# Mr. Burns — The Shadow Line character guide

> Mr. Burns in The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Burns, poor Burns

**First appearance:** 0005-i

## Snapshot

The chief mate who has sailed with the ship's previous captain and survived him, Burns carries a fever, a grudge, and a theory about the medicine chest that nobody wants to believe.

## Who they are

As chief mate, Burns is the narrator's senior subordinate and the only man aboard who knew the ship under her former master, a man he openly says he defied and cowed. His distinctive tension is that his body is collapsing even as his suspicions sharpen — he lies in his bunk with broomstick legs, insisting the quinine was emptied and refilled as a sly vengeance. His certainty, voiced in a hollow voice between gasps, plants the seed of the narrator's remorse and gives the voyage its first real dread.

## Relationships

### [Frenchy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_shadow_line_se/characters/frenchy)

_professional_

Frenchy and Mr. Burns have a strained professional relationship, with Frenchy often caught in the tension caused by Mr. Burns's erratic behavior.

### [The Doctor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_shadow_line_se/characters/the_doctor)

_rivalry_

Mr. Burns and the doctor are antagonists, with the doctor opposing Burns's manipulative influence over the narrator and crew.

### [Chief Steward](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_shadow_line_se/characters/chief_steward)

_professional_

The chief steward and Mr. Burns have a single, likely tense professional encounter due to Burns's difficult nature.

### [Frenchy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_shadow_line_se/characters/frenchy)

_professional_

Frenchy and Mr. Burns have a strained professional relationship, with Frenchy often caught in the tension caused by Mr. Burns's erratic behavior.

### [Frenchy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_shadow_line_se/characters/frenchy)

_professional_

Frenchy and Mr. Burns have a strained professional relationship, with Frenchy often caught in the tension caused by Mr. Burns's erratic behavior.

## In the story

### [Author's Note](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_shadow_line_se/chapters/author-s-note)

Mentioned as a character whose moral being receives a severe shock, turning into a superstitious fancy compounded of fear and animosity.

### [The Shadow Line](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_shadow_line_se/chapters/the-shadow-line)

The chief mate who falls ill, becomes delirious during the calm, and emerges on deck during the squall.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_shadow_line_se/chapters/iii)

The chief mate, severely ill and delirious, rambling about the late captain's ghostly presence.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_shadow_line_se/chapters/iv)

Confined to his bed, slowly recovering but still fixated on the delusion that the late captain's ghost is causing their bad luck and lack of wind.

### [The Shadow of Annihilation](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_shadow_line_se/chapters/v)

Mentioned as lying in his cabin, still determined, and asking for his door to be shut.

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_shadow_line_se/chapters/vi)

Recovers visibly in the breeze, steers with bony hands, mutters about the late captain, and laughs defiantly.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_shadow_line_se/characters/mr_burns
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_shadow_line_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_shadow_line_se/characters