Chapter 26

Summary

Doramin is an impressive character with proud, intent eyes. He is also a fat man who is unable to walk alone. Two men are required to assist him when he wants to raise or lower himself. His wife, on the other hand, is a thin, delicate woman who fusses over her husband. She serves as his adviser. Their only son, Dain Waris, is twenty-five, and Doramin wants to insure a safe place for him after his death. Dain Waris becomes Jim's best friend, and the two respect each other greatly.

Doramin sought Jim's help in fighting Raja Allang and Sherif Ali. Jim accepted the challenge, and establishing peace on the island became his purpose for existence. He knew that he would have to do something dramatic in order to beat the enemy and suggested openly attacking Sherif Ali. Dain Waris was the first to accept Jim's plan; soon all of Doramin's people became his allies, offering assistance.

Doramin and his family are developed in this chapter. Dain Waris, who later becomes a key figure in the novel, is introduced for the first time. Conrad is careful to explain that Dain Waris and Jim are best friends. In fact, Dain Waris is the first to side with Jim on his plan to attach Sherif Ali and he also saves Jim's life.

This chapter gives hints of the impending tragedy that is to occur later in the novel. Conrad emphasizes Doramin's two pistols, which Stein had given him. These pistols will be used to kill Jim. Conrad also emphasizes the close relationship between Doramin and his son Dain Waris. It is because of his son that Doramin wants Jim to help in making Patusan a peaceful island. When Dain Waris is killed, Conrad has prepared the reader for the chief turning against Jim.

In his description of Jim's swift rise to the top of the Malay society, Conrad shows his ethnocentrism. Jim's whiteness is often emphasized in his description. He is the great white hope of European fantasy. The people are chaotic and warring before he arrives and upon his arrival, they become peaceful and orderly. Since Britain was still heavily invested in imperialism at the time Conrad wrote, he made imperialism, with its basis in white supremacy, seem altruistic.

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