While on the ship on the way to Patusan, Marlow gives Jim a revolver, foreshadowing the gun violence in Jim’s future on the island. Marlow’s choice of words when gifting him the revolver also hint at Jim’s violent end, as seen in the following passage:
“A heavy revolver and two small boxes of cartridges were lying on the cuddy-table. ‘Pray take this,’ I said. ‘It may help you to remain.’ No sooner were these words out of my mouth than I perceived what grim meaning they could bear. ‘May help you get in,’ I corrected myself, remorsefully. He, however, was not troubled by obscure meanings.”
Here, Marlow hands the gun to Jim, telling him, “It may help you to remain,” and then realizing these words contain the “grim meaning” that Jim may need to use the gun in order to “remain” alive. Marlow’s “obscure meaning” foreshadows the fact that Jim will find himself in need of self-defense. This is both truth about Gentleman Brown’s attack on Patusan and about Jim’s eventual death at the hands of Doramin, who shoots him in the chest (as punishment for Jim’s decision not to defend the community from Brown). It is notable that Jim does not choose to protect himself with the revolver in the final confrontation with Doramin, choosing instead to let the man kill him as a form of taking accountability for his mistakes and thereby fulfilling his duty as a leader.
