52(b) “ ‘Were you at his performance, Joe?’ I inquired. ‘I were,’ said Joe, withemphasis and solemnity. ‘Was there a great sensation?’ ” Great Expectations,
170.
(c) “I felt the convict’s breathing, not only on the back of my head, but all along
my spine. The sensation was like being touched in the marrow with some pungent and searching acid, and it set my very teeth on edge.” Great Expectations,
176.
(d) “As he had nothing else that his majority to come into, the event did not make aprofound sensation in Barnard’s Inn.” Great Expectations, 271.
(e) “It was an odd sensation to see his very familiar face established quite at homein that very unfamiliar room and region;” Great Expectations, 279.
33. Lady Audley’s Secret における使用例は次のとおりである。
(a) “ . . . he might have gone down to his grave with a dim sense of some uneasy
sensation which might be love or indignation, . . .” Mary Elizabeth Braddon,
Lady Audley’s Secret (1860-61. Oxford: Oxford U.P., World’s Classics paperback, 1987), 61.
(b) “. . . ‘and there certainly are pleasanter sensations than that of standing up to
one’s knees in cold water.’” Lady Audley’s Secret, 133.
(c) “A choking sensation in her throat seemed to stragle those false and plausible
words, her only armour against her enemies.” Lady Audley’s Secret, 283.

53

論

文

Gender and Culture in Lord Jim
Yumiko Iwashimizu
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) wrote many adventure romances in his earlydays. In one of them, Lord Jim (1900), Conrad creates Jim as a young man who
aspires to heroic deeds and seeks for adventure. Although he pursues his
dream, Jim repeatedly fails to achieve it. Why is he not able to realize his
ambition while pursuing it so eagerly? And what is the essence and meaning of
his dream? In order to resolve these principal questions, I will discuss Jim’s
dream by focusing on the cultural background, since a consideration of thecultural background is indispensable if we really wish to understand Jim ’s
dream. In this article, I will attempt to reveal the essence of Jim’s dream andconsider the author’s views of it through examining the cultural context of theera in which the text was written.

（１）Jim’s persistence in his heroic dream
As the first half of Lord Jim shows, Jim is described as a youth who yearns forheroic deeds on the sea. After a period absorbed in reading Jim goes to sea
seeking for adventure. A series of affairs, however, shows us that Jim fails to
act like a hero in a book. Jim’s first failure occurs before he becomes a sailor.
When he is lost in his daydream on board the training ship, a coaster crashes
through a schooner at anchor. But Jim fails to man the cutter as the other boys
do in the emergency. He fails to act smartly because he is overwhelmed by fear
before the gale and the tumbling tide.1 Before the menace of nature he cannot
act like a hero. However, despite his failure, Jim thinks that he was tried

54

Gender and Culture in Lord Jim

unfairly and deserves a higher achievement (49).

55

world collapses upon the intrusion of Gentleman Brown into Patusan. AlthoughThis pattern is repeated by Jim in the Patna affair. After training to become athe people of Patusan were ready to fight Brown, Jim decides to give Brown

seaman for two years, Jim goes to sea and takes a berth as chief mate of the oldand his men a clear road because his phrases “jumping-off place”, “in the same

Patna. When he is lost in his revery during his watch, the Patna collides with aboat”, “jump out of trouble” reminded him of the leap from the Patna (326).

submerged object. When he goes into the hold and inspects the bulwark Jim is

Brown attacks Dain Waris and his party from the rear, and this causes Dain’s

immobilized, imagining the passengers in a panic in the emergency.

death. Despite Jewel’s plea to flee from Patusan, Jim goes to Doramin unarmed

Subsequently, thinking that the Patna is about to sink at any moment, Jim leaps

when he knows that Dain is dead. Marlow recounts Jim’s last moments as follows:

into the lifeboat with fellow officers without attempting to rescue any of theeight hundred pilgrim passengers. Although the Patna is safely towed to

They say that the white man sent right and left at all those faces aharbour by a French gunboat, this is a clear dereliction of duty: it is aproud and unflinching glance. Then with his hand over his lips he fell

disgraceful act for a seaman to abandon passengers. Jim has transgressed theforward, dead. (351, emphasis added)

seaman’s code, and this is a far graver fault than his first failure. It is far fromthe ideal Jim has sought since his boyhood. But Jim thinks that he is different

Various interpretations have been attempted by critics about Jim’s decision tofrom the other members of the Patna, and again he tries to defend his heroic

allow Brown to escape and about his last act.3 Jim appears to assume fullimage of himself by claiming that he was not ready (103).

responsibility for his error of judgement by his sacrificial death. It is possible to

However, despite these two failures Jim does not give up his aspitation. This

interpret Jim ’ s final act as the expiation of his guilt. However, Marlow

is evident in descriptions of Jim after the Patna affair. For instance, when

expresses that Jim died giving “a proud and unflinching glance” at the people

Marlow offers him a post in Patusan as Stein’s agent because Jim repeatedlyaround him. Although his inner thought in this scene is not revealed to thequit his jobs, Jim is as excited as a “youngster on the eve of a long holiday withreader, Marlow’s words lead us to interpret that Jim’s final act is an attempt toa prospect of delightful scrapes” (215). Although Marlow introduces this post

fulfill his dream by dying like a tragic hero. Jim chose to pursue his dream

to allow him to earn his bread, and warns Jim of the dangers of the undertaking,rather than to escape and live with Jewel, the woman he loved.

Jim is excited in expectation of adventure. Also, before Jim goes to Patusan,

Despite his repeated failures, Jim’s attitude towards his dream is consistent.

Marlow finds two small books and a half-crown copy of a complete

Without realizing the gap ― indeed, by refusing to note it ― between his ideal

Shakespeare in Jim’s valise (218).2 It is clear that Jim continues to seek his

and reality, Jim continues to seek his dream. He has followed his heroic dreamheroic dream even after the major failure of the Patna affair. As his confession

and remained faithful to it to the end as Stein advised in his dialogue withto Marlow after the Inquiry shows, Jim thinks that he was tried unfairly andMarlow. It can be said that Jim is obsessed with his dream, and his ideal to act

only just missed the opportunity to be a hero (104). He refuses to acknowledge

like “a hero in a book” (47) becomes the guiding obsession of his life.

his failures and waits for another chance to prove himself heroic, believing that
he can show his courage some day.

（２）The cultural background and the essence of Jim’s dream

As Marlow tells us, Jim becomes the virtual ruler of Patusan and earns what
he has sought. Here, Jim appears to have realized his ambition. But his ideal

As I have outlined in the above section, Jim persists in attempting to realize

56

Gender and Culture in Lord Jim

57

his ambition to the end of his life. Jim’s obsession with his dream, however,search of shellfish to stave off starvation. He confronted savages on

seems to be somewhat extraordinary and thus puzzling for modern readers or

tropical shores, quelled mutinies on the high seas, and in a small boat

readers who are not familiar with the cultural background of the period atupon the ocean kept up the hearts of despairing men - always an

which the text was written, because Jim sacrifices his life and betrays theexample of devotion to duty, and as unflinching as a hero in a book.

woman he loves dearly for his dream. Why does Jim persist in his dream? Is he(47)

a romantic youth with a strong personality? Or is there some outside force
which urges him to be obsessed with such a dream? In order to clarify thisJim here forms a visual image of himself, and it is an ideal image of a seaman,

point, in this section I will examine the cultural background of this novel

courageous and faithful to his duty. It should be noted, however, that Jim

because it enables us to better understand Jim’s dream.

imagines adventures in exotic lands as well. Although he becomes a seaman

First, let us see how Jim comes to have his heroic dream. This is shown in thedescription of his background in the opening chapter. The omniscient narrator
describes Jim’s background and the reason why he became a seaman:seeking adventures, Jim’s revery shows that the setting of his heroic dream is
not limited to the world of the ship.
Britain increased its territory in the second half of the nineteenth century.4
With the growth of Britain’s Empire, travel writing and then adventure fiction

The living had belonged to the family for generations; but Jim was one

emerged. The adventure fiction of Marryat, Ballantine, Henty and Haggardof five sons, and when after a course of light holiday literature his

enjoyed popularity when Conrad began his literary career. The fascination withvocation for the sea had declared itself, he was sent at once to a

Empire and its promised adventures was the theme and the impetus for much of‘training-ship for officers of the mercantile marine.’ (47, emphasis

the popular literature of the second half of the nineteenth century. Particularly

added)

in the 1880s and 1890s, the spirit of the age was expressing itself in literaturethat applauded Britain’s imperial ventures.5 Therefore, the 1880s witnessed the

As the phrase “light holiday literature” shows, Jim comes to arrive at his

flowering of a new genre: for adults the imperial romances of Rider Haggard

vocation as a seaman through his boyhood reading of fiction. What started Jim

and for children the imperial adventure stories of G. A. Henty, Dr Gordonon his vocation was the reading of various books on the sea. From thisStables and a host of others. While Henty wrote adventure stories for boys

quotation we can infer that the books Jim read were adventure fiction written

about boys, Haggard wrote mainly for an adult audience about men. By thefor boys. This boys’ adventure fiction inspired Jim’s dream of adventure.

mid-1880s the imperial adventure story was firmly established as a popular

In the above quotation, however, the narrator is not specific about the books

form of light reading, and its influence was tremendous.6 The description of

Jim read. What kind of fiction was it? Jim’s revery on board the training ship

Jim’s revery reveals that the books Jim read in his boyhood were such popularreveals this:fiction for boys and that he was under their strong influence. Dawson remarksthat adventure has been a key form in boyhood culture since the first targeting

He saw himself saving people from sinking ships, cutting away masts

of children as a distinct market-sector from the 1870s, when it was coded as a

in a hurricane, swimming through a surf with a line; or as a lonely

gendered form.7 In the huge commercial expansion of the 1880s and 1890s, a

castaway, barefooted and half naked, walking on uncovered reefs inmass market emerged not only in adventure literature but also in toys and the

58

Gender and Culture in Lord Jim

59paraphernalia of war play.8 Jim’s heroic dream was nurtured in such a cultural

adventure in tropical locations where they prove their manliness. 13 Henty’s

background.

intention was to teach his readers some history and inculcate the correct manly

However, why does Jim desperately try to realize his dream in the real world?

values, the moral code of the English gentleman.14 According to White, the tone

As I mentioned above, adventure fiction developed with the growth of thesustained in all of these works was of a manly chat or a kindly paternal lecture.15

British Empire. Adventure fiction of the Victorian Age purported to be

What Jim has sought in adventures is male greatness popularized throughinformational and often came equipped with the same appurtenances of fact asadventure fiction. Although Jim might not have consciously sought

travel writing. Therefore, it was perceived as being primarily factual, reliablemasculinity, to achieve his heroic dream meant to achieve male greatness in thereporting similar to travel writing. The works themselves often addressed their

Victorian Age. Therefore, Jim ’s heroic dream is a gendered one, and hisreader’s misinformation and sincerely tried to reeducate.

As most writers

gendered consciousness is influenced by popular adventure fiction in which heendorsed images that were already well formed, the reading public had very

absorbed himself. Jim ’ s masculine identity was constructed in the late9

little idea where literary art finished and life began.

11

10

For many Victorianreaders adventure fiction was as real as actual experience, and this perhaps
explains Jim’s persistence in following his dream.

Victorian culture of adventure romance.
As I have shown, adventure fiction was one dominant factor which helped
create manliness in the late Victorian culture. Other factors, however,

Then, next, what is the essence of Jim’s dream nurtured through popular

contributed to the creation of Victorian manliness as well. There were theadventure fiction? In other words, what meaning does Jim find in his heroic

public schools that undertook the education of the middle-class sons during the

dream? The inner description of Jim during watch on board the Patna provides

Victorian Age. During this period the number of public schools grew and aa clue. Jim is described by the omniscient narrator as follows:

unique educational ideal was disseminated throughout the British Empire: theideal of character-training through games.16 It was thought that games built

At such times his thoughts would be full of valorous deeds: he loved

boys’ moral character. Games in the Victorian public schools began to bethese dreams and the success of his imaginary achievements. They

perceived as a way of imparting the value of team spirit and co-operation. 17

were the best parts of life, its secret truth, its hidden reality. They had

And they had a profound purpose: the inculcation of manliness.18 Holt observesa gorgeous virility, the charm of vagueness, they passed before himthat the most commonly used adjective in the public schoolmaster’s vocabulary

with an heroic tread;... (58, emphasis added)

was ‘ manly ’ . 19 Games became increasingly central to the curriculum ofVictorian public schools, and sport played a central role in the achievement of

The omniscient narrator here tells us that Jim’s thought was full of “valorous

proper manliness. Therefore, Victorian public schools were the forcing-housedeeds” and he felt that there was “a gorgeous virility” in them. These words

of a new kind of masculinity. As public schools produced the class thatsuggest that the meaning Jim finds in his heroic dream is manliness ingoverned the nation and the empire,20 enthusiasm for games grew as part of ancourageous deeds. Jim internalizes his dream and it gives meaning to his life.

increasingly explicit stress on imperialism.21

In fact, various heroes in adventure fiction of the Victorian Age show

Within the text itself, there is no specific reference to Jim’s education or

manliness. Haggard’ s novels, for instance, revel in the exploits of virile

public school background. However, there are several indicators which suggest

Henty and Kingston similarly focus on heroes anxious for thrillingthat Jim is an ex-public-school boy. For instance, Jim is a son of a parson (4)heroes.

12

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Gender and Culture in Lord Jim

and he says to Marlow that he is a gentleman, too (139).22 This means that Jim

61

representations of British imperial identity.28 This boys’ dream is contrastive

belongs to the upper-middle-class.23 Also, as Jim is powerfully built (45) andcompared to girls’ dream because girls were all but excluded from the system of

has an excellent physique (47), the scene of his jump over the stockade ofeducation and confined to the home to become an “Angel in the House”.29

Rajah’s compound reminds us of a public-school sportsman.24 In relation to

As we have seen, Marlow’s language reveals that Jim’s dream incited bythis, Dryden points out that Jim’s idiom is that of the boys’ adventure hero: it isadventure fiction is not only his personal dream but also that of other Victorian

the language of Tom Brown or Henty’s Charlie Marryat, the language of theboys’. It was the masculine dream closely connected with the imperial control

Gasiorek goes further inof the British Empire. Not only adventure fiction but also the education system

maintaining that Jim is portrayed as a late nineteenth-century imperial subject ofcontributed to the formation of Jim’s dream. Therefore, seen in the cultural

public-school-educated imperial adventurer.

25

Thus, the Victorian reader

context of the period at which the text was written, it is not surprising that Jim iswould have easily recognized Jim as a public-school-educated boy since public

obsessed with his heroic dream and tries to achieve it in the real world at theschools permeated the entire culture via books and comics.

risk of his life.

the gentlemanly type created in the public schools.

26

27

Therefore, Jim’s dream is not merely his own. It was the dream of other
Victorian middle-class boys’ as well. Marlow’s words about Jim demonstrate（３）The author’s attitude towards Jim’s dreamthis. Listening to Jim’s defeat of Sherif Ali in Patusan, Marlow describes Jim as
Despite his repeated failures in the first half of the novel, Jim becomes thefollows:

virtual ruler of Patusan and achieves his ambition in the Patusan section. HereHe was like a figure set up on a pedestal, to represent in his persistent

Jim is active, trusted, admired, and loved. His success in Patusan, however, isyouth the power, and perhaps the virtues, of races that never grow old,

brief and is represented ambiguously. How does Conrad as the implied authorthat have emerged from the gloom. I don’t know why he should

represent Jim’s masculine dream which is also a contemporary boys’ dream?

always have appeared to me symbolic. (238)

Although various characters provide their opinions of Jim from different angles,
the significant characters who give clues to this question are Brierly and the

Looking at Jim when he has achieved his dream in Patusan, Marlow describes

French lieutenant.

Jim as “like a figure set up on a pedestal” and notes that Jim appeared to him

As Marlow tells us, Captain Brierly saved lives at sea, rescued ships in“ symbolic. ” Marlow ’ s words would be puzzling for readers who are notdistress, and had a gold chronometer presented to him for his exploits by thefamiliar with the cultural background of the Victorian Age. The reason why

underwriters (85). He has never made a mistake, never had an accident, never a

Marlow uses the word “symbolic” is that Jim realizes his dream of heroic

mishap in his life (85). In the light of his past achievement, he exemplifies

adventure in Patusan, and his dream embodies the Victorian boys’ dream. And

dedication to the code of seaman and he embodies the ideal man Jim has sought

Jim’s dream is concerned with British imperialism, because sailors carried

to become. However, Brierly, one of the nautical assessors at the Inquiry,

goods and adventurers conquered new territory. Dawson remarks that during

expresses his irritation to see Jim’s testifying before court, and proposes to

the growth of popular imperialism in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, heroic

Marlow that he and Marlow make Jim flee. Soon after this, Brierly commits

masculinity became fused in an especially potent configuration withsuicide by leaping into the sea from his ship with his gold chronometer hung62

Gender and Culture in Lord Jim

63

under the rail by its chain (88). Why did Brierly commit suicide? In othersuggests that he is a courageous man who has had various experiences in thewords, what drove Brierly to suicide? Brierly apparently could not bear thepast, although he is now old and impassive. Therefore, his opinion is not a mere

seaman’s code and honour to have been disgraced by the Patna affair. But thisabstract generalization but is based on his personal experiences, because heis not enough to explain his suicide. The cause for his suicide remains

continues saying: “Take me, for instance ― I have made my proofs, Eh, bien! I,

concealed from the reader. Marlow, however, speculates that Brierly must have

who am speaking to you, once...” (151). This pause of the French lieutenant

been thinking about himself during the Inquiry (92). Marlow thinks that Brierly

invites us to consider the possibility that he also had the experience of betraying

identified himself with Jim and his self-confidence was shaken by the Patna

his cowardice or temptation ― but his statement on honour suggests that he didaffair. Marlow’s speculation leads the reader to conjecture that Brierly, a

not surrender to that temptation. As he does not proceed with his own personal

successful seaman, fears making such a mistake in the future, because he leaps

anecdote, Marlow is disappointed. However, he resumes as follows:

into the sea leaving his chronometer on board the ship, the symbol of his gloryon the sea and his masculinity. Through Brierly’s disturbance and Marlow’s

Man is born a coward (L’homme est né poltron). It is a difficulty ―interpretation of it, the author tries to convey his view that a man is not so

parbleu! It would be too easy otherwise. But habit ― habit ― necessity

courageous by nature, although the code of a seaman requires him to be so.

― do you see? ― the eye of others ― voilà. One puts up with it. (151)

In addition to the figure of Brierly, the words of the French lieutenant provide
a clue on this point and convey the author’s view more clearly. The Patna was

Truly, the French lieutenant stresses the importance of honour. But at the same

discovered by a French gunboat, and several years after the Patna affair Marlow

time, he tells Marlow that fear is rather a universal human nature, while theencounters him in Sydney and has a chance to talk with him. The Frenchworld requires a man to be courageous. His words well explain Jim ’ slieutenant remarks in relation to Jim’s case as follows:

psychology in the training ship episode and the Patna affair. In both cases Jim
fails to show his courage feeling sudden fear and is paralyzed during theGiven a certain combination of circumstances, fear is sure to come.

emergency. The French lieutenant acknowledges his fear and acts, whereas Jim

Abominable funk (un trac épouvantable). And even for those who do

has taken on the adventure romance idea of the fearless hero and cannot

not believe this truth there is fear all the same ― the fear of themselves.

acknowledge his fear. Thus he is paralyzed. Although there is a limit to his(151)view of Jim, it is significant that the author makes the French lieutenantcomment on fear in human nature. The episode of Brierly’s suicide and theIn that he rescued passengers of the Patna by spending thirty hours on board theFrench lieutenant’s comment on human nature suggest the author’s skepticalstricken and dangerous Patna, the elderly French lieutenant did what Jim should

attitude towards Jim’s heroic dream.

have done but failed to do. As he performed his duty as a seaman, he is an

Of course, we need to distinguish the author ’ s view of Jim from theembodiment of the seaman’s code as well as Brierly. Furthermore, Marlow

characters’. So, next, what is Marlow’s view of Jim, since he is the principal

here perceives that he has a starred scar on the back of his hand (146) and thenarrator as well as a main character in this novel, and Jim is mainly portrayedthree last fingers of his wounded hand are stiff and cannot move independently

through him? Marlow attends the Inquiry because he is interested in the Patnaof each other (150). This physical characteristic of the French lieutenantaffair as a seaman. Through the “wretched cur” incident he becomes acquainted

64Gender and Culture in Lord Jim

65with Jim. After the Inquiry Jim confesses himself to Marlow, and his

pitiless wedding with a shadowy ideal of conduct.” As I have already shown,relationship with Jim begins. Although he feels fatherly affection towards Jim,

the “ideal of conduct” in this case means courageous and masculine deeds

Marlow shows his mixed feelings towards Jim and seems not to be able to give

shown in adventure fiction and recommended in the Victorian public schools.

his final judgement on Jim. In several scenes, however, Marlow expresses his

But after his death Jewel is left in despair and helpless. Marlow uses the wordanxiety about Jim’s aspiration. For instance, as we have seen, when he is“pitiless” for Jim’s choice of death, because Jim betrayed Jewel’s trust in that heintroduced to a post in Patusan through Marlow, Jim is excited at the prospectswore he would never leave her (274). Conrad does not forget to describeof adventures (215). But Marlow is perplexed and a little irritated, because Jim

Jewel’s anger and despair after Jim’s death in detail. As she says to Marlow

does not understand Marlow’s intention. Even after he witnessed Jim’s success“Ah, you are hard, treacherous, without truth, without compassion” (300), Jewelin Patusan, Marlow had some apprehensions for Jim’s success. Although Jim

feels that she was betrayed and abandoned by Jim like her mother.30 As his

proudly shows Patusan to Marlow, Marlow compares Patusan to “a picture

word “pitiless” shows, Marlow can see the meaning of Jim’s choice of death

created by fancy on a canvas” (286) and expresses that the people of Patusan

from Jewel’s side. Because he adds the adjective “shadowy” to this phrase,

exist “as if under an enchanter’s wand” (287). Jim appears to have realized his

Marlow feels his doubt about this masculine standard. A few lines past thisambition in Patusan, but Marlow feels that Jim is somewhat out of place withquotation, Marlow also expresses Jim’s dream as “his own world of shades”

the people of Patusan. Marlow’s words show that he doubts the durability of(352).

Jim’s success in Patusan.

Perhaps Marlow continues to tell Jim’s story seeking the meaning of Jim’s

As we see from this, Marlow’s feeling towards Jim wavers and is ambivalent.

dream. Although Marlow in Heart of Darkness aspired to adventures, Marlow

Marlow sometimes makes a sarcastic remark to Jim who tries to defend himself

in Lord Jim, who has narrated Jim’s story in Eastern ports again and again, is(105). At other times he defends Jim towards Brierly (92). It can be said thatwell aware that Jim’s success in Patusan was ephemeral and translating his

the novel dramatizes Marlow’s dilemma. Therefore, his narration about Jim’s

dream was impossible. Truly, Marlow does not have all knowledge of Jim like

ambition seems inconclusive. Marlow’s language in the last pages of the novel,

the omniscient narrator, and he sometimes confesses limits to his understanding

however, provides us with the key to his view towards Jim’s dream. After heof Jim. Marlow’s final view of Jim, however, accords with the omniscient

has narrated Jim’s last moments in Patusan, Marlow muses on his death as

narrator’s harsh view of Jim in the first four chapters of the novel. Throughfollows:

Marlow’s final recognition, Conrad represents the impossibility of achieving theheroic dream. Unlike other contemporary writers of adventure fiction, Conrad
But we can see him, an obscure conqueror of fame, tearing himself out

dramatizes Jim’s inner conflict between his will and reality and makes us seeof the arms of a jealous love at the sign, at the call of his exalted

that his ambition cannot be realized in the modern world. Conrad creates spaceegoism. He goes away from a living woman to celebrate his pitilesswithin which Jim can realize his dream for a while. But it was destined to be

wedding with a shadowy ideal of conduct. (351)

destroyed.
One of the reasons for this author’s view of Jim’s dream perhaps derives fromIt can be said that Jim could be the hero of adventure fiction by his sacrificial

the fact that the control of the British Empire began to decline at the period thedeath at the end of his life. Marlow, however, expresses Jim’s last act as “histext was written. At the end of the century the British Empire occupied almost a66

Gender and Culture in Lord Jim

67

quarter of the earth’s surface. But British pre-eminence in the world had

Conrad, however, raises the issue of masculinity and expresses his doubts about

The

it by representing Jim’s frustration and tragic death as well. The text shows that

demonstrations of patriotic fervour were the product of deep feelings ofConrad is skeptical about adventure romances and the Victorian masculine ideal

Although adventure fiction was read as real, thethey embody. The author’s view towards Jim’s dream reflects the culturalgap between the fictional world and the real one was becoming wider.

climate of the turn of the century. In fact, Victorian literature is full of images

Jayasena, who discusses colonialism’s relationship to masculinity, maintainsof male deviance. Victorian texts both reveal and reconcile historical anxietiesthat the fin de siècle was a period of a crisis in colonial masculine identity.

about the meaning of manliness.37 It was not only Conrad who was concerned

seriously declined as the second Boer war which began in 1898 revealed.

31

insecurity and uncertainty.

32

33

In addition to this, the view on gender was also changing in turn-of-the-about the issue of masculinity in fin-de-siècle England.

century England. Indeed, it was a period of crisis of gender. The Victorianideal symbolized in the phrase “Angel in the House” required middle-classNotes

women to become a good wife. But women who deviated from this ideal also
appeared at this time. The ideal of middle-class womanhood was challenged by
the so-called “New Woman” and New Woman fiction became popular. In theearly twentieth century a vigorous campaign for woman suffrage was carriedon. Showalter, in her Sexual Anarchy, remarks that the turn of the century wasa period of cultural insecurity, and masculinity was no more natural,transparent, and unproblematic than femininity.34 The fin de siècle marked thecrisis of masculine identity. As he described New-Woman-like characters in his
later novel Chance, Conrad was sensitive to such a change in gender view.35
Andrew Roberts, in his pioneering book on gender Masculinity and Conrad,
maintains that Conrad’s representation of gender needs to be understood in its
historical context.36 In such a transitional period for gender, Conrad attempts topresent that the masculine ideal required of Victorian men is becoming
impossible and thus illusory.

Conclusion
Conrad has often been regarded as a masculine writer who represented aman’s world for men, because he wrote much adventure fiction. Like Jim,
Conrad himself was a youth who was absorbed in adventure fiction andConrad’s fiction is influenced by it. In his apparently masculine fictional world1.

Lord Jim, eds. Cedric Watts and Robert Hampson (Penguin Books, 1987), 48.
Subsequent references to this edition will be made parenthetically in the text.
2. Ibid., 363. Here, Jim is excited at the silver ring Stein gave him as a sort ofcredential. According to the note of Lord Jim, the talismanic ring is prominent inlegends and folktales, and Jim could have encountered it not only in his ‘lightholiday literature’ but also in the ‘half-crown complete Shakespeare’ that hereads.
3. Ex. J. Hiillis Miller, Fiction and Repetition: Seven English Novels (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Harvard UP, 1982), 445; John A. McClure, Kipling and Conrad:
The Colonial Fiction (Harvard UP, 1981), 126-9; Ian Watt, Conrad in the
Nineteenth Century (Berkeley, Los Angels: University of California Press, 1979),
341-3; Benita Parry, Conrad and Imperialism: Ideological Boundaries andVisionary Frontiers (Macmillan, 1987), 95-6.
4. Linda Dryden, Joseph Conrad and the Imperial Romance (Macmillan 2000), 2.
5. Andrea White, Joseph Conrad and the Adventure Tradition: Constructing and
Deconstructing the Imperial Subject (Cambridge UP, 1993), 61.
6. C. C. Eldridge, The Imperial Experience: From Carlyle to Forster (Macmillan,
1996), 56-7.
7. Graham Dawson, Soldier Heroes: British Adventure, Empire and the Imagining of
Masculinities (London & New York: Routledge, 1994), 235.
8. Ibid., 235.
9. White, 42.
10. Ibid., 52.
11. Eldridge, 57.
12. Dryden, 3.
13. Ibid., 4.
14. Eldridge, 69.

68

15. White, 57.
16. J. A. Mangan, The Games Ethic and Imperialism: Aspects of the Diffusion of an
Ideal (London: Frank Cass, 2003), 42.
17. Richard Holt, Sport and British: A Modern History (Oxford UP, 1989), 80.
18. Mangan, 17-8.
19. Holt, 89.
20. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia, ed. Sally Mitchell (New York & London:
Garland Publishing, 1988), 652.
21. David Alderson, Man Sex Fine: Religion, Manliness and Imperialism inNineteenth-Century British Culture (Manchester UP, 1998), 59.
22. Cf. Lord Jim, 50, 92, 129, 182, 220, 285. The omniscient narrator and othercharacters use the word “gentleman” to Jim.
23. John Batchelor, Lord Jim (London: Unwin Hyman Ltd., 1988), 87.
24. Cf. Lord Jim, 72, 177, 273. Jim is also described as “broad-shouldered,” “wellproportioned bulk,” and “stalwart shoulder.”25. Dryden, 152-3; Andrzej Gasiorek, “‘To Season with a Pinch of Romance’: Ethics
and Politics in Lord Jim”, 92-3, in The Conradian: Conrad and Theory, eds.
Andrew Gibson and Robert Hampson (Amsterdom - Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1996).
26. Gasiorek, 92.
27. Mitchell, 652.
28. Dawson, 1.
29. Sean Purchase, Key Concepts in Victorian Literature (Macmillan, 2006), 54.
30. Cf. Padmini Mongia, “‘Ghosts and Gothic’: Spectral Women and ColonizedSpaces in Lord Jim ” in Conrad and Gender, ed. Andrew Michael Roberts(Amsterdom, Atlanta: Rodopi, 1993).
31. Nalin Jayasena, Contested Masculinities: Crises in Colonial Male Identity from
Joseph Conrad to Satyajit Ray (New York & London: Routledge, 2007), 68.
32. Eldridge, 4.
33. Jayasena, 2.
34. Elaine Showalter, Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siècle(Penguin Books, 1990), 8.
35. Ellen Burton Harrington, “The Female Offender, the New Woman, and Winnie
Verloc in The Secret Agent” in The Conradian, eds. Allan H. Simmons and J. H.
Stape (Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, 2007), Vol. 32, No. 1.
36. Andrew Michael Roberts, Conrad and Masculinity (Macmillan, 2000), 2.
37. Cf. Andrew Dowling, Manliness and the Male Novelist in Victorian Literature(Aldershoot: Ashgate, 2001).

69

書

評

John Batchelor, Lady Trevelyan and the Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood (London: Chatto & Windus, 2006)
山口 惠里子ウィリアム・ベル・スコットが描いたポーリン・トレヴェリアンの肖像画がある。著者ジョン・バッチェラーがいうように、鼻は少し上を向き、髪はきちんとまとめられている。小柄な彼女は、薄茶色の瞳をし、額がかすかに突き出ていた。愛する友人たちには輝くような笑顔を見せたという。
この女性の名前は、あまり知られていないかもしれない。1879 年に彼女の詩を集めた選集が出版されているが、彼女は詩人として名を残したわけでもない。なぜその彼女の伝記が著されたのだろう。
ひとつには、彼女が親交を結んだ芸術家、作家、学者たちとの日々のやりとりが、ヴィクトリア朝社会と文化の営みをそのまま映しだし、美術界や文学界の動向、科学と宗教の緊張関係、ダーウィンの著作の波紋まで伝えているという点がある。ポーリンは「知り合った人、耳にした本、はじめて見た芸術作品、よく知らない訪問地について、即座にすべてを知りた
いと願った」という(xi)。本書にはじつに多くの友人、しかも各界をリードする人びとが登場し、彼らはポーリンを通して新たな側面を見せる。ポーリンとの関係では、彼らは等身大の姿で現れ、率直な言葉を交わすのだ。
ポーリンが夫のウォルターと住んだノーサンバランドのウォリントンは、
ロンドンから遠く離れているにもかかわらず、人びとが集い、心を癒す場となった。ポーリンはそうした場を用意するために、邸宅を改築し装飾した。本書は、この装飾をヴィクトリア朝美術史に位置づける試みでもある。
友人たちとの親交がポーリンの日常の「前景」を賑わしたとすれば、1852
年に始められた装飾は彼女の人生の「背景」だった (127)。本書は、この前景と背景を行き来しつつ、その往来に近代のうごめきを折り込みながら、