How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #7
That made the groundless fame of his condemnation; the fame of his release was made for him on no better grounds by people who wished to exploit the sentimental aspect of his imprisonment either for purposes of their own or for no intelligible purpose. (6.3)
Michaelis went to jail unjustly, but that's not the reason he got released. He was released because some people in really influential positions decided to make him into a symbol for whatever the heck they believed in. Others helped get him out for reasons they don't even understand. This passage shows just how much the personal whims of rich people influence the lives of working-class people like Michaelis. Again, Conrad pokes fun and even shows some anger at the upper classes, who treat people like Michaelis as pieces on a Monopoly board more than human beings. Then again, it'll probably take you longer to finish a game of Monopoly than it will to finish this novel.
Quote #8
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, nobly salient in the vast pale circumference of the face. A shiny silk hat and a pair of worn gloves lying ready at the end of a long table looked expanded, too, enormous. (7.8)
Apart from Karl Yundt, Sir Ethelred is probably the most ungenerously described character in this novel (at least in terms of physical appearance). Conrad seems to be at his happiest as a writer when he writes about how fat Sir Ethelred is. As is often the case, Conrad focuses more on a dude's appearance when he has doesn't have a lot to say about the guy's inner thoughts. Sir Ethelred is an entitled, fat, rich man in the same way that water is wet. He's just there, and Conrad leaves it to us to decide whether we should laugh at him.
Quote #9
Not a murmur nor even a movement hinted at interruption. The great Personage might have been the statue of one of his own princely ancestors stripped of a Crusaders war harness, and put into an ill-fitting frock coat. (7.23)
Sir Ethelred is a really influential man, not because he's worked his way up in the world, but because some ancestor of his did a great thing in some battle hundreds of years ago. Sir Ethelred's sense of entitlement probably comes from the fact that his family has probably been upper crust for centuries. This satirical point by Conrad is brought home by the suggestion that instead of wearing a suit of armor, Ethelred wears a frock-coat. Just in case the point wasn't clear, Conrad's suggesting that (gasp) British society is pretty pathetic.