The Character of the Captain

Conrad’s fictions stage the interior traumas and demonstrate the indeterminate complexities of psychological experience.
The Secret Sharer is a tale of self-discover of a young inexperienced captain who ventures with a nameless ship with
unfamiliar crew members and ultimately conquers the barriers gaining his true self uncovering the dark recesses of his
own mind.

Upon the initial reading, The Secret Sharer seems to be an old fashioned tale of adventure on the sea. The story features a
captain, his crew, a mysterious event, a murder, a near disaster and an eventual saving of a ship. While the story is an
adventure yarn, it also stands as a profound and disquieting examination of a person’s dual nature and how each person
must resolve this duality for the self to grow. The narrator- the ship’s anonymous captain- describes his anxiety onboard
the ship from the offset. He repeatedly refers to himself as a stranger to the ship and though he objectively acknowledges
that the vessel is ‘very fine, very roomy for her size, and very inviting’, he doesn’t feel at home in her space which should
be familiar by the fact that it allows the sea captain’s connections with the sea and facilitates processes which ‘were
familiar enough to him’. Thus there is something inherently unfamiliar about the ship though the source of the uneasy
feeling is never apparent to the reader or narrator. The narrator remains isolated from his crew, and only feels more
comfortable when he is ‘alone on deck’. It is from a series of negatives- ‘there was not a sound in her-and around her
nothing moved, nothing lived, not a canoe on the water, not a bird in the air, not a cloud in the sky’- and a sense of serene
isolation that the idea of the ship as a ‘trusted friend’ arises. The moment of familiarity of the ship is brief, destroyed even
by the stars and the ‘disturbing sound of the normal on board activities’. The narrator oscillates between the feelings of
familiarity and exclusion, of comfort and discomfort, at an almost fanatic space. The arrival of Leggatt makes this
unsteady straggling of boundary between comfort and discomfort more prominent.

The young captain, in order to win the confidence of his crewmates, takes an unusual decision to engage himself in anchor
watch for a night. It is on the same fateful night that he spots the ‘naked body of a man’ floating close to the ladder. What
first appears to him as a ‘headless corpse’ quickly transforms into the living- Leggatt who he allows to come on board and
‘a mysterious communication is soon established’ between them. The Captain provides Leggatt with his clothes to cover
his ‘damp body’ and realizes that ‘my sleeping suit is just right for his size’. By clothing Leggatt with his own clothes, the
narrator identifies sartorially with his second self. On the warm tropical night, Leggatt shares with the Captain the secret
of his escape having murdered one of his crewmates in Sephora in a fit of rage, thus revealing the primeval side of his
nature. The captain decides to protect the fugitive and provides him shelter.

By addressing Leggatt as ‘my double’, ‘my second self’, ‘my secret self’, the captain forms a deep mental connection with
him that compels him to guard him and share with his double his own cabin, clothes, coffee, food and even a part of his
own self. This familiar double seems to make the uncanny space more homely and tolerable for the narrator. The narrator
conceals Leggatt in his cabin and ‘at night would smuggle into his bedplace and both would whisper together’- the words
‘smuggle’ and ‘whisper’ highlighting the intimate nature of their relationship. On the other hand, apart from sharing the
terrible secret of committing a murder, Leggatt shares the information of his parentage and Captain learns that like him
Leggatt is also an ex-Conway student.

The captain willingly engages in potentially destructive behavior in order to prevent Leggatt’s discovery. This is apparent
when Leggatt’s shipmate Captain Archbold comes on board to enquire about the prisoner. Faced with the question about
Leggatt, the narrator is ‘utterly incapable playing the part of ignorance properly’, and as a solution to the arising suspicion
he invites Archbold ‘to have a look around’ perilously close to where Leggatt hides. Despite all the adverse situations, the
secret of Leggatt remains undisclosed till the end of the story only due to the captain’s earnest attempts and strategies.
Whether Leggatt is a corporal presence or product of the narrator’s imagination however remains ambiguous.

Near the end of the story the Captain gives Leggatt his hat before allowing him to escape the ship and swim to Koh-
rings’s shores and much to the surprise of his shipmates, maneuvers the ship next to the Koh-ring island. The Captain
realizes the risk he has taken for his double’s escape as the ship comes very close to the shore in pitch darkness. However,
to grow as a person, and to test his new-found confidence, the Captain must experience a brush with death. If not for
Leggatt with the Captain’s hat, which the Captain uses to help them steer clear of the shoals, the ship would certainly be
destroyed. At the same time the Captain also wins the trust and confidence of his shipmates.

Daniel R. Schwarz interprets the text from the perspective of ‘Id’ and ‘Super Ego’ developed in Freudian psychoanalysis.
‘Leggatt is a man of unrestrained id and underdeveloped super ego. The Captain is his opposite: a hyper-conscious
modern man who fastidiously thinks of the consequences of every action to the point where he cannot do anything’
(Schwarz). Therefore the Captain symbolically represents the Super Ego and Leggatt represents the Id. The captain seems
to assimilate the ‘other’ accepting some of its chaotic instincts into his regulated self. After accepting his id as a part of his
subjectivity and consequently discarding it, the narrator claims a victory over his fear and anxiety about the darker aspects
of the psyche, finally declaring ‘I was alone with the ship. Nothing! No one in the world should stand now between us’.
Thus by confronting his double the narrator is ultimately able to confront the fact that the self is essentially fragmented
and finally emerges as a more confident and mature person.
-1060 words
Title of The Secret Sharer

Conrad’s fictions stage the interior traumas and demonstrate the indeterminate complexities of psychological
experience. The title of Conrad’s The Secret Sharer is primarily one that connotes an apparent oxymoron- secret
and sharing. The story revolves the personal experiences of the Narrator-Captain who describes his uncanny and
secret relationship with a fugitive. The very motif of psychological revelation coupled with one of mystery and
inner adventures of the mind, lying at the core of Conrad’s tale is given an effective symbolic signification in
the title.

It is a tale of self-discovery of a young inexperienced captain who ventures with a nameless ship with
unfamiliar crew members and ultimately conquers the barriers gaining his true self uncovering the dark recesses
of his own mind. As the story begins, the Captain describes his anxiety onboard as he repeatedly refers to
himself as a ‘stranger’ to the ship. The narrator remains isolated from his crew, and only feels more comfortable
when he is ‘alone on deck’. The Captain’s unusual decision of keeping an anchor watch in the night introduces him to
the character of Leggatt. On the fateful night he spots the ‘naked body of a man’ floating close to the ladder. What
first appears to him as a ‘headless corpse’ quickly transforms into the living- Leggatt who he allows to come on
board and ‘a mysterious communication is soon established’ between them. The Captain provides Leggatt with
his clothes to cover his ‘damp body’ and realizes that ‘my sleeping suit is just right for his size’. By clothing
Leggatt with his own clothes, the narrator identifies sartorially with his second self. On the warm tropical night,
Leggatt shares with the Captain the secret of his escape having murdered one of his crewmates in Sephora in a
fit of rage, thus revealing the primeval side of his nature. The captain decides to protect the fugitive and
provides him shelter.

By addressing Leggatt as ‘my double’, ‘my second self’, ‘my secret self’, the captain forms a deep mental connection with
him that compels him to guard him and share with his double his own cabin, clothes, coffee, food and even a part of his
own self. This familiar double seems to make the uncanny space more homely and tolerable for the narrator. The narrator
conceals Leggatt in his cabin and ‘at night would smuggle into his bedplace and both would whisper together’- the words
‘smuggle’ and ‘whisper’ highlighting the intimate nature of their relationship. On the other hand, apart from sharing the
terrible secret of committing a murder, Leggatt shares the information of his parentage and Captain learns that like him
Leggatt is also an ex-Conway student.

The ambiguities announced in the story’s title also pervade the moral dilemma dramatized in its plot. The Captain,
although he represents the law on board, develops sympathy for the fugitive. The captain doesn’t want to be deprived of
the ‘sharing’ of the uncanny relationship with Leggatt, and doesn’t want to deprive the ‘double’ of his ‘sharing’ the
protection. He willingly engages in potentially destructive behavior to prevent the discovery of Leggatt. This is apparent
when Leggatt’s shipmate Captain Archbold comes on board to enquire about the prisoner. Faced with the question about
Leggatt, the narrator is ‘utterly incapable playing the part of ignorance properly’, and as a solution to the arising suspicion
he invites Archbold ‘to have a look around’ perilously close to where Leggatt hides. Despite all the adverse situations, the
secret of Leggatt remains undisclosed till the end of the story only due to the captain’s earnest attempts and strategies.

Near the end of the story the Captain gives Leggatt his hat before allowing him to escape the ship and swim to Koh-
rings’s shores and much to the surprise of his shipmates, maneuvers the ship next to the Koh-ring island. The Captain
realizes the risk he has taken for his double’s escape as the ship comes very close to the shore in pitch darkness. However,
to grow as a person, and to test his new-found confidence, the Captain must experience a brush with death. If not for
Leggatt with the Captain’s hat, which the Captain uses to help them steer clear of the shoals, the ship would certainly be
destroyed. At the same time the Captain also wins the trust and confidence of his shipmates.

Like the text, the title of the story also has different layers of meaning to it. The title The Secret Sharer, following Cedric
Watt’s discussion can be analysed in two ways- firstly, ‘the sharer of secret’ and secondly, ‘one who shares something
secretly’. According to the first meanining, the secret sharer is none but Leggatt who comes aboard and share with the
Captain, the secret of having committed a homicide. But, the second meaning focuses upon the Captain who gives refuge
to Leggatt and shares with him his cabin, clothes, food, and even a part of himself. The Captain can be seen assimilating a
part of his ‘other’, accepting some of its chaotic instincts in his regulated self. In the end the secret sharer as well as his
confidant is separated from the Captain but the captain has already evolved from the state of innocence to the state of
experience. Coming in terms with the darker aspects of the human psyche, he confronts his own fears and anxieties asnd
emerges as a more confident individual, declaring that ‘I was alone with the ship. Nothing! No one in the world should
stand now between us’.