Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim - Perfection is not Possible

Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim - Perfection is not Possible

Joseph Conrad’s novel Lord Jim is set in the late 1800’s in the Far East. The protagonist, Jim, is a young, idealistic sailor who commits a crime early in the story. Jim is tortured from within with the feeling of worthlessness after this crime, and runs from his past searching for an opportunity to redeem himself. The novel is mostly relayed to the reader via Marlow, an old sea captain who took an unusual interest in Jim, and tells the story of Jim’s life at every opportunity.

Jim is an enigma to almost all who meet him, and the secondary characters in this novel, combined with Marlow’s analysis, enable the reader to compare and contrast Jim with different personalities to better understand his puzzling nature. Marlow struggles to figure out why Jim clings so tightly to his past failures, and Jim struggles to become the man he thinks he should be. The plot provides for many critical turning points where Jim’s decision making, which is clouded by romantic idealism, governs the outcome of events. Conrad’s characters and plot point to a central lesson: people need to realize that they are naturally fallible, and are not capable of achieving perfection with regard to honor.

The first physical description of Jim by the third person narrator in the beginning of the

novel presents paradoxes in Jim’s character, and introduces the fact that although characters can absorb him wholly, they cannot figure him out. The narrator says that Jim is “…an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built,” and is much like “a charging bull” (9). Jim’s description continues with: “…his manner displayed a kind of dogged self-assertion which had nothing aggressive in it” (9). Jim a...

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...ritten by his father partly explains his motivation to pursue perfection in honor: “who once gives into temptation, in the very instant hazards his total depravity and everlasting ruin” (253). Thus, Jim has been striving his whole life to “never, through any possible motives, (to) do anything which you believe to be wrong” (253). Jim’s dedication to this ideal makes other characters want to preserve and be part of something that is so good, therefore Jim is helped with his quest at every opportunity. Jim is a man above the opinions of others, above both easterners and westerners, and seemingly above reality. He has been chasing perfection, and proudly walks to his death having learned a lesson; perfection is not possible, so one must both admit one’s mistakes and live with them.

WORKS CITED

Conrad, Joseph. Lord Jim. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page, 1923.