Lord Jim · Chapter
XXV explained
Jim recounts his dramatic escape from Rajah Allang's stockade to Marlow, describing his two leaps over the palisade and his flight through the mud.
What happens
Jim recounts his dramatic escape from Rajah Allang's stockade to Marlow, describing his two leaps over the palisade and his flight through the mud. He arrives at Doramin's compound, produces Stein's ring, and is taken in by Doramin and his wife, who treat him like a son. The chapter also details the political turmoil in Patusan between the Rajah, the Bugis settlers, and Sherif Ali.
Themes in this chapter
Isolation and Belonging
Jim feels utterly alone and hunted after his escape, but finds belonging and acceptance with Doramin's community.
The Nature of Courage and Cowardice
Jim's desperate, instinctive actions during his escape contrast with his earlier indecision, highlighting a different kind of courage.
Characters to notice
- Jim
Narrates his escape from the Rajah's stockade, his leaps, and his arrival at Doramin's, where he is received as a son.
- Marlow
The listener to Jim's story, recounting the events to the reader.
- Doramin
The Bugis chief who receives Jim after his escape, restrains his people, and provides shelter.
- Tunku Allang
The Rajah of Patusan, who is indecisive and fearful after Jim's arrival, holding councils and interrogating Jim.
- Sherif Ali
Mentioned as a wild partisan threatening Patusan, with some Bugis youths advocating to call him in against the Rajah.
Key passages
“He only knew that the position was intolerable. He strolled aimlessly beyond a sort of ramshackle little granary on posts, and his eyes fell on the broken stakes of the palisade; and then—he says—at once, without any mental process as it were, without any stir of emotion, he set about his escape as if executing a plan matured for a month.”
Jim felt his situation was unbearable and, upon noticing the broken stakes, acted on pure instinct to escape, as though he had been planning it for a long time.
Jim's impulsive escape from the stockade.
“He made efforts, tremendous sobbing, gasping efforts, efforts that seemed to burst his eyeballs in their sockets and make him blind, and culminating into one mighty supreme effort in the darkness to crack the earth asunder, to throw it off his limbs—and he felt himself creeping feebly up the bank.”
Jim struggled desperately in the mud, using all his strength to pull himself onto solid ground.
Jim's physical struggle to escape the mudbank.
“The old woman,' he said softly, 'made a to-do over me as if I had been her own son. They put me into an immense bed—her state bed—and she ran in and out wiping her eyes to give me pats on”
Doramin's wife treated Jim with great care and affection, as if he were her own child, putting him in her own bed and fussing over him.
Jim's reception by Doramin's family.