Free Essays - Theme of The Secret Sharer (Agent):
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Theme of The Secret Sharer
The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad presents many themes throughout its complex narration of characters and the ideas it explicates through the novella. Amidst all the many themes that are presented there is one main theme that is thoroughly supported by Conrad in The Secret Sharer. The theme that is supported is, the ability that a person has, to change their moral and ethical beliefs due to their inexperience and self doubt as a leader. In the beginning the Captain is an upstanding, law abiding individual, yet his interaction with the murderer, and Leggatt, reveals him as someone who is insecure and easily malleable, this trait allows the captain to make many very illogical decisions, and in the end put his crew in harms way, undoubtedly showing that he is unfit to remain captain of the unnamed ship.
The Captain is quickly introduced into the novella as a young seaman, who was sporadically chosen to be the captain of a sailing vessel which is on its voyage home from off the coast of Asia, more closely illustrated as Vietnam and its Gulf of Siam. The young captain displays himself as an experienced sailor yet is filled with much self doubt as he is the second youngest man on the ship, and has limited leadership experience especially as the captain of a boat. The captains self doubt is easily manipulated, bye many individuals on the boat when he first obtains command. The captain's first sense of inexperience as a leader; and self doubt as a captain is shown when he decides to perform anchor watch for the first half of the night. "I felt painfully that I--a stranger--was doing something unusual when I directed him to let all hands turn in with out setting an anchor watch."(pg 652) The captain gives a prime example of his self doubt, and shows this to the crew, giving them an opinion of him as ignorant and inexperienced. As the captain broke the news, that he himself was taking anchor watch during the night the second mates replay was, "`what? The captain himself?' Then a few more murmurs, a door closed, then another." (pg 653)The crew does not understand his decision and immediately labels him almost idiotic, showing much suspicion in his actions. This opinion of the captain gives the crew an uneasy feeling around the new leading member of the ship, also causing the captain to obtain even more self doubt, and inevitably causing the irrational decision to stow a murderer on board.
The captains self doubt continues as he reflects upon his actions, and presumably lead up to the letting of Leggatt to board the ship. As the captain recalls his previous decision, he notes what his deck hands may have been thinking, making him even more vulnerable to an experienced sailors knowledge and input, distorting his decision making capabilities. "I asked myself whether it was wise ever to interfere with the established routine of duties even from the kindest of motives. My action might have made me appear eccentric. Goodness only knew how that absurdly whiskered mate would `account' fro my conduct, and what the whole ship thought of that informality of their new captain. I was vexed with myself."(pg 653) This thought and self doubt allows the captain to become preoccupied with his prior decision making. When he is confronted with the new passenger on his boat, Leggatt, this causes him to make an irrational decision to stow the murderer on board. The captain's first conversation with Leggatt begins with,
"'Aha! Something wrong?'
`Yes. Very wrong indeed. I've killed a man.'"(pg 657)
These first few words should have given the captain the hint of danger, yet is self doubt, and consequent curiosity allowed Leggatt to stay aboard and remain a mystery to the rest of the ship for many days, causing the captain to become uneasy with fright, and doubt himself even more as Leggatt's presence on the boat nearly gets revealed several times.
As the knowledge of Leggatt's existence came nearer to becoming spread trough out the boat, the captain became very uneasy with the fact that Leggatt may get him in grave trouble, as well as become in danger himself. This unease in the captain pertains to the self doubt that he has, and causes the captain to make dire decisions. As the captains mate, became dreadfully close to exposing Leggatt the captain reacted with a shocking unease and caused to steward to become almost quizzical to the captains actions and gestures. "My voice died in my throat and I went stony all over. I expected to hear a yell of surprise and terror, and made a movement, but had not the strength to get on my legs...I don't know what I would have done next moment if I had not seen the steward come out of my room, close the door, and then stand quietly by the sideboard." (pg 685) immediately following the captains near fearful encounter, he went on to ask, "Steward...Where did you hang up that coat." These strange actions and remarks that the captain hastily threw about caused the crew to doubt him once again. "you did look middling bad a little while ago."(pg 686) This was the response of the first mate, again in an anxious tone trying to understand the captain's strange actions, showing the repeating observation of the crew toward the captain's abilities as the captain.
These actions that the captains has made on several occasions was foreshadow to the insecurities and self-doubt that would lead him to endanger his crew, and thoroughly depict the prevailing theme throughout the novella. The theme that was displayed underlined the significance of confidence and the art of acting knowledgeable and trust worthy, in order to remain in control and live up to the expectations that your peers have given you when they put their lives into your hands. The self doubt that the captain displayed led to the ignorant decisions that endangered his crews lives, if the captain did not display this self doubt, and obtain the murderer Leggatt, then his role of captain would have been flawless, and have preserved the lives of his crew better on the most part. Self-doubt leads to ignorance.
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