Lucky Jim
Despite misfortunes, comedy possesses the ability to elevate one's mood in distressing or unhappy times. The sweet flavour comedy adds to life makes many situations much more palatable. In Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim, the Jim Dixon character is cast into unfavourable relations with other characters who make his existence quite trying. Jim's involvement with Margaret is marked by his desire to see it end. His association with Professor Welch incessantly lands him in a disagreeable position. Moreover, Jim does nothing to amend this, and the reader becomes frustrated with Jim's inaction, and his ready acceptance to let things carry on as they are. However, Jim's extraordinary comic sense continually lightens the severity of his predicament and makes living with his problems much easier. Jim Dixon's relationship with Margaret is the source of considerable anxiety and distress; yet, he dodges the need to remedy this. Jim sees Margaret as a girl possessing 'minimal prettiness' (Amis, 1953, p. 105), a person who is unenjoyable to spend time with, and whom he knows is manipulative. At the same time, he feels compelled to continue seeing her. Although it is not clear, his behaviour seems to be partly derived from a tragic sense that
He has not of course the nerve to say so, and suppresses his rage' (McDermott, 1989, p. and she exploits him by manipulating him into paying for everything when they go out, even though he cannot afford it and she can' (Salwak, 1992, 27). Although the idea is never realized, this hysterical digression allows Jim to endure Welch with a certain degree of composure: 'In order to maintain self-respect. Simply, Carol is saying that when Jim is 'civil to accept' Margaret's invitations, he is setting himself up to be used, which is exactly what she will do, she [Margaret] feigns sexual avidity to entice, then denounce Jim. With one arm bent at the elbow so that the fingers brushed the armpit, the other crooked in the air so that the inside of the forearm lay across the top of his head, he wove with bent knees and hunched, rocking shoulders across to the bed, upon which he jumped up and down a few times, gibbering to himself (Amis, p. In Lucky Jim, Jim Dixon is a man who is exposed to people who are forever tormenting him with various assaults ranging from manipulation to outrageous demands to outright dullness. Dixon then reveals a slight helplessness in reaching a conclusion and discloses Welch's role in making his life difficult. This is Jim collecting himself by means of releasing mounting hostility, while keeping it all contained in his head. 173), the Professor pompously assumes Jim does. Furthermore, it is extremely frustrating in that Dixon makes no attempt at freeing himself from this laborious relationship, which he recognizes as antagonistic, 'Dixon fought hard to drive away the opinion that, both as actress and script writer, she [Margaret] was doing rather well' (Amis, 1953, 76).
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