Heroism through Errors in Lord Jim
Heroism through Errors in Lord Jim

Summary/Abstract: In Lord Jim (1900) the ultimate moral foundations of a man’s essential character are explored through a series of errors, which lead to the discovery of a heroic identity of Lord Jim.The errors are apparently the collapse of the “sovereign power,” thehardest thing to stumble against, that draws Marlow to Jim’s case as he fails the supreme moral test in the face of an imminent threat of death on board the Patna. As Marlow gradually recognizes in his attempt to understand Jim, the moral becomes the existential. It is not simply a question of moral identity but of self-discovery and of self-fulfillment that is connected to a possible heroic identity. One’s relation to a capital error made in the face of an inescapable danger and its prevalent consequences dictate the emergence of heroic character in its aftermath in the novel. Thus, in this paper, it is explored that Conrad delineates the thin line between an erroneous character and a “potential hero” who benefits from his past mistakes.

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