HEART OF DARKNESS

Impersonation and lack of names

As reading the first part of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness I realized that only two characters are identified with names: Marlow and Mr. Kurtz, what Conrad achieves by only naming this two characters is to accentuate their importance and make the reader understand that they are relevantly important.

Through his story telling Marlow gives up his own personality, but from every other character that pops up he only gives a random fact that helps us identify the person almost distinguish them, but barely, from the bunch. (The lawyer, the accountant, the director, the manager and the man with the big moustache) This lack of names is an impediment for the writer to connect to the character because they cannot give them a face, overall they cant give them a personality.

A shadow of evil hiding under the light of good: Villains in our world today.

“Evil is a point of view.”

ANNE RICE, Interview with the Vampire

Villains hide between shadows, not only in comic books, but also in real life. In some hidden dark ally where murder and rape take place these villains find some comfort for their hearts. There are also public villains, people that have the power to kill whoever speaks too loud. Most villains had a treacherous dark past, some experiences that changed them, while others are born sociopaths or psychopaths. Villains can be placed in history, in the form of country leaders, or in comic book as the archenemies of our favorite superhero, but at the end we like the bad guy despite what his motives are. We like him because, he is what gives a reason for the heroes to exist, for there to be some justice in the world. As for who created evil, we can say that evil is a state of mind, in which men could not bare perfection without it. We see it since the beginning as in when God expelled Lucifer from heaven and send him to hell, the thirst of power is just a form of villainy. It is hard to believe that those villains who hunt our nightmares, are human too. 

The ability to control the mind and the thoughts of others is the power of many super villains in comic books, and novels, Bram Stoker's Dracula who poses telepathic and hypnotic abilities, or Shakespeare's Iago who uses  the fears of his adversaries against them. Another fantastic example of a Villain using fear against her adversary is Ken Kessey's, Nurse Ratchet. 

Ratchet's character, has a complicated personality. Most women would grow up to be motherly like, sweet and kind. But Ratchet is the total opposite and she reminds the reader more of a remote control robot with a woman's body rather than  a woman herself. This robot like first impression is given to the reader at the beginning of the book when Chief describes her meticulous perfection. McMurphy is the complete opposite of, he is loud, messy, big, and in comparison to her nothing about him "runs smoothly."

Ratchet's character develops slowly throughout the novel, at first she seems unbreakable, stiff, strong, with an infinite patience and no need to raise her voice. But then McMurphy comes into the ward and their conflicting personalities clash,  showing how terribly vulnerable she can actually be, and so the hero of the story proves to be the strongest and she proves that no villain is invincible because even the manipulation of fear ends at some point in which not even the most broken mind is going to distort reality any more.

Women, and power and the Deep Fear of Men Towards Women

 “What is the importance of women in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”

Matriarchy |ˈmātrēˌärkē|

Noun (pl. matriarchies)

A system of society or government ruled by a woman or women.

The Definition of Matriarchy is as stated above “A system of society or government ruled by a woman or women.” In his novel "One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest", Ken Kessey portrays women as the dominant sex, them being stronger than men and having entire power over the guard.

The main female character is of course Nurse Ratched (ratchet |ˈraCHit| A device consisting of a bar or wheel with a set of angled teeth in which a pawl, cog, or tooth engages, allowing motion in one direction only.) She has always reminded me of a sort of robot, controlling the central machinery of the combine making sure it runs smoothly and eliminating those who don’t fit in  society. In this point of the book we have talked about the topic of Emasculation, which literally means to make (a person, idea, or piece of legislation) weaker or less effective. Which is exactly what Ratched does at the Guard, she makes people (no matter in which state they come in) weaker and less effective. In another point Emasculation also means to castrate a man.

The significant role of women is clear throughout the book “Year by year she accumulates her ideal staff: doctors, all ages and types, come and rise up in front of her with ideas of their own about the way a ward should be run, some with backbone enough to stand behind their ideas, and she fixes these doctors with dry-ice eyes day in, day out, until they retreat with unnatural chills.” Ratched is the only reason why the guard functions and runs smoothly, besides without her influence there would be no one running a guard for the insane.