Lord Jim

The second reading of Lord Jim left me with as many unanswered questions as the first attempt had done more than three years ago. In truth, it is no surprise, for Conrad is the architect of the modern psychological novel. His plots are often centered round solitary heroes who, either by chance or choice, are alienated and estranged from their own people. After Heart of Darkness and the account of Kurtz in the Belgian Congo, Charlie Marlow returns to relate another story; this time that of Tuan Jim. Apart from the great similarity of circumstances between Jim and Kurtz, there is also a striking likeness of modernist techniques in both works. Conrad was among the first modernist novelists to employ shifting points of view and multiple narrators. Both the aforementioned characters are seen through several pairs of eyes, sympathetic or otherwise, before their being turned over to Marlow, who sorts out the different testimonies, and gives an objective view of both men. The extensive use of flashbacks is another technique which Conrad had pioneered in both Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim. By first presenting the crisis and then going back to the past in order to retrace the psychological pattern which led to it, Conrad enables the reader to examine more thoroughly the minds and the motivations of his characters. Lord Jim is primarily a psychological study of its title character's mind conducted by means of a meticulous analysis of his motivations and acts. In the book, Jim speaks through Marlow, and Marlow speaks through the nameless narrator who introduces the case at the beginning of the tale. Along the way, multiple characters contribute to the narrative their own portions and their own personal views and judgement in regard to Jim and his conduct as a former mate of the Patna. But this approach only emphasizes the psychological complexity of Jim as a human being. Many critics have debated the ending of the book which is very ambiguous. Did Jim surrender his life to Doramin as a man who had finally accepted his failures, or was he simply enlarging that veil of romanticism which Stein had often spoken of? It is hard to say, and that brings to the fore the psychological complexity of human beings which so concerned the author. Jim was a young man, who had been once taken by surprise by the fear of death. He deserted his ship and thus fell from his own ideals. It was not from other people that he ran away but from himself. He was unanimously amiable, devoted, hard-working; but whenever his identity was revealed, he ran away to a more removed corner of the world, where it would be unknown to people and absent to himself. In Patusan, this was no longer necessary, for he had managed to create a different Persona; he was loved and admired by all. When this haven had collapsed on top of its master's head, Jim surrendered to Doramin, but why? Was it because he had at last acknowledged his failure, and thus submitted to a merited punishment? or was it because he had no home to turn back to in the world that had shunned him once before?