ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the ambivalent elaboration of the problem of reliability in Lord Jim interrogates this principle through the crucial use of the figure of the English gentleman as British imperialism had constructed it to serve specific political objectives in the second half of the nineteenth century. Joseph Conrad’s use of imperialist discourse is particularly relevant to Lord Jim, as the second part of the novel fully engages with the language of imperial persuasion, having previously set the stage for a highly problematic narration that makes trust on Jim and on the English gentleman from a political perspective a fundamental yet unsolvable problem. Conrad’s criticism of the English gentleman in Lord Jim, and of Kurtz as a colonial officer “gone native” in Heart of Darkness, has prompted critics to label Conrad an anti-imperialist. Lord Jim presents an exalted image of a deflated colonial man.
