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Name: Sarah Abdulaziz Abdussalam
Instructor: Dr. Hanan AlAzzaz
Course: Eng 4111
Date: Dec 16, 2013
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Marlow of Heart of Darkness as a Misogynist Character
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Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a novella narrated by Charlie Marlow. Marlow is a
character who is traumatised by what he had seen in the colonised Africa. Through his narration he
is exposing the corruption of the colonial system, and the discrimination against the Africans.
Nonetheless, he himself discriminates against women in several incidents in the novella.
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First of all, when Marlow was seeking help in his search for a job, everyone refused to help
him except his nameless aunt. Marlow said: “Then—would you believe it?—I tried the women. I,
Charlie Marlow, set the women to work—to get a job. Heavens!” He is disgusted and embarrassed
about needing her. Like if it is a disgrace for a man to get help from a woman. Although she was
enthusiastic about it and even he said that “she was determined to make no end of fuss to get me
appointed skipper of a river steamboat, if such was my fancy.” Men could not fulfil their words
when they promised him as she did, but he still views women as inferiors.
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Second, Marlow knew that their mission in Africa was for profit. and he even signed some
papers not to disclose any trade secrets which indicates how bad the situation is. He felt uneasiness
going there, but he was determined and kept going regardless. On the other hand, his aunt who was
talking about how glorious their mission in Africa is, did not know the horrifying reality. Marlow
said “it's queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there
had never been anything like it, and never can be.” That woman believed in her country’s leaders

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and thought they were doing the right thing. However, Marlow knew the truth and did nothing
about it, he proceeded for his own personal success. However, he thinks that this his aunt is trivial
for not knowing the truth whereas he knew and did not care. Furthermore, he commented on her
notion of the mission as if it is the state, being ignorant, with all women.
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Third, when he said "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. Oh, she had to be out of it.“ This is an example
of his extreme ideology against women. He, obviously, thinks of them as naive and prejudice
creatures who need to be protected—by the superior beings—men.
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Finally, when he lied to Kurtz’s intended he said: “I would not have gone so far as to fight
for Kurtz, but I went for him near enough to a lie.” He told her that Kurtz’s last word was her name.
However, he did not say so to protect her feelings, instead he did so to promote Kurtz’s ideal picture
in her mind. The reason, again, is his idea about women and that they should be kept to live in a
dreamy world. That they are too trivial to know the truth and deal with it.
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In conclusion, Marlow manifested his misogynistic attitude in many ways. His degrading of
women, his generalising, typifying, and reducing of all women under one label, that is unqualified
inferiors, and finally his denying them the right to see the reality—which in a way is dehumanising
of women according to Jeremy Hawthorn—.
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REFERENCES
Conrad, Joseph - Heart of Darkness
Hawthorn, Jeremy - The Women of Heart of Darkness
Baalabki, Munir - Al - Mawrid Al - Waseet
Haydar Ali, Henry Ford Community College - Sexism in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
( http://www.agorajournal.org/2008/Ali.pdf )