Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Lord Jim, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fantasy vs. Reality
Justice and Duty
Racism and Colonialism
Truth and Perspective
Summary
Analysis
Marlow and Jim are eating dinner at Marlow’s hotel. Jim eats a lot and talks more after having wine. They talk about how difficult Jim’s situation is, and Jim says he couldn’t just clear out of town the way the Patna’s skipper did. Jim speaks admirably of his father, the parson, worrying that he has already seen Jim’s story in the local news. Like Brierly, Jim doesn’t think much of how the court’s being run. Jim apologizes again about thinking Marlow called him a “cur.”
Jim’s determination to stay and face trial for what happened on the Patna reflects a determination to atone for his prior mistakes. In addition to valuing honor, Jim also places a lot of value on reputation, and it is clear from his fretting about what his father will read in the newspaper that Jim thinks a lot about what people think of him.
Themes
Literary Devices
Jim begins to tell his story to see if Marlow really does think he’s a cur. He says that he and four others, including the skipper of the Patna and two engineers, were out floating at sea in a boat when a steamer came across them. The skipper told his men to be quiet, and if the crew of the steamer found anything strange about the four castaways, they didn’t act on it.
Because Jim is himself full of guilt and self-doubt, he hopes that if he tells his story to other people, they will perhaps judge him less harshly. This further highlights how Jim cares a lot about what people think of him.
Themes
Jim was on the steamer for 10 days before it reached shore and before he heard the conclusion of the Patna affair. Hearing the news made him sulky and antisocial. As it turns out, the bulkhead on the Patna didn’t give out, meaning the ship apparently didn’t sink. At their dinner, Jim laments to Marlow about the opportunity that he missed back then. He looks at Marlow in pain, regretting what he could have had but didn’t.
This passage ends some of the suspense that Conrad sustained for the first part of the novel, as Jim finally reveals what really happened on the Patna. Unsatisfied with how things turned out, Jim retells the story, perhaps with the hope that he can change things, but he remains trapped by his past cowardice.
Themes
At dinner, Marlow doesn’t want to indulge Jim by showing too much pity, but Jim keeps going. He swears to Marlow that when he was inspecting the Patna, he really felt like it was destined to sink. He recalls how he and the skipper struggled after first discovering the damage to the Patna, turning off the engines. The pilgrims hear the noise but don’t know what’s happening. There are enough rescue boats to save some of the pilgrims, but Jim believes the ship will sink at any moment, and so there’s no time.
Jim tries to justify his actions on the Patna while at the same time trying to avoid giving the impression that he is only serving his own selfish interests by telling the story. Jim maintains this internal conflict throughout the story, wanting to portray himself well without coming across as too self-serving.
Themes
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Jim swears to Marlow that on the Patna he wasn’t afraid of death—he just truly believed that there was no time for boats to save the pilgrims. Marlow notes, however, that if Jim wasn’t afraid of death, he seemed to definitely be afraid of emergency.
Marlow’s observation about Jim being afraid of emergency suggests that, to a degree, most humans are irrational and don’t always fear the things that can really hurt them the most.
Themes
