Lord Jim

Lord Jim takes place at a time of history wherein naval travel and naval trade is crucial to the maintenance and expansion of the British Empire, which was near its zenith when Conrad published the novel in serialized form in 1899 and 1900. The British Empire existed over several centuries, expanding and contracting at points, but reaching a height in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when British holdings covered nearly one quarter of the globe. It spanned the globe, reaching from the Americas to Africa, Asia, and beyond. In the 19th century, it was a common expression to say that the sun never set on the British Empire—implying that the Empire spanned so much of the globe that some part of it was always in daylight. Its influence was so vast that the implications of its power still resonate today.

The astonishing number of connections that Captain Marlow boasts, which provide Jim seemingly limitless opportunities at ports around the globe, show not only the far-reaching nature of the Empire, but also the importance of British naval superiority in maintaining trade to and nominal control over those outer areas. Similarly, the sway of Stein & Company, controlling most of the trading in an area as remote as Patusan, shows how the expanse of empire involved governing or at least strongly influencing the economies of even the most outlying positions of the globe. While Patusan is a fictional location created by the author, it is set somewhere in Southeast Asia, likely Indonesia. It is also relevant to note that one of Conrad’s most famous short stories is entitled “An Outpost of Progress,” wherein two white agents are situated in a remote location where they consider themselves superior to the Indigenous people with whom they work. The mission of empire was allegedly to control and dominate trade; however, it was considered by many to be a moral mission, as well: The Empire would bring “civilization” to areas of the globe that the British regarded as remote and “primitive.”

Thus, the expansion of empire also created a racial hierarchy that privileged whites above many Indigenous peoples at the empire’s expanses, from Africa to Asia. The fact that Jim was able to transcend his circumstances and become a “Lord” in Patusan only emphasizes the extent to which the imperial mission served an ideology that privileged the “white man” above others; the seeds of imperial domination have already been planted. As the distribution of crew and passengers on the Patna demonstrates, the hierarchy transcended the landed areas of empire and even pervaded the means of reaching those areas, the very ships traversing the open seas. The impact of this hierarchy is such that, even today, both history and literature are influenced by these distinctions. While some critics maintain that Conrad was an avowed imperialist himself, others demonstrate quite clearly that he was actually an astute critic of the enterprise. Indeed, Lord Jim reveals Conrad’s critique of that mission: Jim is a failed sailor who becomes a feudal lord in a remote outpost. His actions bring harm, even death, to others. He himself is doomed to destruction for his hubris.

Ultimately, however, the central problem at the core of the imperial enterprise is that it was hollow—as would be echoed by one of Conrad’s most famous characters, Kurtz, in Heart of Darkness. Like that novel, Lord Jim is part of the tradition of colonial discourse that influences British literature—including the literature of the former Commonwealth—to this day. Most of Conrad’s work, including Lord Jim, points to the insincerity at the heart of the imperial project: The “civilizing mission” was but an excuse for the extraction of resources and the oppression of peoples throughout the British—and other—empires. Though Conrad is a controversial figure, his work always considers the complexity of authority, agency, and incentive in ways that question the imperial project.