Jim as a Tragic Character: A Psychoanalytic Study of Conrad’s Lord Jim

Abstract

The present thesis explores Joseph Conrad’s best-known novel Lord Jim as a text of analysis to explore its themes that are the ambiguous nature of good and evil, the importance and fragility of ideals, the isolation of the individual, and the threat of disaster and failure that looms behind the calm surface of every day. It focuses on the psychological process of the protagonist, Jim, by employing Freud’ and Lacan's psychoanalysis approach.The major concern of this study is how anxiety is reflected in the major character’s personality.Thus, Conrad describes human psychological problem which appears in his main character Jim.Therefore, with the theories of characterization, conflict, and redemption as well as psychological and psychoanalytical theories, the writer tries to analyze the process of Jim's search for recognition to gain his honor but he is entangled between desire and lack throughout his life.