Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Wexler, Joyce

Titel

Conrad's Erotic Women

Ist Teil von

• College literature, 2018-06, Vol.45 (3), p.424-448

Ort / Verlag

West Chester: Johns Hopkins University Press

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Quelle

Project MUSE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Upon a smooth and wide brow an abundance of pale fair hair, fine as silk, undulating like the sea, heavy like a helmet, descended low without a trace of gloss, without a gleam in its coils, as though it had never been touched by a ray of light; and a throat white, smooth, palpitating with life, a round neck modelled with strength and delicacy, supported gloriously that radiant face and that pale mass of hair unkissed by sunshine. Suggesting that her husband would prefer her to "look like a guy," Edith targets his sexual indifference. Since the native sandals are a sign of her sexuality, her offer to put on her stockings mocks his disgust. The sexual union is confirmed by the rower's comment: "A voice said suddenly 'It's done' with such emphasis that though, of course, she didn't understand the words it helped her to regain possession of herself" (395).14 A post-coital awkwardness follows as the lovers tentatively negotiate their relationship: "when Lingard asked her very little above a whisper: 'Why don't you say something?' she answered, readily, 'Let me get my breath first'" (395). When Jasper visits, she "would sit down to the piano and play fierce Wagner music in the flicker of blinding flashes, with thunderbolts falling all round, enough to make your hair stand on end; and Jasper would remain stock still on the verandah, adoring the back view of her supple, swaying figure, the miraculous sheen of her fair head, the rapid hands on the keys, the white nape of her neck" (Conrad 1928, 152).