396-405: “Primitivism and the African Women in Heart of Darkness”
by Marianna Torgovnick
Women
Kurtz has mated with the magnificent black woman-violating British code
Because of her high decorations and leggings—she possibly is his wife
Her and the "Intended" are both impressive
His view on women is that they are all the same: seductive, beautiful, dangerous,
and deadly is ironically primitive
Women are connected with death, because landscape is death in the novella, and the
women reflect their landscapes
Primitivism and Extras
Kurtz loses his “restraint” by letting the Africans worship him
Marlow and Kurtz hypercritically dislike Europe after being in Africa
Conrad’s clever use of euphemism: work and business to mask what is happening in Congo
Conrad’s version of the primitive is a cheat: he fails to transcend the very Western values
he attacks
The work’s language veils not only what Kurtz was doing in Africa, but also what
Conrad is doing in Heart of Darkness
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