The “Fabulous Value of the Bargain”: Conspiracy and Performance in Lord Jim

Abstract

This paper will discuss conspiracy and performance in Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim. It argues that Patusan provides Jim with “the fabulous value of the bargain” which enables him to rehabilitate through political and territorial conquest. Moreover, this paper will show that Jim’s case provides Marlow and the privileged man with an_x000D_ opportunity to conspiratorially reconfigure their metropolitan vision. Section One will discuss the conspiracies among Jim, Brown, the Patusan_x000D_ inhabitants. While “the white men” conspiratorially perform their stereotypical_x000D_ identity as the mighty “lord,” the Patusan people also counter-perform—they perform their docile identity in order to defeat “the white men”. Section Two will then focus on the conspiracy between Marlow and the privileged man. It will show that it is through the dissemination of Jim’s story that Marlow re-evaluates Jim’s overseas_x000D_ conquest and thus endorses Jim’s “heroic” role.