CHAPTER FOUR
A sudden flashforward- typical of the way time is fragmented in Lord Jim- shifts the scene to Jim's testimony, about a month later, at an official inquiry. The presiding officers are a magistrate and two nautical assessors (experts who have been appointed as assistant judges). Jim testifies that the Patna hit something, probably the floating remains of an old shipwreck that knocked a hole in it. The front of the hold (the lower part of the ship) quickly filled with water. The only thing keeping the rest of the hold from flooding, and thus sinking the ship, was a single rusty bulkhead (partition).
One mystery- what happened? - Has given way to another- why is Jim in hot water? Instead of clearing it up, the narrator focuses on the inadequacy of facts- "as if facts could explain anything!" Whether they can, or whether the facts can differ from the truth behind an incident, is one of the questions you will have to consider. Just as Jim is despairing that it's useless trying to explain his actions, a new character, Marlow, appears on the scene.
NOTE: MARLOW
Up to this point, Conrad has used an omniscient narrator who could listen in on Jim's thoughts. From here on, Marlow will narrate, and so the kind of information available to you will change. You'll have to rely on what Marlow sees and hears (fortunately, he's a keen observer) and on his interpretation of these impressions. Conrad had already used the crusty, philosophical sailor Marlow as narrator in two other works, the short story "Youth" (1898) and the short novel Heart of Darkness (1899). (Lord Jim was originally planned as a short story, "Jim: A Sketch," to round out a volume of the three Marlow tales.) In the earlier works, Marlow is Conrad's alter ego- his judgments reflect the author's. But the case in Lord Jim is more complex. There's still a lot of Conrad in Marlow, but the author has distanced himself somewhat. Author and character share a sympathy for Jim, but the character is perhaps a little more eager to find reasons to excuse him. The author marshals evidence objectively, pro and con; he doesn't load the dice.
CHAPTER FIVE
Launching before an after-dinner audience into his garrulous, digressive monologue, Marlow steers clear of just what it was that happened on the Patna. Instead, he describes the arrival of the Patna officers in town. The Master Attendant (the British officer in charge of the port) bawls out the captain. The captain, in turn, deserts his three officers, disappearing in a gharry, a horse- drawn cab. Jim, on Marlow's first view of him, appears so unconcerned that Marlow would like to see him squirm for his offense. You might think at this point that the officers are guilty of deserting a sinking ship- which would be almost, but not quite, correct.
Already Marlow's attitude toward Jim is complex. When he says that trusting a ship to Jim wouldn't be safe, he comes closer than anywhere else to condemning him outright. Jim looks "as genuine as a new sovereign" (a gold coin), when in fact there is some "infernal alloy" mixed in. And yet Marlow is also ready to regard Jim's offense as the result of a weakness from which "not one of us is safe." Here is the key to Marlow's interest in the case. He doesn't care about the captain or the engineers, but Jim makes an impression on him, he explains, because "he was one of us"- a phrase he will use again and again.
NOTE: "ONE OF US."
Whom does Marlow mean by "us"? The phrase refers, on one level, to a specific group: British, white, educated men of the sea. But it also carries a deeper, moral meaning. Marlow describes himself as a member of a community held together "by fidelity to a certain standard of conduct," and what horrifies him in the Patna incident has to do with "the doubt of the sovereign power enthroned in a fixed standard of conduct." The Patna officers don't even seem to care about their offense, and their attitude calls the standard of conduct into question. If they can break it so casually, how valuable can it be?
In the longest anecdote in this long chapter, Marlow visits the local hospital, where he encounters the Patna's chief engineer, laid up with a severe case of D.T.'s (delirium tremens- hallucinations brought on by excessive drinking of alcoholic beverages). The engineer claims to have seen the Patna go down, a claim Marlow dismisses (for reasons the reader can't know yet) as a "stupid lie," though the man seems to mean what he says. Marlow realizes that he's suffering from hallucinations- he thinks he's surrounded by millions of vicious pink toads.
NOTE: THE ENGINEER'S HALLUCINATIONS
The hallucinations give form to the engineer's guilt, and you can interpret them by applying a little amateur psychology. The sinking Patna, he tells Marlow, was "full of reptiles." He also admits that the officers cleared out of the ship in secret- "on the strict Q.T." It seems likely that the 800 pilgrims, the white officers' charges, have taken the form of giant toads in his demented mind. The chief engineer, at least, hasn't managed to escape the "fixed standard of conduct" without paying a tremendous price for his offense.
CHAPTER SIX
Marlow goes off on another digression, this time about Montague Brierly, one of the two nautical assessors assisting at the inquiry. Brierly is a young (32), successful captain, so well-regarded that he considers himself superior to everybody. Why, then, does he kill himself a week after the inquiry ends?
The details of the suicide come from his chief mate, Jones, whom Marlow encounters some two years after the fact. (This complicated device, with the primary narrator relating the words of Marlow, and Marlow in turn repeating Jones' tale- quotation marks within quotation marks- is typical of Lord Jim.) Jones' story is interesting, but it provides few clues to Brierly's behavior. More clues surface, though, when Marlow returns his narrative to the first day of the inquiry, when he speaks at length to Brierly. Brierly feels mortified by the questioning; he can't imagine why Jim has remained to face the court rather than va as his captain did. His agitation causes Marlow to reconsider Jim's behavior, and he discovers, for the first time, real courage in Jim's staying to face the court. Moreover, since Brierly's attitude of "contemptuous boredom" on the bench actually masks a profound anxiety, couldn't Jim's appearance of "gloomy impudence" be a mask as well?
In any case, Brierly seems more concerned about Jim's public humiliation than about his pangs of conscience. It becomes clear that for him the "fixed standard of conduct" has less to do with right and wrong than with what people think of you. It also appears, in view of Brierly's suicide, that Jim's failure has filled Brierly- who to all appearances is a model seaman- with self-doubt. But if Jim has failed the test, at least he's remained to face the consequences of his failure. Brierly, his judge, can't even face the idea of the test, much less the real thing. He tries to talk Marlow into bribing Jim to clear out- not very upright behavior for an officer of the court.
The rest of the chapter deals with Marlow's first encounter with Jim, an awful, comic misunderstanding. On leaving the court, a stranger points out a yellow dog and tells Marlow, "Look at that wretched cur." Jim, hearing but not seeing, thinks they're talking about him, bridles at the insult, and collars Marlow. While Jim is threatening the bewildered Marlow, who has no idea what he's so angry about, Marlow observes the young man closely enough to see that his calm, insolent posture has been a front. Anyone so ready to jump at an insult- an imagined insult, in this case- must be feeling deeply humiliated. Jim, when he finally understands his error, is so abashed at having betrayed his facade that he practically runs away, with Marlow in pursuit.
Marlow has been talking all along about his curiosity, but his behavior indicates more than mere curiosity. Why, in your opinion, is he ready to offer compassion to Jim? An invitation to dine at Marlow's hotel initiates the friendship that will form the core of the novel.
روش خرید: برای خرید پس از کلیک روی
دکمه زیر و تکمیل فرم سفارش، ابتدا محصول مورد نظر را درب منزل یا
محل کار تحویل بگیرید، سپس وجه کالا و هزینه ارسال را به مامور پست
بپردازید. جهت مشاهده فرم خرید، روی دکمه زیر کلیک کنید.
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as his captain did. His agitation causes Marlow to reconsider Jim's behavior, and he discovers, for the first time, real courage in Jim's staying to face the court. Moreover, since Brierly's attitude of "contemptuous boredom" on the bench actually masks a profound anxiety, couldn't Jim's appearance of "gloomy impudence" be a mask as well? 
