The Treatment of the Feminist Perspective during the Nineteenth Century Literature

Abstract

Feminism is known as a collection of beliefs and ideologies which appeared to fight against women’s oppression. It emrged to erase the unequal and unfair distribution of social, political and economic power between genders aimed at defending equal rights of women. From the middle of the nineteenth century feminism has been defined as the feminist movement to protect women from patriarchal system which gave men much power to dominate women. Writing literature has a great impact and it is positively reflected in imposing the women‘s position in society. Though the flourish of feminism during the nineteenth century and the great number of activists‘ works, some writers were still considering woman as an inferior sex. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness has many underlying tones about social issues such as racism, sexism and corruption. For this research, the idea of sexism and gender roles in Conrad’s writing is discussed. The following work delves into discussing different critic’s viewpoints on Conrad’s writing demonstrating his intentional displacement and removal of females viewing them in a negative light. The question that is asked is whether the darkness of the Congolese coast and the hard conditions of the colonialism led him to present women this way or it is his own attitude towards women, in the hopes of uncovering pertinent information on Conrad’s views about women during the time Heart of Darkness was written.