"Cliff Notes - Lord Jim" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

to be understood rather than expressed. Marlow's formality
keeps the prose from turning mushy. Marlow is an admirable man,
but he doesn't like to claim his own virtues; he'd rather come
across as bad-tempered and gruff.

^^^^^^^^^^
LORD JIM: THE CAPTAIN OF THE PATNA

Jim's captain, a vulgar, obese German by way of Australia, is
everything a captain shouldn't be: irresponsible, corrupt, and
contemptuous of his passengers (he calls them "cattle"). When
his ship is damaged at sea, he wastes no time trying to save the
passengers, and abandons it without a second thought. Later,
before the inquiry, he vanishes--apparently having (unlike Jim)
some place to go, some connections who will take him in. Conrad
has a good deal of fun at his expense, ridiculing his vulgarity,
his bad English, and his grotesque bulk.

^^^^^^^^^^
LORD JIM: THE CHIEF ENGINEER

The chief engineer is a cohort of the captain's, and just as
corrupt. They're a team of embezzlers. Physically they look
grotesquely like Laurel and Hardy: the captain revoltingly fat,
the chief engineer bone-thin, with sunken cheeks, sunken
temples, and sunken eyes. It's the chief engineer who, once the
Patna has been deserted, has the illusion of seeing it sink.
His illusions continue back on shore, where he succumbs to
hallucinations after three days of heavy drinking. He claims to
have a clear conscience about abandoning the ship ("I could look
at sinking ships and smoke my pipe all day long"), but his
drinking suggests he's trying to forget. The toad visions seem
to be displaced guilt: His deranged mind has transformed the
abandoned pilgrims into vengeful toads. His distress suggests
that breaking the "fixed standard of conduct" carries heavier
personal consequences than Marlow first thought.

^^^^^^^^^^
LORD JIM: THE SECOND ENGINEER

The second engineer is a nasty, obnoxious little man who talks
too much. He's as corrupt as the captain and the chief
engineer, but he does at least show a little spirit during the
Patna crisis by running to the engine room, at great risk and in
great pain from a broken arm, to fetch a hammer. Months after
the inquiry, he turns up destitute at Mr. Denver's rice mill,
where Jim has found work with particularly good prospects. His
offensive familiarity eventually drives Jim away. There's a
hint in his fawning that he intends to blackmail Jim.