The Secret Sharer
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| The Secret Sharer | |
 The cover of The Secret Sharer |
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| Author | Joseph Conrad |
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| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Short Story |
| Publisher | Harper's |
| Publication date | 1912 |
| ISBN | 0486275469 |
The Secret Sharer is a novella written by Joseph Conrad in 1909, and first published in book form in 1912, though it had appeared in Harper’s before then. It contains a theme typical for Conrad; he is a solitary character challenged from external and internal agents.
The story was filmed as a segment of the 1952 film Face to Face.
Contents |
[edit] Characters
- Nameless Captain (Narrator)
- Leggatt
- Captain Archbold (Skipper of the Sephora)
- The Second Mate
- The Chief Mate
- The Steward
[edit] Plot
The story takes place at sea, near the Gulf of Siam, and is told from the perspective of a young Captain who remains nameless throughout the story. The captain is unfamiliar with both his ship and his crew, having only joined their company a fortnight earlier. The nameless Captain is furthermore unsure of himself, questioning his ability to fulfill the role of such an authoritative figure. These themes are explored through symbols throughout the novella.
The captain soon encounters a naked swimmer holding onto the side of the ship while he is alone at night on look-out duty. He helps the mysterious swimmer onto the boat and hides him in his cabin. He immediately learns of the mysterious swimmer's past; his name is Leggatt, and he swam away from a nearby ship, called the Sephora, where, as chief mate, he killed another crew member for insolence during a storm.
The narrator keeps Leggatt hidden in the Captain’s quarters, away from the suspicious crew members and a visit from the skipper of the Sephora. Eventually the Captain allows Leggatt to escape by bringing the ship close enough to land for Leggatt to swim away safely, though this risky sailing maneuver nearly sends the ship into the rocks.
[edit] Writing
The novel was created while Conrad was writing Under Western Eyes; he wrote the Secret Sharer as a break from his much larger novel that was emotionally difficult for him to write. There are similarities between the two stories, with the Captain and Leggatt becoming Razumov and Haldin respectively.
The story was based on a real account – the chief mate of the Cutty Sark killed another crew-member for insolence during a storm, and was later arrested in London for his murder. Conrad also drew on his own time as captain of the Otago, when his first mate did not trust him, and got a particular scare when Conrad maneuvered the ship dangerously close to rocks in the gulf of Siam.
The story originally appeared in Harper's Magazine, under the title "The Secret-Sharer", but Conrad revised the title to make it more ambiguous, making Leggatt secretly share with the captain, rather than merely sharing a secret.
Many proleptic devices are used that ironically predict what happens in the story. An example of this is when the captain doubts at the start of the story that the ship "was not likely to keep any special surprises", yet it gives him a very special surprise in the form of Leggatt. This technique was commonly used by Conrad.
"Walking to the taffrail, I was in time to make out, on the very edge of a darkness thrown by a towering black mass like the very gateway of Erebus - yes, I was in time to catch an evanescent glimpse of my white hat left behind to mark the spot where the secret sharer of my cabin and of my thoughts, as though he were my second self, had lowered himself into the water to take his punishment: a free man, a proud swimmer striking out for a new destiny."
This description of the island resembles the mountain of Purgatory in Dante's Divine Comedy.
[edit] Important quotations
Supporting the Doppelganger Theory
"It occurred to me that if old 'Bless my soul - you don't say so' were to put his head up the companion and catch sight of us, he would think he was seeing double, or imagine himself come upon a scene of weird witchcraft; the strange captain having a quiet confabulation by the wheel with his own gray ghost." (Page 90)
"He was not a bit like me, really; yet, as we stood leaning over my bed-place, whispering side by side, with our dark heads together and our backs to the door, anybody bold enough to open it stealthily would have been treated to the uncanny sight of a double captain busy talking in whispers with his other self." (Page 91)
[edit] Symbolism and Imagery
""the Scorpion in the Inkwell"": The scorpion in the inkwell can be seen as a foreshadowing of Leggatt's arrival. The treacherous being (represented by the scorpion) lost in the black ocean, the appearance the ocean has the night that the captain-narrator finds Leggatt.
He appealed to me as if our experiences had been as identical as our clothes. And I knew well enough the pestiferous danger of such a character where there are no means of legal repression. And I knew well enough also that my double there was no homicidal ruffian. I did not think of asking him for details, and he told me the story roughly in brusque, disconnected sentences. I needed no more. I saw it all going on as though I were myself inside that other sleeping suit.
The captain's hat: Can be seen to have symbolic meaning when it was given to Leggatt prior to him leaving the ship. The hat would represent all that was held back the Captain during his time on the voyage before encountering Leggatt, who exposed all the attributes formerly left undiscovered. The Captain goes through a psychological change which is completed as Leggatt leaves and the gift of the hat also symbolized that the transformation is complete, because the Captain no longer needs the hat which represented his former self.
[edit] External links
- The Secret Sharer, available at Project Gutenberg.
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