Lecture 5: Call Me Ishmael—Introducing a Character
z Conrad’s introduction is also economical. Rather than lingering over
details, it merely suggests physical attributes that evoke awkwardness—
the slight stoop of the shoulders; the deep, loud voice—and adds a few
conjectures about Jim’s character—that his manner was assertive but
not aggressive. Jim is shown to us here, not told; he is evoked.z 1RWLFHWKDWDOWKRXJKWKLVGHVFULSWLRQLVGHWDLOHGDQGVSHFL¿FLW¶VQRWWLHG
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character being introduced to us from the outside in: We’re seeing how
he appears to other people, not how he seems to himself.A Character in Action
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from the book /LJKW by Eva Figes:The sky was still dark when he opened his eyes and saw
it through the uncurtained window. He was upright within
seconds, out of the bed and had opened the window to study
the signs. It looked good to him, the dark just beginning to fade
slightly, midnight blueblack growing grey and misty, through
which he could make out the last light of a dying star. It looked
good to him, a calm pre-dawn hush without a breath of wind,
and not a shadow of cloud in the high clear sky. He took a deep
breath of air, heavy with night scents and dew on earth and
foliage. His appetite for the day thoroughly aroused, his elated
mood turned to energy, and he was into his dressing room, into
the cold bath which set his skin tingling, humming an unknown
tune under his breath. (pp. 1–2)z This opening is dynamic in a way that the opening of /RUG-LP is not.
The character is in action, with all his senses awake, right from the
¿UVWVHQWHQFH$QGXQOLNHWKHRSHQLQJRI/RUG-LP, where we can only
surmise what Jim is thinking from his appearance, Figes gives us direct
access to the character’s thoughts. Although we don’t know it yet, this is
the French artist Claude Monet, and he’s just decided that this will be a
good day to paint.