How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #4
"To break up the superstition and worship of legality should be our aim. Nothing would please me more than to see Inspector Heat and his likes take to shooting us down in broad daylight with the approval of the public. Half our battle would be won then: the disintegration of the old morality would have set in in its very temple. That is what you ought to aim at." (4.89).
In speaking to Ossipon, the Professor reveals what is probably the biggest ace up his sleeve. When Ossipon tells the Professor that a cop could probably shoot him without giving him time to set off his bomb, the Professor says that he wishes this would happen, because then the police would no longer be working with a false idea of law and order. They would embrace anarchy and just start shooting anyone they didn't like the look of. In this case, the Professor character could easily be the inspiration for Christopher Nolan's Joker.
Quote #5
Chief Inspector Heat […] stepped out with the purposeful briskness of a man disregarding indeed the inclemencies of the weather, but conscious of having an authorized mission on this earth and the moral support of his kind. All the habitants of the immense town, the population of the whole country, and even the teeming millions struggling upon the planet, were with him—down to the very thieves and mendicants. (5.58)
Here, Heat is confident that the majority of society is on his side. Most people like the fact that life is governed by a clear set of rules, and Heat enjoys working with the support of the majority. Even the thieves, it seems, are with him when it comes to dealing with nuts like the Professor. Thieves make sense because the law has clear rules for dealing with them. They want what everyone else wants; they just choose unconventional ways of getting it. The Professor, on the other hand, can't be bought off with money or goods. He actually seems quite happy about being poor. What he wants is to know that he can't be touched.
Quote #6
Catching thieves was another matter altogether. It had that quality of seriousness belonging to every form of open sport where the best man wins under perfectly comprehensible rules. There were no rules for dealing with anarchists. And that was distasteful to the Chief Inspector. (5.61)
Chief Inspector Heat has no problem with criminals. After all, he wouldn't have a job without them. And the thing he loves most about his job is the thrill of the hunt, as long as the hunt takes place inside a really clear set of rules (don't try talking if you ever play Pictionary with him). People like the Professor, though, threaten Heat's whole world because they don't really make sense to him. There are no rules for dealing with the Professor, because the Professor doesn't acknowledge the law. Here, Conrad shows us that the ideals of justice and order are much more fragile than we might think.