Portrayal of Women in 'Frankenstein' and 'Heart of Darkness' (Essay Sample)

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Women in 'Frankenstein' and 'Heart of Darkness': Gendered Silence Shaping Narrative Development
Post-colonial literature has always embedded contemporary politics incorporating various thematic-schemas in its narrative structure, such as individuality, inequality, obsession, alienation and a sense of consciousness. Post-colonial narrative delineates the construction of “other” — the space, constructed by Imperial and Colonial hegemony, where politically marginalized characters find refuge CITATION Spivak \l 1033 (Spivak). In these narratives, women, once the object of the hegemonic gaze, find an alternative/subaltern space as being existentially “other”. Hence, this essay will try to describe how Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, written at the threshold of the 19th century and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, written at the end of 19th century, exploit post-colonial literary symptoms for the production of this “other” and place female characters in that domain to give them a narrative voice, a narrative presence. In doing so, as the essay further argues, these narratives often dissolve the dichotomy of socially constructed male / female conjecture.
Women of Victorian England, historically documented as contented in household activities, were the influence behind Conrad’s female characters. Thus, Conrad never allowed his female characters to come to the center of the plot CITATION BIS09 \p 154 \l 1033 (Biswas 154). This is exactly the same for Heart of Darkness where sketchy and almost under-developed women protagonists always take the back-seat without having any role to play in the colonial exercises. They are nameless, they are often mute, they are ignored of their subjective presence and known to us through their relation to men; thus, they are only Marlow’s old aunt, Kurtz’s Intended and Kurtz’s African Mistress.
Though Conrad’s own journey into the Congo has supplied the inspiration behind the central theme of the novel, no black African character is illustrated in the text except Kurtz’s African Mistress. This nameless character, despite made subservient to the white European Kurtz, is the lone native protagonist in the entire text whom Marlow describes as “a wild and gorgeous apparition” CITATION Con01 \p 86 \l 1033 (Conrad 86). The term ‘apparition’ connotes African wilderness embodied in the character through her overt expressions of oppressed emotion and tormented identity. The way Marlow experiences her beauty with a mixed feeling of wonder and awe makes the character metaphorically represent the wild Amazonian stereotype. The African Mistress allures Kurtz and despite his European sophistication, she ruined him in the same way as desire for ivory ruins the life of an explorer traveling through the unknown land.
However, a close observation of Conrad’s women character delineation contributes deeper insights to understand the central characters of the text, namely Marlow and Kurtz. The European females, Marlow’s old aunt and Kurtz’s Intended, though differ by age share similar kind of vague and lofty ideals about colonialism. Marlow is the great savior to his aunt and Kurtz’s Intended believes that her noble-hearted husband is in a noble mission to save the world. This belief has led the Aunt to manage job for Marlow and for the Intended it is this belief which reminds her about Kurtz even after one year of his death. The ignorance of reality is the “psychic penury” CITATION Str01 \p 179 \l 1033 (Straus 179) of Intended helps to keep up Kurtz’s heroism. Conrad consciously extends his novel to the meeting of Marlow and Intended as this episode becomes a commentary on colonial politics of warship and male heroism. The meeting proves to be the revelation to Marlow who, being a disillusioned man of the colonial realities could not help but indulge her ‘alternate reality’ CITATION Hag95 \p 51 \l 1033 (Hagen 51). The meeting culminates into the end of Marlow’s enlightenment where Intended becomes the face of what colonization has really intended. Though marginalized, the character of Intended significantly adds meaning to the central theme of the text.
Coming to Frankenstein, we find female protagonists represented through three male narrators with their three different narrative perspectives. Representation of Women characters through male eyes and their portrayal through male perception give them little space in the narrative and their function is reduced to mere “conduits for men's relations with other men" CITATION Knu12 \p 13 \l 1033 (Knudsen 13). The story places Margaret Saville, sister of Robert Walton, as a medium to familiar us with the friendship between Walton and Victor Frankenstein and her presence is only recognized as a mediator, as a mere communication tool between these two male characters. Readers comprehend her through Walton and she never heard to voice back. Caroline Beaufort, Elizabeth Lavenza, Justine Moritz, and Agatha De Lacey — never escape the destiny of stereotypical woman. Like Margaret, Caroline is portrayed as a devoted daughter, perfect woman, a ‘guardian angel’ — all through Victor’s perception. Her role as a caregiver is emphasized to the extent of her death which can be seen as metaphorically representing the issue of childbirth death. Elizabeth, for whom Caroline dies, is a ‘gift’ to Victor ‘given’ to him by his parents decides the way she would uphold the traditional female image.
However, scholars interpret this characteristic silence...