Major Themes

Piecing Together the Story

The novel begins in a third-person, omniscient voice, with a close view of

Jim's inner life, and then shifts to a clear narrator, Marlow. Marlow is
then presented telling his story to a gathering. On the verandah, he tells
Jim's story, and the story is pieced together by means of his own
observations, Jim's direct statements, and statements by his friend, the
owner of a rice mill, Egstrom, one of Jim's employers, and Schomberg
the Bangkok hotelkeeper.

The narrative flits back and forth through time and concludes with an
incomplete picture, ending on the note of Jim's charmed life--but also
Jewel's expression to Marlow regarding some future dread. The oral
storytelling concludes here, but the thread of the story is lifted again in
written form. One "privileged reader" receives the story of Jim's fate and
the final events, through Marlow's imaginative reconstruction, on the
basis of firsthand accounts by Brown, Jewel, and Tamb' Itam. Conrad, in
presenting this picture of a single man named Jim in such a manner,
suggests the rough edges through which any human being must be
known.

Hence, the overall picture is pieced together through a collage of

accounts, observations, statements, conjectures, and rumors. The shape of
the story has borders through which the storyteller, as well as the listener
and even the reader, become characters themselves. The narrative
ingenuity of the novel provides a window into the storymaker's process of
composition.

The Romantic

Stein concludes that Jim is a romantic, and Marlow concludes that Stein
is a romantic. It is implied that Marlow too had once been a romantic, and
that, oftentimes, careers at sea have their beginnings in youthful, romantic
aspirations.

Stein, of course, is the key representative of the type, having a romantic

past that ends quite tragically: surviving ambushes, saving lives,
exploring the unknown, and collecting butterflies. He was married to a
Malay princess, but lost her and their daughter to an infectious fever. His
best friend was assassinated. He had to start over again, and he
succeeded.
In giving Jim the silver ring, which serves as the key that unlocks the
archetypal romantic setting of Patusan, Jim is set upon the same quest to
achieve his romantic dreams--to bring them to life. Yet Conrad suggests
that such dreams often end as just what they are--fragile illusions--or are
accompanied by tragedy in their ultimate realization. While Patusan had
been like a place existing in a fairy tale, its characters seemingly painted
by an "enchanter's wand," the entire thing comes into disrepair. Jim meets
his end; Stein is left with a lingering sorrow; the ring is lost. There is no
one to inherit the tradition.

The Leap

There are several occasions of leaping in Lord Jim. First, there is the leap
Jim is too late in taking. This failure results in lost opportunities not only
for a show of courage but also for personal glory and for respect.

The second leap is the one that he ironically does take: a leap into "a deep
hole" of shame and guilt. This second leap is ambiguously presented as
an action or reflex. The impending event of the sinking of the steamship
flooded Jim with fear. Perhaps the leap was a reflex of individual
survival. Perhaps asking someone to stay behind is asking too much.
Thus the situation is painted with some sympathy by Marlow. Jim,
however, takes the failure too much to heart, so the leap leads him into an
exile, not only from his work at sea, but also from his father, his family in
England, and his own sense of self-respect.

The final leaps, however, both the figurative leap into Patusan and the
literal flying leaps over the Rajah's prison wall and the creek, show a
keener precision of judgment. Jim finally wins his dreams. He lives the
charmed, romantic life.

Facts vs. Experience

The official Inquiry into the facts surrounding the Patna incident
occupies much of the first half of the novel. Marlow, as narrator,
however, notes that the inquiry is into the superficial "how" rather than
the deeper "why." An investigation of the "why" of an occurrence would
lead to an inquiry, instead, into a man's soul. The official proceedings,
driven by law and a collection of clear facts in order to mete proper
judgment, is hence presented in contrast to Marlow's own inquiry into
Jim's soul.

Marlow thus presents various facts, pictures, testimonies, observations,

and other evidence to give the reader an opportunity to judge Jim's
overall being. Seldom can a case, in a court of law, be known fully, since
time does not permit a sufficient depth of inquiry. The same is the case in
general for human relations. What one can ever know of another is, often,
only an inaccurate sketch. Despite all that he can muster, Marlow tells
Jim that he will forever be a mystery, unknowable, to the people of
Patusan, and indeed he remains something of a mystery to Marlow, too.
At least Marlow can imply some significant knowledge of the man: "He
is one of us."

Thus Conrad expresses the difficulty of rendering sufficient depth to

capture a single individual's private experience, not to mention the human
experience more generally. It is at least through the trying, he seems to
express, that human communities and friendship are built.

"He is one of us"

This statement is asserted by Marlow a number of times through the

novel, gathering a different connotation with each usage. It consistently
establishes a kind of solidarity. Jim is brought into the fold of good men,
in sharp contrast to men of a bad lot like the German captain of the
Patna, Brown, and Cornelius. Jim is "one of us" in the sense that he holds
critical self-knowledge. He is aware of his shortcomings, yet he holds to
his ideals.

Conversely, the statement of solidarity also functions to separate Jim

from his life in Patusan where Jim, according to Marlow, will forever
remain a mystery because he is not a native of the area. "He is one of us"
in the sense that he is a white man and a Westerner, not someone else.

Women (and "the Eastern bride" of opportunity)

The women in Lord Jim include Stein's wife "the princess," his daughter
Emma, and their reflection in the Malay-Dutch woman who is a mother
to Jewel, the only woman who survives the telling of the tale. The tale
ends with Jewel living the quiet life in Stein's old age.

Marlow refers in a number of instances to "the Eastern bride" of

opportunity in the context of the romantic quest. The Eastern location of
the tale is not enough to understand it: there seems to be something to the
suggestion that the romantic force is born from the East, an exoticized
locale in which Western men prove themselves worthy of some legendary
foreign beauty. The figure of the bride of opportunity hints at the promise
of a successful wedding of East and West. Nevertheless, the inherent
difficulties of this union are apparent in some of the female characters.
Jewel's mother had been born of such a union, as had Emma. Jewel
mourns that the men always leave; little survives by way of the women.
This theme is ambiguous, which is not unusual for Conrad, but perhaps
something can be drawn from the figure regarding the fragility of peace
and happiness in romantic love, in addition to the romantic aspects of the
love of opportunity.

"Man is not a masterpiece"

This statement is striking, given by Stein as he studies his butterflies in

Marlow's presence. The butterflies are examples of perfection rendered
by the divine artist, Nature. Man, in contrast, is not a masterpiece. Yet the
entire novel presents a masterful portrait of a single man, Jim: Lord Jim.
Awareness of his imperfections, his weakness, and his cowardice all
plague the image of Jim. His guilt over the Patna incident becomes a
special point of weakness that Brown hits. Thus Jim's imperfections
contribute to a picture of Jim that counts as a rough yet affecting
masterpiece of a different sort. Conrad, the artist, sets himself parallel to
Nature and its butterflies.
Iron

The steamship Patna, on which Jim is chief mate, is made of iron, and
after the disturbance cuts a hole in its underside, Jim and the rest of the
crew express little faith in iron. It is a metal, they think, that will sink
silently into the sea, like a block of lead. In fact, the crew does believe
that the ship sinks suddenly and soundlessly. However, it is later shown
that the ship continues to float. Iron, the symbolic mettle of the human
spirit, survives, regardless of weather and age and violence, even beyond
reason. The implied lesson here is to have faith: in iron and in human
endurance.
The Clean Slate

The image of "the clean slate" that Jim desires, upon which he can live
his life free of the failure he had exhibited on the Patna, is the
opportunity or chance to prove himself. At the start of the novel, such
opportunities are presented as chance possibilities, but after the Patna
incident, opportunity takes on the character of a space and time free of the
past. In Patusan, Jim is in a place where he is free of the news of his
cowardice. Therefore, it is a physically free space for him, one that marks
a new period of time in which Jim can refashion himself as a new man.
Still, the truth is realized in the end: the past from which he has been
running has remained within Jim's own memory and heart. There is no
true escape from self-knowledge.
The Patna vs. Patusan

The similarity between the names of the Patna and Patusan is striking, as
well as the similarity of their respective communities. Both are isolated:
the Patna by the sea; Patusan by both wilderness and the sea, since it is
an island. Jim plays a key leadership role on both: on the Patna, he is the
chief mate; in Patusan, he takes on the trade post established by Stein and
becomes a major leader in the community, commanding respect, love,
and awe. Moreover, each community suffers a crisis. Given the threat that
the Patna will sink, Jim exhibits cowardice by leaping into a lifeboat and
going along with the story that the ship sank beneath their feet. In
Patusan, however, as Jim's place among the community unravels and the
peace is broken, Jim does not run from his fate but walks to meet it with a
cool face. In meeting this crisis, he atones for his failure to remain with
the Patna and to some degree for failing to keep Patusan safe from
violence