Throughout history, many works of literature have reviewed the gender stereotypes that determine the functioning of a society. In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, women in patriarchal societies are kept ignorant of lies by men who feel the need to protect them. In the story, Marlow, a steamship captain, travels to the Congo as an employee of a British colonization company to civilize the Congolese savages and return Kurtz, a former employee, to civilization. During his journey, he meets three women; an aunt, a mistress and the future, or fiancée. The three women have no individual identity and are distinguished by their relationship with men. Women are lied to, objectified and used by men for their own purposes. Before embarking on his trip to the Congo, Marlow visits his Belgian aunt. His aunt is naively idealistic and believes that the British Company is doing good by civilizing the savages and “weaning [the] ignorant [Congolese] from their horrible ways” (Conrad 76). Marlow's aunt adheres to the lie of the Company which claims to do good by bringing about civilization for the savages of the Congo. Marlow allows himself to suggest that the Company is in reality “run for profit” and that it is colonizing the Congo for the ivory found in Africa (Conrad 76). However, although Marlow implies to his aunt that society is not as fair as she claims, he never changes his aunt's opinion of society. Instead, he allows his aunt to live in ignorance of the way society seems to do good in order to protect his so-called "[beautiful] world of women" because the realistic world in which men live " would turn [their world] upside down” ( Conrad 76). For Marlow, the world of men is real and harsh while the world of women is a world of paper...for the lifelong mourning of a man she barely knew. The women of Heart of Darkness don't. have an identity and are simply a possession of man. They are objectified and kept in ignorance of a superficial world based on appearances and lies by the patriarchal society which feels the need to protect them. That is, the aunt got the job in the company for Marlow, but there is no mention of him thanking her or even returning after his trip to the Congo to see her. The mistress is used as a sexual pastime by Kurtz who apparently does not care what happens to him following her departure and the Recipient is lied to so that Marlow can preserve his naivety and protect his unrealistic opinions about men. On a larger scale, the women of Heart of Darkness represent the general female population who tend to live in the realm of an idealistic conception of the true nature of man..