Abstract
Debates on Conrad’s intention in writing stories in Eastern settings never get exhausted, yet never offer enough consummated insights. Amidst his Malay stories, he often portrays the East with Eastern characters, leaving himself in the predicament of being labelled as a manifest Orientalist. The short story, “Because of the Dollars”, almost resonating with the same notion, presents Western characters in an Eastern space where irrationality takes place, colonial greed soars, and Western women become victims of colonial desires; but still, the idealistic foundation of imperialism remains largely unchallenged. This paper examines whether Conrad intentionally exoticizes his Western women characters in the exotic land of the East to justify its presupposed irrationality, and emboldens, in turn, the western self-proclaimed notion of superiority, or whether the Eastern landscape functions solely as a dramatic backdrop. As this story depicts a falling woman, Laughing Anne, Conrad’s disposal of her in a far Eastern land becomes symbolic, redefining the parameters with which narratives of both East and West are measured. Observing the incessant brutality of colonialism, the paper adopting an ecofeminist lens also harps on how women and nature intersect, sharing a history of subjugation and oppression fueled by imperialism.
Keywords: ecofeminism, empire, exoticism, female resistance, gender, orientalism.