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The Secret Sharer

by Joseph Conrad

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Discussion Topic

The Captain's motivation and morality in hiding Leggatt

Summary:

The Captain hides Leggatt out of a sense of camaraderie and moral duty. He feels a deep connection to Leggatt, seeing him as a reflection of himself. Despite the risks, the Captain's decision is driven by empathy and a belief in giving Leggatt a chance to escape and start anew, highlighting his complex moral compass.

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Why does the Captain hide Leggatt in "The Secret Sharer"?

In "The Screct Sharer," the captain senses an inexplicable connection to the man floating alongside his ship:  "The self-possession of that man had somehow induced a corresponding state in myself....A mysterious communication was established already between us two...."The captain feels that Leggatt is his "double...other self," a reflection of his own being in appearance and size.  When Leggatt explains why he swam to the ship, the captain declares, " I saw it all...as though I were myself inside that other sleeping suit."

Worried that the chief mate will come back on deck and see a "confabulation" of the captain with his "own gray ghost," the captain/narrator hides Leggatt in his L-shaped quarters, for it would be extremely difficult for him to explain his harboring of a murderer, let alone one with whom he feels such communion. Like Leggatt, the captain himself is a stranger on his ship, having been appointed without knowledge of the crew or ship, so he feels that it would take "very little to make [him] a suspect person in the eyes of the ship's company." (Leggatt is later described by the captain of the other ship as "not the sort" for that ship.)

Leggatt, too, senses the affinity, "as if you had expected me" he tells the captain. Later, after Leggatt is hidden for a time, the captain feels that he is the "secret sharer" of his life and cannot, therefore, reveal him.

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Is the Captain's protection of Leggatt morally defensible in "The Secret Sharer"?

In the exposition of "The Secret Sharer" by Joseph Conrad, the young captain as narrator remarks that he "was somewhat of a stranger to [him]self."  Then, when he first sees Legatt he notes, "He was complete but for the head.  A headless corpse!"  And, then, even as Leggatt is yet in the water before boarding the ship, the captain declares, "a mysterious communication was established between us two--...I was young, too.  When he pulls Leggatt out, he comments, [he] followed me like a double...."

Clearly, with the word double being used 19 times in this narrative, the captain and Leggatt are doppelgangers; Leggatt, about whom the captain says, "I gazed upon my other self," as they have their "dark heads together," is the darker side of the captain, the animalistic side.  As Leggatt relates the murder he has committed, the captain comments,

And I knew well enough also that in 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 saw it all going on as though I were myself inside that other sleeping suit.

It is, therefore, his darker side that the captain hides from his crew, a side that he wishes no one to know, the "unexpected sharer of [his] cabin who appears in the dark waters beneath his ship.  It is to protect himself as well as his "double" that the captain hides Leggatt, and, finally sets free into the dark waters.  While not morally defensible, the captain's actions are self-preservative.

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