Lord Jim is a romantic adventure novel by Joseph Conrad that even shares some traits with Gothic novels. Despite the exotic setting and the extraordinary events that puts the story far into the territory of historical fiction, the themes raised in it are very close to everyone of us. The life of a romantic person, who has to face the harsh reality with all the unfairness of life and inability to live up to one’s own ideals and standards is something that most of us thought about in our adolescence.

Jim is lucky to have the adult mentors who do care about him and at least try to understand his troubles. The unconditional faith and love of Captain Marlow who became a parental substitute for young Jim is something that the troubled teenagers often dream about. This part, even without the atmosphere of adventures, taps into something that is most desired when we grow up - the adults who believe in us and are on our side, no matter how badly we screw up this time. The parents who understand and give us the second chance.

Sent to a distant island to rule there, Jim finally grows up and becomes “Lord Jim”. The trust of Captain Marlow and Stein allows him to become a mature and responsible leader, who does care about the population of the island, is still fierce and brave enough to confront the local unjust ruler and help his friends against all the odds, but already reasonable enough to not do this before thinking twice about the best way to achieve his goal.

All the life of Lord Jim is an attempt to unite the common sense with the romantic ideals of his. Even Jim’s death is as classical as it only could be in such novels: he falls the victim of his own ideals and the more cunning, cynical and pragmatic people who use his own morals against him. Still, we don’t feel that his life was a failure. Lord Jim lived his life being faithful to himself and his heart until his very last breath.

Author: Marian White