you should put \”Why are we tormenting that young chap?\” down on your paper first. Then the next part is what I call the translation (this is on sample paper): \”When Brierly says \”tormenting,\” this shows his dismay at Jim\’s situation and his part in Jim\’s suffering.\” Then you should describe Brierly\’s story, what his way of being a captain is, and what his view of Jim\’s situation is including the issue of Jim\’s being one of us. We\’re not going to quote any passage other than your \”tormenting\” one but simply paraphrase those passages you want to include in your paper. Brierly\’s view of honor and his view of the Patna\’s crew are also important issues that you can refer to in your paper. You can use the conversations between Marlow and Jones, again in paraphrase, to fill out some of these issues. For the subconscious, I would not hypothesize about his feeling of guilt relative to the boat inspection because he seems to take everything so seriously that it is unlikely that he would have short-changed an inspection. What we want to conclude our conscious discussion with is a consideration of why he says \”tormenting.\” This obviously happens before his suicide, but having described the suicide, you can go back and describe how you think this comment bears on Brierly\’s decision to commit suicide. For the subconscious I would focus on the idea of fear. Consciously he is worried about always doing the right thing which is aggravated by Jim\’s failure. Subconsciously he is worried about the consequences of failing. He could not control his imagination any more than Jim could. Jim imagined the emergency; Brierly imagined the potential for dishonor and gave in.
In the text\’s view we\’re not asking about the suicide itself. We\’re asking about the portrait of Brierly that you have given as a lead-in to the idea of \”tormenting.\” The good part probably has to do with honor. The bad part has to do with his overdoing the importance of honor.
