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Heart of Darkness, Long Essay
Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph T. Conrad, colludes with the ethnocentric attitude of Europeans towards the native people of Africa. At the turn of the century, European imperialism was viewed as "a crusade worthy of that of evil, distraction, and sexuality. It is perhaps this aspect of the feminine that allows women to yield such powers as to distract men, and the inherent masculine dominance. It is also suggested that this is the reason why Kurtz went off course. The woman in a sense represents and Earth mother or a Goddess figure. The "wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman" corresponds to a "savage" feminine sexuality that invokes fear within Marlow. The divine image of the jungle is at last portrayed in an undeniably powerful figure as "the image of [the jungle's] own tenebrous passionate soul". This mystery or "inscrutable purpose" appeals to postcolonial, Marxist and feminist readings as the powerful resistance to the oppression. Kurtz's intended fianc, is only ever referred to as "the intended"...