摘 要：作为英国著名作家约瑟夫•康拉德的代表作,《黑暗之心》讲述了一个名叫 查尔斯•马洛的年轻人进入刚果腹地去寻找儿时梦想的故事。本部小说中一共有 五位女性，她们都没有名字，而且经常被叙述者一语带过。通过运用文本细读法、 文本分析法两种方法对《黑暗之心》中的女性形象进行解读，本论文表明《黑暗 之心》中的女性并不像人们所认为的那样处于边缘地带，而其作者约瑟夫•康拉 德也绝不是一个歧视女性的人。本论文在一定程度上能够帮助读者分清《黑暗之 心》的作者康拉德与其叙述者马洛之间的界限，正确把握约瑟夫•康拉德对待女 性的态度，从而使读者更好地理解《黑暗之心》这部作品。

关键词：约瑟夫•康拉德;黑暗之心;女性形象

Abstract：As the representative work of Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness mainly talks about the trip of Charles Marlow, a young guy who comes into the central region of Congo to find his childhood dream. There are 5 women in this novel, and all of them are nameless and less described. By applying close-reading and text-analysis methods to study women images, the thesis manifests that women in Heart of Darkness are not marginalized, and Joseph Conrad is definitely not a writer with women discrimination. The thesis can help readers distinguish the real author Joseph Conrad  from  the Narrator Marlow, find out Joseph Conrad’s real attitude toward women, and have a better understanding of Heart of Darkness.

Key words: Joseph Conrad; Heart of Darkness; women images

Contents

摘 要 i

Abstract ii

I. Introduction 1

II. A Survey of Joseph Conrad and Heart of Darkness in the Light of Feminism Criticism 2

2.1 Joseph Conrad in the Light of Feminist Criticism 2

2.2 Heart of Darkness in the Light of Feminist Criticism 4

III. An Analysis of Women Images in Heart of Darkness 6

3.1 The Image of the Aunt and the Intended 6

3.2 The Image of the Silent Black Mistress 8

3.3 The Image of Two Knitting Women 9

IV. Women Images in the Eyes of the Narrator Marlow 10

4.1 Marlow’s Mis-Reading of the Women in Heart of Darkness 11

4.2 The Distinction Between the Real Author and the Narrator 11

V. Conclusion 13

Bibliography 14

Acknowledgements 16

An Analysis of Women Images in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

I.Introduction

Joseph Conrad was one of the most prominent writers at the end of the 19th century and noted for his sea adventure writings. More and more attention paid to Conrad’s works by the critics and film directors especially to Heart of Darkness. After that, feminism became a hot issue as a literary criticism, some of the representatives such as Straus, Johanna. As we all known, the title is ambiguity. Heart of Darkness conceals some kind of complexity. To some extent, the title reveals the interior of “darkest Africa.” Meanwhile it also presents the corruption of Kurtz and the story starts with gloom in the center part of the empire-London. Therefore, the narrative from the outset explores, doubts and makes a comparative between the far and the near, between the savage and the civilized. Through the work we hardly know that the author doesn’t hold prejudice against women. This thesis will study and explore Heart of Darkness by a feminist perspective which casts a light to the study of the text. This thesis goes into three chapters. Chapter one is about a survey of women and the author in Heart of Darkness. Chapter two is going to show the new reading of it. Chapter three is concerned with the patriarchal ideology in Marlow’s narrative perspective.

The society was not stable for women when Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was first published in Britain for “women question” were hot issues at that time. After 1880, Oxford and Cambridge admitted more rights to women and in the following decades there was a noticeable increase in the employment number for both working-class as well as middle-class women. Since the women liberation and the admission of women, the literary works are filled with colonialist literature  and women literature brought by a lot of talented feminist women writers including a large number of male writers and Joseph Conrad was the of them.