%0 Journal Article
%T Emotions versus Self-knowledge in Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim and The Shadow-Line
%A Kowol, Agata
%J Yearbook of Conrad Studies
%V 2016
%R 10.4467/20843941YC.16.003.6849
%N Vol. 11
%P 59-66
%K Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, The Shadow-Line, emotions, self-knowledge, self-delusion, imagination.
%@ 1899-3028
%D 2017
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/yearbook-of-conrad-studies/article/emotions-versus-self-knowledge-in-joseph-conrads-lord-jim-and-the-shadow-line
%X The aim of this paper is to examine the impact that emotions exert on the process of acquisition of self-knowledge in the case of the main protagonists of Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim and his The Shadow-Line. What is characteristic of both is that the continuity of their safe established lives is disrupted by their sudden and impulsive actions, which determine their fates and consciousnesses: Jim’s fatal jump from the Patna, and a seemingly unmotivated resignation from a satisfactory job of the young Captain, respectively. Both actions seem to have been a result of the characters’ excessive self-centredeness, their mood swings, overheated imagination, self-delusion and undervalued self-estimation, which are typical of youth, a period marked by disproportionate emotionality and a necessity to take decisions which will shape one’s future life. In Conrad’s world, pursuit of self-knowledge assumes the proportions of a moral imperative of every human being. The cases of Jim and the young Captain are considered against the backdrop of Conrad’s epistemological scepticism and heroic ethics.