While the Russian's words affirm the savage woman's influence over Kurtz, the turn his anecdote takes, the moment it represents, negates any sense of influence. For we see the woman at a moment when Kurtz chooses for whatever reason to ignore her fury. This desire to negate her importance is reinforced by the Russian's mention of her only at this moment when she threatens to enter both the ship and the narrative.
If given her own voice the mistress might have helped to unfold other facets in the man Marlow so strenuously seeks to understand. However, Marlow perceives the woman as being naturally no more than a thing Kurtz had ownership of, evident in the terms in which he conceives her, likening her to the spoil of the land. His first view of her tells us nothing about her except that she has "brass leggings to the knee" and "brass wire gauntlets to the elbow." Marlow exclaims, "…she must have had the value of several elephant tusks on her." (135)
It appears that there is a need to deny the perspective of the colonized woman. In Marlow's case it is, perhaps, the relative insignificance of the woman that leaves these issues unaddressed. It would seem then that Marlow deliberately avoids mention of the African woman. While being able to constructs an entire personality of Kurtz from the bits he overhears, Marlow leaves us with only a visual impression of the savage woman.
Marlow is equally vague about the meaning of "the horror." The ivory itself is not, as far as Marlow is concerned, disturbing. This, after all, is what the company trades in. The horror, therefore, does not refer to the trade in ivory. Marlow joins the company fully aware that it, as he informs his aunt, is run for profit. What disturbs Marlow is the method, or as he puts it to the manager, the lack of one. In Marlow's mind, Kurtz's lust for women and his lust for ivory are linked. According to Marlow, Kurtz has an "appetite" for ivory, and lacks "restraint in the gratification of his various lusts" (131). What seems particularly repulsive to Marlow is that Kurtz should consort with the Africans, becoming one of them, for the sake of the ivory.
There is a suggestion that Kurtz's route to the ivory is through his mistress whose favor in turn gains him the confidence and devotion of the tribe. Yet the link between the ivory and the woman has in her case a reductive effect. Whether she is a sexual object for Kurtz or merely his link to the ivory, the African woman is exploited. But Marlow chooses not to recognize this, displacing Kurtz's lust onto the woman. Her influence and presence are perceived to be as corrupting as the ivory.
Marlow is not only reluctant to consider the African woman's situation, but is anxious to absolve Kurtz of as much of the responsibility as possible. The connection between the Intended and Kurtz's mistress that Marlow is forced to acknowledge is to some extent responsible for Marlow's attitude; for they are connected not only as tragic figures who have lost the man they loved, but also as women Kurtz owns.
It seems likely given Kurtz's nature that he would regard his mistress - if he did regard her at all - as he regarded everything else in his life: as a possession. Clearly Marlow sees her thus. Considering that the woman in question is African and that to use people in order to gain an object is the way of the world of trade, Marlow perhaps accepts, though he does not condone Kurtz's act. This would account for the lack of comment in her case. Yet when Kurtz refers to the Intended in this manner, Marlow is disgusted: "You should have heard the disinterred body of Mr. Kurtz saying, 'My Intended.'...everything belonged to him" (115).
The "horror" then is that Kurtz's attitude to his fiancée is no different from his attitude to his African mistress. Marlow is aware of this when at the conclusion he sees the Intended stretch forth her hands and is reminded of the African woman: "I shall see her too, a tragic and familiar Shade resembling in this gesture another one, tragic also and bedecked with powerless charms, stretching forth bare brown arms over the glitter of the infernal stream, the stream of darkness" (160); but is reluctant to admit it, for colonialism reveals the unsavory aspects of male behavior in the metropolis as well.
Though the Intended and the African woman embody different concepts, illusion and truth, they are not really dissimilar, as Marlow realizes. It is important to recognize the similarities between them, for both are "bedecked in powerless charms" (160): the one abandoned by Kurtz for his material interests, the other exploited for gain, powerless to prevent her own exploitation and that of her land. The only satisfaction for these women is their illusion that they are loved and that Kurtz is a worthy man. "I knew it - I was sure!" the Intended cries when Marlow tells her that Kurtz's last words were her name (162). Both women are left to exist in the comfort that circumstances beyond their control took Kurtz away from them.
As elusive as the wealth sought after, Kurtz's savage mistress represents the truth Marlow speaks of. She remains a vivid presence in the mind of the reader and is obviously present in Marlow's mind, but is not allowed speech, and is prevented from gaining entry into the narrative. The African woman's presence embodies the dark stain of truth that remains, refusing to be erased.
Bibliography
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Conrad, Joseph, and Paul B. Heart of darkness: authoritative text, backgrounds and contexts, criticism. W W Norton & Co Inc, 2006. Print.
- SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Heart of Darkness.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 3 Nov. 2010.