" Muted group" in Under Western Eyes: An analysis of female characters

This paper aims at evaluating Joseph Conrad’s Under Western Eyes vis-vis female characters and their actions. The novel is a site where one finds the company of powerful women involving in social and political activities. Under Western Eyes reveals female homosocial relationship while emphasizing women’s dominant control over men along with their social involvements. Furthermore, women’s roles are more pervasive and stronger than those of Joseph Conrad’s earlier novels. Conrad employs a different and non-patriarchal culture in Under Western Eyes in which income, wealth, and power are distributed equally between men and women. Hence, the novel shows that the This paper aims at evaluating Joseph Conrad’s Under Western Eyes vis-vis female characters and their actions. The novel is a site where one finds the company of powerful women involving in social and political activities. Under Western Eyes reveals female homosocial relationship while emphasizing women’s dominant control over men along with their social involvements. Furthermore, women’s roles are more pervasive and stronger than those of Joseph Conrad’s earlier novels. Conrad employs a different and non-patriarchal culture in Under Western Eyes in which income, wealth, and power are distributed equally between men and women. Hence, the novel shows that the muted group or women are able to break the boundaries of male group insofar as they participate in social ceremonies and /or political rituals. Incidentally, the novel introduces a new subject both in Conrad’s literary career and his era when many of his literary contemporaries insisted on a male-dominated society in their writings.