And Not One Jumps: The Women In Conrad's Novels

Abstract

<p>There is more than one misperception about Joseph Conrad and women: He wrote novels that contain no female characters. He was a misogynist who, when he included female characters wrote about them in a misogynistic way. When he created women characters they were not true to life, but either one-dimensional or highly idealized. These untruths need to be dispelled. They help to perpetuate a reputation that is unfounded and unjust.</p> <p>Conrad did not include women in many of his short stories. However, his novels contain many female characters, and their portrayals reveal that Conrad's reputation as a man who disliked women has no solid foundation. Conrad's letters and biographies show that Conrad's opinion of women was often more than positive. He based much of his thinking on his memories of his mother, a woman admired by many for her tireless energy and commitment to the cause of Polish independence. Female characters who share his mother's many fine qualities appear over and over in his longer fiction. However, although these female characters display lively intelligence, profound insight, courage, endurance, and other strengths, they also display flaws that humanize them and make them seem real to us.</p> <p>Conrad shows his true opinion of women in ways that go beyond portraying them in positive ways He defies conventional literary forms and archetypes that perpetuate expectations for women in patriarchal societies. His subversion of inscribed codes of behaviour for women reveals that Conrad viewed women as capable of being and doing far more than traditional literature indicates. Because he moves away from conventional forms and portrayals, Conrad is free to allow his female characters a voice by which he is able to comment critically on the way patriarchal, especially imperialist, societies operate. A point common to all his commentaries is that patriarchal societies are severely flawed because the men who run them are self-serving and often corrupt. For Conrad, women are more highly principled than men. If society is to focus on the betterment of its people, it must include women as leaders at all levels.</p> <p>This thesis will show that Joseph Conrad was not a misogynist writer, but a writer who has been misrepresented as one.</p>