“Fidelity to Race” in Conrad’s Lord Jim
“Fidelity to Race” in Conrad’s Lord Jim

Author(s): Gene, M Moore
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Summary/Abstract: Conrad uses the phrase “awakened fidelity to race” in a long letter to S. S. Pawlingdescribing his plans for The Rescue and the dilemma faced by Lingard torn betweenhis commitment to Hassim and the duty he feels to protect Mrs. Travers from thepirates. As Zdzisław Najder has noted, “the concept of fidelity occupies a central positionwithin the framework of Conrad’s ethical concerns,” and “the motif of fidelityreverberates throughout [Lord Jim]”; but the racial aspects of this concept of fidelityhave remained largely unexplored. This essay considers the confrontation betweenLord Jim and Gentleman Brown in terms of such an “awakened fidelity to race,” andexamines Conrad’s use of light and darkness and descriptions of skin colours morebroadly and symbolically (for instance, in the descriptions of complexions, whichoften change suddenly in surprising ways).

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