Explanation: “She walked with measured steps, draped in striped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly, with a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments.”
Or,
“Her face had a tragic and fierce aspect of wild sorrow and of dumb pain, mingled with the fear of some struggling, half-shaped resolve.”
Exp. This extract has been taken from Heart of Darkness, a short novel by Joseph Conrad. Here, Marlow reflects on the Native Woman, the housekeeper and mistress of Mr. Kurtz’s household at the Inner Station in the Congo.
The Native Woman appears on the riverbank in the third part of the novel, when Mr. Kurtz is being carried away on a stretcher by the Manager and Marlow for immediate medical treatment in Europe. She has been the housekeeper of Mr. Kurtz’s house at the Inner Station and his so-called mistress. She does not want Mr. Kurtz to leave the Inner Station.
Marlow describes her as a wild and magnificent woman who moves majestically with measured steps. She is draped in striped cloths and adorned with barbarous ornaments that jingle as she walks. Her hair is carefully arranged and resembles a helmet. Marlow imagines that she has come to the riverbank to reclaim Mr. Kurtz and draw him back into the wilderness. However, after displaying an expression of intense pain and silent suffering, she suddenly turns back and disappears into the jungle.
The savage nature of the Native Woman represents the savage environment in which she lives and of which she is a part. In contrast to Kurtz’s Intended—who lives in an idealized world of blind devotion—the Native Woman symbolizes Kurtz’s passionate involvement with the physical world of time, flesh, and instinct. She is closely associated with the dense vegetation of the jungle, which stands for raw truth and an overwhelming reality. Conrad suggests that this vitality and authenticity exist most fully in the African natives, who are portrayed as being deeply connected to the primal forces of life.
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