Lord Jim

by

Joseph Conrad

The Privileged Reader Character Analysis

The privileged reader is an unnamed character who is at the dinner party where Marlow tells Jim’s story. After the story, he comes up to Marlow and makes racist comments about how Jim sold his soul to brutes (nonwhite people). Marlow responds by sending the man a packet containing letters that tell the end of Jim’s story, raising questions about why the privileged reader is the only character in the book who gets to hear the end of Jim’s story.

The Privileged Reader Quotes in Lord Jim

The Lord Jim quotes below are all either spoken by The Privileged Reader or refer to The Privileged Reader. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Fantasy vs. Reality Theme Icon
).
Chapter 36 Quotes

With these words Marlow had ended his narrative, and his audience had broken up forthwith, under his abstract, pensive gaze. Men drifted off the verandah in pairs or alone without loss of time, without offering a remark, as if the last image of that incomplete story, its incompleteness itself, and the very tone of the speaker, had made discussion in vain and comment impossible. Each of them seemed to carry away his own impression, to carry it away with him like a secret; but there was only one man of all these listeners who was ever to hear the last word of the story. It came to him at home, more than two years later, and it came contained in a thick packet addressed in Marlow’s upright and angular handwriting.

Related Characters: Jim, Marlow, The Privileged Reader
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 256
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 44 Quotes

‘Thus Brown balanced his account with the evil fortune. Notice that even in this awful outbreak there is a superiority as of a man who carries right—the abstract thing—within the envelope of his common desires. It was not a vulgar and treacherous massacre; it was a lesson, a retribution—a demonstration of some obscure and awful attribute of our nature which, I am afraid, is not so very far under the surface as we like to think.’

Related Characters: Marlow (speaker), Jim, Doramin, Dain Waris, Gentleman Brown, The Privileged Reader
Related Symbols: Patusan
Page Number: 309
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 45 Quotes

‘Who knows? He is gone, inscrutable at heart, and the poor girl is leading a sort of soundless, inert life in Stein’s house. Stein has aged greatly of late. He feels it himself, and says often that he is “preparing to leave all this; preparing to leave . . .” while he waves his hand sadly at his butterflies.’

September 1899—July 1900.

Related Characters: Marlow (speaker), Jim, Doramin, Dain Waris, Stein, Gentleman Brown, Jewel, The Privileged Reader
Related Symbols: Patusan, Butterflies, The Patna
Page Number: 318
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Privileged Reader Quotes in Lord Jim

The Lord Jim quotes below are all either spoken by The Privileged Reader or refer to The Privileged Reader. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Fantasy vs. Reality Theme Icon
).
Chapter 36 Quotes

With these words Marlow had ended his narrative, and his audience had broken up forthwith, under his abstract, pensive gaze. Men drifted off the verandah in pairs or alone without loss of time, without offering a remark, as if the last image of that incomplete story, its incompleteness itself, and the very tone of the speaker, had made discussion in vain and comment impossible. Each of them seemed to carry away his own impression, to carry it away with him like a secret; but there was only one man of all these listeners who was ever to hear the last word of the story. It came to him at home, more than two years later, and it came contained in a thick packet addressed in Marlow’s upright and angular handwriting.

Related Characters: Jim, Marlow, The Privileged Reader
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 256
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 44 Quotes

‘Thus Brown balanced his account with the evil fortune. Notice that even in this awful outbreak there is a superiority as of a man who carries right—the abstract thing—within the envelope of his common desires. It was not a vulgar and treacherous massacre; it was a lesson, a retribution—a demonstration of some obscure and awful attribute of our nature which, I am afraid, is not so very far under the surface as we like to think.’

Related Characters: Marlow (speaker), Jim, Doramin, Dain Waris, Gentleman Brown, The Privileged Reader
Related Symbols: Patusan
Page Number: 309
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 45 Quotes

‘Who knows? He is gone, inscrutable at heart, and the poor girl is leading a sort of soundless, inert life in Stein’s house. Stein has aged greatly of late. He feels it himself, and says often that he is “preparing to leave all this; preparing to leave . . .” while he waves his hand sadly at his butterflies.’

September 1899—July 1900.

Related Characters: Marlow (speaker), Jim, Doramin, Dain Waris, Stein, Gentleman Brown, Jewel, The Privileged Reader
Related Symbols: Patusan, Butterflies, The Patna
Page Number: 318
Explanation and Analysis: