Contrast Kurtz’ black mistress with his Intended. What is the function of each?
Kurtz’ mistress and his Intended are two completely
different people. Besides the obvious race difference between the black
mistress and the pasty white Intended, they oppose each other with many
characteristics. The Intended and the mistress both are representatives of
their culture, the Intended represents the developed western civilization and
the mistress is shown for the primitive African tribal culture. There is a
strange irony in these two characters though. While the developed culture looks
down on the tribal culture as being lesser people, closer to animals, we can
see that the mistress holds herself with an aura of power that is to be
respected. In contrast the Intended shows complete obedience and submission to
the now dead Kurtz, and her savagely seeking approval of her dead lover through
anyone that she can, in this case Marlow happened to be the one that needed to
reinforce her emotionally, leaves the audience with a lack of respect for her.
Even Marlow himself, who was face to face with this mess of a grieving woman,
almost acted on a feeling of anger brought on by this woman’s behavior, though
he later feels the obligatory pity that should be found for those in grieving.
Loy, your ability to contrast the two women, undeniably brings to the surface the role of gender throughout Conrad’s work. It wasn’t until going through the blog prompts and saw this one that I actually considered the female’s role in this piece. I like your point about how each female represented their own culture. A representation of culture could have been made through any character, in any situation, yet the author chose it to be through women. Not only that, but the mistress, like you said, isn’t just a push over, like some women. This idea of a powerful woman was probably a new and “terrifying” concept to the current time period.
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