exercises. They are kept out of it.
Darkness . In fact, it is assumed that Conrad had a great weakness
It is thus evident that in Heart of Darkness the absence of
in depicting women in a convincing manner. We may refer to the
a fully developed woman character is not due to any fault on the
words of P. O’Prey in his ‘Introduction’ to Heart of Darkness :
part of Conrad such as his inability to build up one, but because
the theme of Heart of Darkness can hardly allow any such character
Heart of Darkness ... avoids what is Conrad’s greatest without the risk of making the whole novel unrealistic. A woman
fault, his inability to create convincing women characters, by character set at the centre of all imperialistic-colonial activities
keeping its only two women (Conrad’s aunt and Kurtz’s would only be unreal and therefore unconvincing. Thus if the
‘Intended’) in the background. (O’Prey 22) women characters like the aunt and the Intended who really have
no close association with the basic theme of the novel were given
This so called ‘greatest fault’ of Conrad, ‘his inability to create more space or attention, they would certainly have impressed us
convincing women characters’, is perhaps a myth, not a reality. True, as superfluous and highly fictitious. Conrad had to keep them in
we hardly get any well drawn, fully developed, woman character in low profiles to highlight the colonial exercises which form the main
Conrad. The women characters are mostly sketchy, incomplete, and theme of the novel realistically.
may even be sometimes called symbolic abstractions. But an absence
But the three women characters in Heart of Darkness (Marlow’s
of a fully developed woman character in Conrad’s novels is not
old aunt, Kurtz’s Intended and his African Mistresss) are not so
necessarily or convincingly a proof of his inability or failure to create
simple or unimportant as they apparently seem to be. Conrad has
such a character. Had he ever attempted to create a woman character
no doubt placed them in the peripheries of the main activities in the
elaborately and then failed to make the character convincing to the
novel because they are naturally aloof from its central actions. Still,
readers, the question of failure might occur. But we cannot find fault
the characters are by no means ill-drawn or utterly peripheral. By
with Conrad and criticise him for something which he never attempted
subtle suggestions, symbolic significances, and meaningful contrasts
to do.
Conrad has made them impressive and unforgettable. What’s more,
In fact, with Conrad’s practice of fiction writing there is they serve to give more meaning to the text and also help
hardly any scope of creating a fully developed woman character. understanding or exploring the characters placed in the centre (i.e.
Unlike the Victorian novelists and most of the modern fiction writers, Kurtz and Marlow). In the following section of this article, I will try
Conrad is concerned with themes and experiences of mostly an to explain why or how these three women characters in the novel
external, male dominated world. As a sailor, the prime time of really deserve more critical attention than they are given so far.

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The three women characters in Heart of Darkness fall under It’s queer how out of touch with truth women are.
two categories - the civilized Europeans and the savage African. They live in a world of their own, and there had never been
Thus the three characters are set to provide a sharp cultural contrast anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful
between the two continents so far as the feminine emotions, altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces
before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have
sentiments, and sexuality are concerned. Conrad himself has
been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation
suggested an ironic contrast between the European and the African would start up and knock the whole thing over. (Conrad
women by the painting of Kurtz which was left in the Central 33-34)
Station of the company. It was the picture of a “woman, draped
and blind-folded carrying a lighted torch. The background was
sombre - almost black. The movement of the woman was stately, Conrad’s presentation of the two European women as ‘out
and the effect of the torch-light on the face was sinister” (Conrad of touch with truth’ is brief but realistic. The aunt and the Intended,
46-47). The picture is highly symbolic, and the symbolic significance the old and the young, give us a perfect glimpse at the condition
of the picture has been beautifully analysed by a critic in the of the women in the late Victorian England. They were ‘blessed’ with
following terms: the joy of ignorance and were confined in the artificial world of their
false ideas and ideals, without any knowledge of the realities of
Europe, symbolized by the Intended, in Africa,
colonialism and rapid industrialization of the time. The two women
symbolized by darkness--but, the torch will be quenched, in the novel may thus be studied as representing the Victorian world
the blind woman swallowed whole. Marlow did not really of women as a foil to the world of men, that is the world of trade
lie: the last words Kurtz pronounced were, in part, in and commerce, of deception, hypocrisy and exploitation. One may
reference to his symbolic model within his symbolic picture. wonder how Conrad allows only a little space to the women in the
( Kimbrough 415) actual text, but leaves a huge space to derive meaning from.
Marlow’s aunt who managed the job for him in the Belgian
Again of the two Europeans, one is old and the other young. Limited Company for Trade in the Upper Congo, and that too within
The two may thus serve to show another contrast-a contrast between a very short time, represents great power, the power of the women
the old and the young generations of European women. Very over men. She has no idea of the colonial rules, but she has an
interestingly the two have a strange similarity at least in one point, effective power over those who rule the colonies. Her role in the novel
and that is their absolute ignorannce of the reality of colonialism. may otherwise be peripheral, but here in getting the job for Marlow
The aunt believes that Marlow is going to join a grand mission, that she no doubt plays a pivotal role. Marlow recalls how “She was
he has on his shoulders the ‘whiteman’s burden’ of civilizing the determined to make no end fuss to get me (Marlow) appointed
savage Africans. She has taken him as “Something like an emissary skipper, of a river steamboat, if such was my fancy” (Conrad 29).
of light’. The Intended has also an equally unalterable view about Her success in managing the job for Marlow remains as a necessary
Kurtz. For her, Kurtz’s ‘noble heart’ was dedicated to a noble mission, precondition for what we get in the novel about colonial-imperial
and his death is a great loss to the world: ‘‘What a loss to me--to activities in Africa, and about the evil lurking deep in the mind of
us!’ --she corrected herself with beautiful generosity; then added in man.
a murmur, ‘To the world’’. (Conrad 103)
The women characters in the novel are all, quite meaningfully,
The readers can see the huge gap between the grim realities made nameless. They are thus denied of their individual identities
of colonialism as presented in the novel and the false, idealized and made known only in terms of their relations or associations with
views of the aunt and the Intended about colonial activities. Marlow’s some men, namely Marlow and Kurtz in the present context. Thus
impression about his ‘excellent aunt’ after he meets her before going they are made peripharal, or minor characters as the tale demands
to Africa beautifully sums up the actual scene : them to be. Conrad might also have desired his women characters

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to represent different classes of women, symbolically, instead of can Marlow being a part of and also a party to that dark reality
individuated beings. Nina Pelikan Straus observes : puncture the baloon of colonial idealism by revealing the truth?
Hence he had to lie to the Intended and say, “The last word he
It is Conrad’s text itself that stimulates the notion that (Kurtz) pronounced was-your name”. (Conrad 104)
the psychic penury of women is a necessary condition for
It is very important to note that Conrad does not end the
the heroism of men, and whether or not Heart of Darkness
is a critique of male heroism or is in complex complicity with
novel immediately after Marlow’s return from his voyage, but allows
it, gender dichotomy is an inescapable element of it. (Straus Marlow’s narrative to be extended till his meeting with the Intended
179) after a period of more than one year. Conrad’s inclusion of the
episode of Marlow’s meeting with the Intended into the main design
of the novel is suggestive of its indispensibility as well as of the
This observation of Straus may be studied meaningfully in
importance of the character of the intended in the novel. The
connection with Conrad’s presentation of Kurtz’s Intended. The lady
Intended, an otherwise marginalized character, here throws much
has been portrayed as one who is weak, mournful, and almost fragile
light into the main theme of the novel. The hypocrisy associated
in her grief for Kurtz. Marlow meets her after more than one year
essentially with colonial activities is exposed and emphasized further
of Kurtz’s death, but Kurtz’s memory is still fresh in her mind.
by the Intended. Ian Watt in his essay “Heart of Darkness and
Marlow informs us that “she seemed as though she would remember
Nineteenth Century Thought” observes:
and mourn for ever”(Conrad 101). Marlow’s presentation of the
Intended only confirms what Nina Straus calls her ‘psychic penury’:
... Marlow at the end finds himself forced to lie to her
about Kurtz. One reason is that if he told the truth she would
She had a mature capacity for fidelity, for belief, for not have the necessary grounds in her own experience to
suffering. The room seemed to have grown darker, as if all be able to understand it; another is that since for all his
the sad light of the cloudy evening had taken refuge on her seeking Marlow himself has found no faith which will move
forehead. This fair hair, this pale visage, this pure brow, mountains, his nostalgia inclines him to cherish the faith that
seemed surrounded by an ashy halo from which the dark ignores them. (Watt 84)
eyes looked out at me. Their glance was guileless, profound,
confident, and trustful. She carried her sorrowful head as
though she were proud of that sorrow, as though she would Marlow’s intense introspection and experiences about
say, I--I alone know how to mourn for him as he deserves. colonization in the Congo Africa make him realize its hollowness.
(Conrad 101). He fails to form any positive opinion about it and also can hold no
faith on it. Hence he hardly had anything tributory to speak to the
Intended about Colonial activities, and he had to lie.
Her knowledge, the reader knows, is far from being true
knowledge. Marlow’s speech becomes ironic, for she has no knowledge Judged from another point of view, Marlow’s lying to the
of what Kurtz really deserves. This ignorance is her ‘psychic penury’ Intended may have another significance. It seems to finger at the
and it, Nina Straus rightly suggests, keeps up ‘male heroism’. The actual direction to which colonialism should have been led. The
heroic image of Kurtz in the heart of the Intended remains unaltered idealized view of the Intended that her hero Kurtz has been in the
because of her lack of true knowledge. Marlow, who may be described wild Africa as an ‘emissary of light’ to civilize the uncivilized
as the un-illusioned (or ‘diillusioned’) man of the colonial realities, Africans should have been the actuality about colonialism. But the
only helps to maintain or rather ‘strengthen’ this ‘penury’ or ignorance greed of the white Europeans who act as the agents of colonization
of the Intended. The false glory of colonialism is allowed to be have perverted the humanitarian possibilities and philanthropic
retained in the minds of those who are away from its realities. How application of colonial activities to really improve the conditions of

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the savage natives. The character of the Intended with her ignorance While the Intended is “totally protected (helpless), rhetorically
about the grim reality of colonialism is perhaps Conrad’s way of programmed (words without matter), nunlike in her adoration (sexually
showing us what colonization should have done, and what it has repressed), living in black, in a place of darkness, in a pre-Eliot City
actually achieved. Her sacrifice-her repression of womanhood or of the Dead, in the Wasteland of modern Europe” (Kimbrough, 410),
sexuality, her lifelong unprized waiting for Kurtz-is not simply a the African Mistress is ‘savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent’,
sacrifice for the love of an individual, but rather for a philanthropic emotive, ‘stunningly coiffured’ and also restrained. The rare
ideal. And it is this ideal that can give her the strength of mind to combination of ‘restrain’ (‘She walked with measured steps’) and
live the rest of her life alone. We should mark her conviction when explosion of ‘ pent up passion’ (‘Suddenly she opened her bared
she says : arms and threw them up rigid above her head, as though in an
uncontrollable desire to touch the sky...’) makes her at once captivating.
It is possible that all this should be lost--that such a Kurtz was bewitched by her wild beauty and spirit. Her charm is
life should be sacrificed to leave nothing--but sorrow. You even enhanced by the pain of immediate separation which cast its
know what vast plans he had. I knew of them, too--I could shadow on her face as marlow observes :
not perhaps understand--but others knew of them. Something
must remain. His words, at least, have not died. (Conrad 103) Her face had a tragic and fierce aspect of wild sorrow
and of dumb pain mingled with the fear of some struggling,
half-shaped resolve. She stood looking at us without a stir,
Marlow finds no other way but to admit and confirm her and like the wilderness itself, with an air of brooding over
conviction. He should have felt what the colonizers ought to have an inscrutable purpose. (Conrad 87)
done. The Intended acts as a further eye-opener to Marlow, and thus
completes his enlightenment. In his expedition into the wild Congo- Marlow here equates her with African wilderness which may
Africa Marlow had the experience of seeing the ugly faces of invite a number of connotations. And if she is so, she is the target
colonization from a very close quarter. And the Intended at the end of European lust and is destined to be ravaged and exploited sexually
seem to show him the intended philanthropic face of colonization. as the country is being illegally captured and looted by the greedy
Thus the character of the Intended, though placed in the periphery, colonizers. Kimbrough seems to emphasize this very thing when he
adds new meaning and significance to the central theme of the comments :
novel.
And now we may have a look at the very briefly, but The Native Woman is Africa, all interior, in spite of
intensely and powerfully portrayed character of the native woman, her lavish mode of dress. While Kurtz is male, white, bald,
Kurtz’s African Mistress. Conrad has presented her in sharp contrast oral, unrestrained, the native woman is female , black,
with the Intended. C.B.Cox observes: stunningly coiffured, emotive, and restrained ... Africa, yes,
but she is also Tellus Mater, Amazon, Dido, and a type of
If we compare this splendid savage with Kurtz’s Venus. Kurtz is clearly a kind of Mars. While this does not
European fiancee, his Intended, it may seem that we are mean that the arrows shot through the pilot-house door
setting side by side dynamic energy with sterile hypocrisy, come from their son Cupid, these arrows are, however, a
life with death. The savage is tragic and fierce; we may take fine example of the phallic futility of a relationship which has
it for granted that Kurtz has enjoyed sexual orgies with her none of the creativity and bonding of love, only love’s hate
in his role as a worshipped god to whom human sacrifices and anger. Kurtz’s lustful exploitation of the woman, then,
are offered. Her Dionysiac passions might seem more is rape, just as were his raids in the lake region, just as was
attractive in their vitality than the living tomb the Intended the fantastic invasion of Africa by Christian, capitalistic western
has created for herself in Brussels. (Cox 29-30) civilization --and its discontents. (Kimbrough 410-411)

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The Woman, no doubt, has in herself the tragic dignity of the This fact found in the novel might have prompted Chinua Achebe
Carthagian Queen Dido. Again her well-armed appaerance with hair to comment that Conrad has only used :
‘done in the shape of a helmet’, with ‘brass leggings to the knee’
and ‘brass wire gauntlets to the elbow’ along with a potential Africa as setting and backdrop which eliminates the
seductiveness may immediately represent her as the ‘Amazonian African as human factor. Africa as a metaphysical battlefield
stereotype’. But this resemblance will also indicate her ‘potentially devoid of all recognizable humanity, into which the wandering
corrupting force’. She can allure and ruin. Kurtz was irrestibly Europe enters at his peril. Can nobody see the preposterous
attracted to her bewitching wild beauty, submitted himself and perverse arrogance in thus reducing Africa to the role
unconditionally to her wilderness and was consequently ruined. His of props for the break-up of one petty European mind? But
European sophistication, his education and learning can hardly save that is not even the point. The real question is the
him from the destructive allure of the wilderness. dehumanization of Africa and Africans which this age-long
attitude has fostered and continues to foster in the world.
Anthony Fothergill suggests yet another possibility in
(Achebe 256)
connection with the character of this native woman. Fothergill
concentrates on the word ‘apparition’ used by Marlow to describe
the woman : “And from right to left along the lighted shore moved Achebe’s criticism of Conrad for eliminating the ‘African as
a wild and gorgeous apparition (Italics mine) of a woman.” (Conrad human factor’, or of presenting no ‘recognizable humanity’ among
86) The word ‘apparition’, according to Fothergill, is quite intriguing the natives is not undisputedly acceptable if we take into consideration
if we keep in mind the physical presence of the woman. It helps the character of Kurtz’s African Mistress. It is true that she is given
creating a sense of ‘ambiguity’ about her state of existence, that very no name. It is also true that her identity is subordinated to the
‘ambiguity’ or ‘unearthliness’ that is an indispensible part of the identity of the white European, Kurtz. Still she is the only native in
African wilderness. Fothergill comments : the entire novel who achieves her own identity. She is not to be
generalized with other Africans. She is individuated by the public
show of her pent up emotion and a unique expression of her
She (the native woman/Kurtz’s African Mistress)
anguished self. She hardly requires a name to make herself indelibly
mirrors the wildernes and bodies forth its sexual threat. I imbeded into the minds of the readers. Her strange appearance,
would suggest, in other words, that ‘apparition’ might alert ambiguity, unearthliness, and wild passion are enough to haunt a
us to the notion that for all her physicality she is an serious minded reader.
imaginative space (like the blank map?) onto which Marlow
can inscribe the meanings of the European male gaze, while
at the same time he can pass these meanings off as the
inherent qualities of the object gazed at. (Fothergill, 77) References

Kurtz’s African Mistress is quite unique from another point of Achebe, Chinua. 1988. “An Image of Africa : Racism in Conrad’s Heart
view. The central theme of Heart of Darkness is framed out of the of Darkness”. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New
York: W.W.Norton & Company.
experiences of the novelist during his real expedition into the Congo
Africa. But the black natives of Africa are not found to possess any Bose, Brinda. 2001. (ed). Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness. New Delhi:
operative or stratagically important role in the novel. The natives are Oxford University Press.
mostly treated in a generalised way. Sometimes they are also made
to appear as symbolic abstractions. They are not individuated. There Conrad, Joseph. 2001. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Brinda Bose. New Delhi:
is no fully developed native character-male or female-in the novel. Oxford University Press.

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Cox, C.B. 2003. “Heart of Darkness : A Choice of Nightmares”. Modern

Critical Interpretations, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Ed.
The Portrait of a Lady:
Harold Bloom. Delhi: Worldview. First Indian reprint..
An American Classic Revisited
Fothergill, Anthony. 2003. Heart of Darkness. New Delhi: Viva Books Private
Ltd. First Indian Edition.
BHAWANI DUTTA ROY*
Kimbrough, Robert. 1988. “Conrad’s Youth (1902) : An Introduction”. Heart
of Darkness. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: W.W.Norton
& Company. Henry James in his preface to his novel The Portrait of a Lady says
O’Prey, P. 1983.(ed). Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Penguin. that “the house of fiction has in short not one window but a
million” (p. xxxii). Therefore, a variety of readings of the text is
Straus, Nina Pelikan. 2001. “The Exclusion of the Intended from Secret possible. At the outset, it may be stated that the novel under
Sharing”. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Brinda Bose. New Delhi:
discussion belongs to the first phase of James’s career. He deals
Oxford University Press.
with international theme while he experimented with different types
Watt, Ian. 2003. “Heart of Darkness and Nineteenth Century Thought”. of themes in the second phase. In the third phase he again touched
Modern Critical Interpretations, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. international themes. Here his insight into psychology is deep and
Ed. Harold Bloom. Delhi: Worldview. First Indian reprint. profound. In The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James has anticipated his
psychological interest in character. The novelist observed about the
first half of the novel:

The weakness of the whole story is that it is too exclusively

psychological-that it depends too little on incident; but the
complete unfolding of the situation that, is established by
Isabel’s marriage may nonetheless be quite sufficiently
dramatic....If the last five parts of the story appear crowded,
this will be rather a good defect in consideration of the
perhaps too great diffuseness of the earlier portion.
(p. xii- xiii)

In the second part of the novel Henry James has made his story
interesting by a number of techniques. He introduced more incidents
and characters and their interactions making the novel extensive and
complicated. In this connection, it will be relevant to refer to Henry
James’s conception of novel. In The Art of Fiction Fred B. Miller
observes his theory of novel :

Within a year or two after the appearance of The Portrait of

a Lady in 1882, James wrote and presently published his most
elaborate statement of his conception of The Art of Fiction and
the ideas its author entertained as to the purpose, nature, and

* Reader, Dept. of English, Maulana Azad P.G. College, Kolkata.

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