The Women of Heart of Darkness., Slide di Letteratura Inglese

Scarica The Women of Heart of Darkness. e più Slide in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! The Women of Heart of Darkness by Jeremy Hawthorn Michela Bosio Chizzoli 1033643 'Girl! What? Did I mention a girl? Oh, she is out of it – completely. They – the women I mean – are out of it – should be out of it. We must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own, lest ours gets worse...' Michela Bosio Chizzoli 1033643 Kurtz's African mistress Kurtz's Intended Marlow's aunt The main female characters Michela Bosio Chizzoli 1033643 Isolation and its consequences (at the beginning) Kurtz's ideas and values are out of the horrific world he constructs in Africa. = isolation makes Kurtz inhuman, alienated, irrational, immoral the Women are out of the man's world. = isolation makes women debilitated and sterile prisoners in their “beautiful world of their own” (Intended) just like Michela Bosio Chizzoli 1033643 What do European Women represent? Realistic portrait of European women belonging to the Middle Class at the turn of 19th century. Symbolic representation of the false idealism employed by the English colonists to justify their exploitations. Michela Bosio Chizzoli 1033643 Colours as symbols: from white to black ● purity ● innocence ● chastity ● corrupted idealism ● evil imperialism 'She came forward, all in black, with a pale head, floating towards me in the dusk … this fair hair, this pale visage, this pure brow, seemed surrounded by an ashy halo from which the dark eyes looked out at me.' Michela Bosio Chizzoli 1033643 Stereotypical pattern: Intended: woman as devoted and chaste spirit Mistress: woman as sensual and sexual flesh = Women are dehumanized by being divided into spirit and body and are denied the full humanity that requires possession of both Michela Bosio Chizzoli 1033643 - Betrayed by her love for a white man - Sexual exploitation - More attractive than the European women (Intended) - Unhappy relationship with her - Kurtz made her a “living corpse” In the end Kurtz “destroys” both the Mistress and the Intended, betraying and abandoning them. Michela Bosio Chizzoli 1033643 Gender and roles men are sent to Africa to further the aims of imperialism VS women are ignorant of what their menfolk really do for imperialism and offer powerful ideological support to them