secret sharer

In the short story, “The Secret Sharer” by Joseph Conrad, the young Captain has been placed on a ship which he knows nothing about. This has made the Captain feeling insecure, untried, doubtful, and lost. The Captain, at first is not sure on how to establish his authority on the crew as most of the members are older than him and have been on the journey together for eighteen months. While the Captain took control of the ship only a fortnight ago so he is a complete stranger to the ship and its crew. Joseph Conrad uses a doppelganger theme to show how one person can change when introduced with someone who shares many similarities, as well as differences. There is a duality between the Captain and Leggatt, whom the Captain refers as his double, other self or his secret sharer. By the end of the story the Captain has transformed into a confident, experienced, extremely secure individual. This was made possible because of Leggatt the doppelganger.

The young Captain feels himself at the mercy of a crew who are not hostile but they undermine his authority. They think that the Captain does not possess the ability to truly command the ship as he seems fit. This is the Captain’s first voyage as a Captain and he is worried on how his reputation will be affected by this first command because he lacks the courage needed to command a ship successfully. He means well when he takes over the night watch from the crew but it backfires on him and the crew see this as a weakness of their new Captain. The crew knows no well experienced, courageous Captain would ever take over an anchor watch for the first half of the night. The Captain himself recognizes that he is doing something unusual and said, “I felt painfully that I a stranger was doing something unusual when I directed him to let all hands turn in without setting an anchor watch.” This shows how much the Captain is self conscious and insecure about the actions he takes and perceives himself as a stranger who is not fit to