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Essay / The Theme of Gender and Feminism in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness as being 'too beautiful'" (Smith183). She presents her thesis through an engagement in feminist “rethinking,” successfully noting the binary relationship between men and women. This article reduces Smith's argument to its most basic form: by clannishly attributing undesirable feminine interpretations of imperialist ideology to women, using the literary tools of silencing and symbolization, Marlow is empowered to formulate his personal masculine construction to avoid the collapse of separate spheres. genres. In her arguments calling for the representation of every significant woman in the novel, Smith indeed remains faithful to the "first wave" feminist methodology of "identifying and opposing the different ways in which women are excluded, repressed and exploited » (Lynn 212). ). However, an important point to note is that she only sporadically ventures beyond this, into post-feminist thinking, "exposing the arbitrariness of this (male) privilege by reversing it, advocating matriarchal values." Clearly, Smith has an ambiguous interpretation of feminist criticism. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Smith's analysis of the depiction of the washerwoman can be condensed into this statement: "The fact that the washerwoman is silenced indicates Marlow's power" (Smith 173). , which suggests that Marlow has complete control over the depiction of the washerwoman. The job of a feminist critic is to “denounce this opposition, thereby undermining its power by revealing its artifices.” (Lynn 220) However, Smith does not go beyond the following statement: “the washerwoman becomes vividly present because of her absence” (Smith 173). In my opinion, her silence not only makes her “present”, but also justifies a form of strong influence over men. Marlow "respected" the accountant only because "his starched collars and shirt fronts were traits of character" (Conrad 33) and the accountant's appearance is entirely due to the laundress. Additionally, the fact that the men discuss her in her absence also indicates her importance in the accountant's life. Therefore, Smith herself should abandon the assumption that it is entirely "natural for a native woman to do a white man's laundry" (Smith 173) and acquire a new feminist perspective according to which the washerwoman could effectively being the silent “power holder”. Smith rightly identifies that Marlow has a “condescending construction” (Smith 177) of his aunt. However, the best way for Smith to reverse this binary relationship is to admit that the aunt's belief is not "unambiguously feminine", but a "variant of masculine imperialism". She advocates that Marlow "uses (his aunt's) feminine lack of experience." In Smith's view, his aunt is likened to Marlow's chess piece – her sole function is to produce "an ideological defense of masculine belief." Indeed, her feminist critique is undeniably fair, showing that Marlow manipulates the representation of women to achieve his own goals. However, she fails to explain the fact that Marlow might be the aunt's chess piece. Dependent on his aunt for his position as captain of the ship, Marlow realizes that he has been "represented to the wife of the high dignitary" (Conrad27). “Represented”, it is the objectof the meaning of others over which he has no control. “A chance for the Company”, it is also an object of economic exchange. When Marlow says of his aunt "that she made me quite uncomfortable," it has repeatedly been assumed that his unease emanates from her naive religiosity. A more covert, but more plausible, reading suggests that Marlow, feeling that he has become the object of someone else's discourse, feels uncomfortable in the realization that the ideology of domination masculine might not be true. Smith aptly points out that “the intention is Marlow’s construction” (Smith 180). Just before Marlow visits Destiny, he concludes from her portrait “that she seemed ready to listen without mental reservation” (Conrad 90). However, Smith does not conform to "the most obvious critical strategy" of feminist criticism, which is to "look for contradictions when the author speaks different things to different audiences with the same text" (Lynn 224). She fails to enumerate the fact that when Marlow meets Destiny, he finds his representation of her called into question. She wants to talk more than listen, and she focuses more on herself than on Kurtz: “He needed me!” Me!" (Conrad93). Instead of her listening to him, Marlow discovers that he is listening to her. In fact, she presents him with an alternative representation, which threatens to undo his constructed theory of male superiority. Marlow, in the opening exchange with Destiny, is reduced to echoing Destiny's words. It is strange that Marlow, who propagates a narrative built on women as narrative truth, attempts to subjugate women as the weaker sex. , be reduced to the same fate Moreover, its ratification of Marlow's lie does not "break our preconceptions and our prejudices" (Lynn 215), which the critique of feminism should do. Marlow functions to stabilize both the feminine sphere of “saving illusion” and the masculine sphere of “confused facts” (Smith 181) In my opinion, this analysis of Marlow's lie only scratches the surface. of feminist criticism His lie supplants the woman he names, making the woman and the lie interchangeable. Lying or lying is associated with the body and the feminine – something that Marlow wishes to escape. Therefore, Smith should point out that it is highly paradoxical that Marlow himself lies, which creates a gender blur within his character. On the other hand, Smith provides a competent feminist critique of the representation of the wild woman and the Company women. She goes beyond the basics by determining that Marlow symbolizes and commodifies the female body as the riddle of the jungle and as something on which "value" is displayed respectively. She achieves this by questioning the notion of female identity, arguing that “she might not be the conventionally feminine or conventionally native figure constructed by Marlow's ideological narrative” (Smith 175). Smith also uses the woman's silence to indicate ideological stress, thus revealing "ideology as ideology" (Smith 175). Similarly, Smith's assertion that the company of women "dramatizes the futility of Marlow's attempt to separate the realm of domestic life from that of colonial adventure, the feminine sphere from the masculine" (Smith 176) is relevantly developed in feminist methodology. By showing the dismantling of separate spheres, she succeeded in “deconstructing the binary, dismantling the very structure of opposition that makes oppression and prejudice possible” (Lynn 214). By justifying these women, Smith succeeds in “(undermining) the very idea of stable sexual oppositions” (Lynn 215), faithful to feminist methodology. Keep, 2005.
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