Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1991. British and American Philologycal Studies (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 20)
Katalin Grezsu: Psychological Implications in Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim
33 destiny. What will happen is just the opposite of what he wanted. He wanted to form his own life by his conscious will, and what he achieved instead of this was the fatality of actions. Dorothy van Ghent draws an interesting parallel between Jim and King Oedipus in her essay on Lord Jim. She writes that 'Oedipus's solution of the problem of "how to be" was the same as Jim's: he fled in the opposite direction from his destiny and ran straight into it.* 1 1 Though Jim always wanted to become a hero, somebody who stands out and differs from the crowd, he achieved just the opposite of it. He became an outcast of the society, someone who flees from port to port haunted by his own memories. Marlow himself feels that by the time of his jump Jim was losing control of the events. He tells Jim: "It is always the unexpected that happens." 1 ^ But as a matter of fact by this time what happens is not unexpected at all. Conrad made way for this statement and we can feel that Jim's destiny is sealed. The jump, which I have already referred to, from the light to the dark, from the well-known to the un-known is hinted at relatively early in the novel. Jim, whom Conrad characterizes as a 'gifted poor devil with the faculty of swift and forestalling vision' 'could depict to himself without hindrance the sudden swing upwards of the dark skyline, the sudden tilt up of the vast plain of the sea, the swift still rise, the brutal fling, the grasp of the abyss, the struggle without hope, the starlight closing over his head for ever like the vault of a tomb - the revolt of his young life - the black end.' 1 3 In my opininon Jim's character gets more and more primitive, simplified and flat. He gets obsessed with one single idea, that is the idea of his personal tragedy. He watches the events almost like an outsider who is unable to interfere with the course of the events. It seems as if some unknown power played its menial games with him, robbing his self-control and will-power. He is spell-bound, Iiis legs seem to be glued to the spot when watching the events in fear. Although Jim is shocked by the sight of the ship and the struggle going on aboard her, he cannot just keep his eyes shot. He says: "I made up my mind to keep my eyes shut, 'he said/ and I couldn't. I couldn't and I don't care who knows it." 1 4 Jim's consciousness, his personality is by now struggling with a stranger within. And Jim is already too weak to defeat these forces and make his own will overcome them. The next step is that he realizes the rule of the 'infernal powers' over him. This paralyses him more and more, so much so that he gives himself over to his destiny. Marlow's interpretation of the events goes like this:
