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Lucky Jim:
While Jim Dixon is known for going through the motions and getting through life by the skin of his teeth, he is a perpetually unhappy man that does not know how to please himself, only other people. Although he has been deemed a “scholarship” boy and has grown up in the education system, he has not succeeded in learning how to live life properly- he has a job which he functions at (although constantly wonders if he’ll be fired), a woman that he casually dates, but does not truly love, and frequents the pub too often. Jim relies on luck rather than skill, throughout most of the novel. It is only through the use of one person, Christine Callaghan, in which he learns how to be true to himself and find his passions, abandoning his laconic lifestyle which he relies so heavily on.
Jim is a professor at the local University, a job in which he does willingly but secretly detests, doing things such as writing his thesis, just to pretend he is knowledgeable in the subject matter he teaches, (which is Medieval Literature). In his encounters with a student, Michie, and Michie’s incessant questioning about one of Jim’s future classes, it is increasingly obvious Jim’s passions do not lie within the teaching sphere, and that he is incredibly unhappy but unwilling to change.
Jim is socially awkward, proving that, on numerous occasions, has no idea how to function in a group. This is shown cleverly through the use of Professor Welsch and the excursion at his house, where Jim finds himself compulsively lying, stating that he “could read music after a fashion,” (38), while really cannot read music at all, and once again, uses luck an excuse in order to avoid the dire consequences that can come from not telling the truth. He is miserable the whole time at the Welch’s, and uses ‘the bottle’ as a chance to escape. Rather than finding a rational way of getting out, he[d] “taken a bottle of port from among the sherry, beer, and cider which filled half a shelf inside.” (59), and that “the bottle had been about three-quarters full when he started, and was three quarters empty when he stopped.” (59). The way Jim drinks his alcohol represents that of the way he lives his life, stating “some of the liquor coursed refreshingly down his chin and under his shirt collar.” (59). Jim is a sloppy man, who is content with going through the motions and displays a lack of common knowledge in his dealings with what is appropriate or not.
Jim’s love life is no different from that of his other life- he finds the comfort and stability of staying with Margaret, someone he does not love but feels obliged to take care of, since Margaret herself is not stable. He finds himself being bossed around by her, and she does nothing but expect things from him, for example, stating, “Buy me a beer. The night is young.” (20), in which he does. Margaret is a manipulative person, and like Jim, seemingly depressed. However, she exaggerates her emotions to make him feel sorry for her, and confuses Jim in the process as to what her emotions are. When Jim describes Margaret as having a breakdown, he doesn’t know “whether she was fainting, or having a fit of hysterics, or simply breaking down and crying.” (159.) This in itself seems to be normal, but when Margaret begins having “series of high-pitched, inward screams which alternat[ed] with deep moans,” (159), he is flummoxed and begins to question why he is with her, stating an obvious change within him.
When Jim is introduced to Christine, he is awed by her looks, and later, her personality. She represents a youthfulness he has not experienced with Margaret, and encourages him to be adventurous, something Jim is oblivious to. When she finds out about the bed sheet incident, she immediately starts devising a plan, wanting to help him out of his predicament, stating they “can put the blanket that’s only scorched on top; it’ll probably be all right on the side that’s underneath now,” (72), and reassuring Jim, “they probably won’t connect it with smoking.” (72). She seems eager to teach him how to live vicariously, and is one of the only people he opens up with. In turn, she sees him and who he is more than any other character in the novel. The first time we Jim laugh is with Christine, and he laughs “not only because he was amused but because he felt grateful to her for her laughter.” (73). Her persona is genuine and not forced, like Margaret’s is.
Christine changes the way Jim feels about his life, as he feels an excitement and unpredictability that he has never felt before. He now finds it an adventure to call up her boyfriend, Bertrand, and pretend to be a reporter from the “Evening Post (98), in order to gain more information from him. Rather than feel guilty and anxious about this prank, he laughs and thinks “what a story for Beesley and Atkinson this was going to make.” (100)
tired
okay
gloomy
cheerful
contemplative
anxious