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

36 And Jim follows Stein's advice, submits himself to his dream of responsibility and truth to men. His first tragedy was caused by this exaggerated honesty, and the second, which is more fatal, causes his final destruction. Jim is typically one of those heroes to whom life had given another chance, but when he wants to repent by giving someone else another chance, just like he himself was given, he is destroyed. His destruction is caused by his being different, by this I mean that the faith he put into others was not returned. Jim realizes that Brown and himself have got something in common: both of them are victims of circumstances, but while Jim's destructive element is positive, Brown's is negative. In an abstract sense Brown, Jim's other self, turns out to be the real destructive element. But this time Jim's destruction is heroic because in the meantime he had gone through long suffering, torment caused by his own guilt, self-imposed exile. He is purified in his death.