Lord Jim · Character

Gentleman Brown

A dying pirate and self-styled gentleman whose arrival on Patusan's shores forces Jim to confront the very question he fled civilization to escape.

supporting

Also known as Brown, the dying Brown, the besieged Brown, All Brown, Captain Brown

First appearance: XXXVIII

As a supporting figure in Lord Jim, Gentleman Brown is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.

Dying in Bangkok, he gloats over having destroyed Jim, calling him a 'hollow sham.'

In the storyXXXVIIOpen this moment free

See Gentleman Brown in XXXVII Book page

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Brown is a marauder worn thin by ill-luck, starvation, and the recklessness of a man who no longer cares where he runs. He possesses a satanic gift for finding the weakest spot in his victims, and in Jim he detects a man who cannot be won over by truckling but might be broken by a mirror held to his own past. Their conversation across the creek becomes a duel in which Brown's brusque despairing frankness—asking whether Jim too once understood that saving one's life meant not caring who else went—threatens to unravel everything Jim has built.

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See Gentleman Brown in XXXVIII

Character Web

18 connections

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Relationship types

Other

Character groups

Patusan Conflict Catalysts
Protagonist

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Narrative arc

Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Falling action.

Setup
Escalation
Breaking point
Aftermath
Closing

In this passage, the emotional and psychological peak occurs when the narrator confronts Jewel’s raw, irration…

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In the story

Gentleman Brown appears across 9 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.

Chapter III
Not present in this chapter.
XXXVII
Dying in Bangkok, he gloats over having destroyed Jim, calling him a 'hollow sham.'
XXXVIII
A latter-day buccaneer, desperate and ruthless, who steals a schooner and forces his way into Patusan.
XXXIX
Besieged on the hill; receives Cornelius's overture and learns of Patusan's internal divisions, seeing new possibilities.
XL
Plans treachery against Jim, orders a deadly long-range shot to terrorize the town, and listens to Cornelius's advice to kill Jim.
XLI
Relates his meeting with Jim, expressing hatred and contempt for Jim's composure and authority.
XLII
Manipulates Jim by referencing their shared guilt and desperation, boasts of making Jim wince, and secures a promise of safe passage.
Chapter XLIII
Brown receives Jim's note granting safe passage, listens to Cornelius's offer of a secret route, and departs with his men into the fog, showing his ruthless pragmatism.
XLIV
Leads the ambush on the Bugis camp, killing Dain Waris, and later vanishes.

Chapter companion notes

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See Gentleman Brown in XXXVIII

See Gentleman Brown in XXXVII