How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #7
With his big florid face held between his hands he continued to stare hard, while the dingy little man in spectacles coolly took a drink of beer and stood the glass mug back on the table. His flat, large ears departed widely from the sides of his skull, which looked frail enough for Ossipon to crush between his thumb and forefinger. (4.6)
Arguably, the professor is the most dangerous and powerful man in this novel, but he's also the scrawniest. He's really small, and Conrad might actually suggest that his bomb is his way of compensating for the fact that he's a tiny guy who no one has ever paid much attention to. The Professors tininess seems to symbolize the fact that no matter what fantasies he might have about himself, he'll always be a little dude.
Quote #8
Vast in bulk and stature, with a long white face, which, broadened at the base by a big double chin, appeared egg-shaped in the fringe of greyish whisker, the great personage seemed an expanding man […] From the head, set upward on a thick neck, the eyes, with puffy lower lids, stared with a haughty droop on each side of a hooked, aggressive nose […] (7.8)
Like Michaelis, Sir Ethelred is totally huge. He also sounds like a cartoonishly snooty British man, especially with his hooked nose. Here, Conrad is definitely spoofing the upper crust of London, but his description of Ethelred's vast body is also connected to the fatigue that always hangs over this guy. Ethelred may have a very good reason for being so tired all the time, but his tiredness makes him avoid looking into the details of life, which might be bad for the people of England. In the end, Ethelred's physical appearance is almost exactly what you'd expect from Conrad, who tends to give his flattest characters the worst physical descriptions.
Quote #9
She cast a swift glance at the boy, like a young man, by her side. She saw him amiable, attractive, affectionate and only a little, a very little peculiar. And she could not see him otherwise […] (8.122)
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or something like that. When Comrade Ossipon looks at Stevie, he sees a whole list of "scientific" characteristics that tell him Stevie is a degenerate, or less evolved than other human beings. When Winnie looks at Stevie, though, she sees only her brother, and even thinks he's an attractive young man. This passage actually makes you feel pretty good about the bond between Winnie and Stevie, which just makes it that much harder when you find out that Stevie's blown himself to pieces.