"Secret Sharer" by Joseph Conrad.

Critical Analysis of the, "Secret Sharer" In 1890 Joseph Conrad visited Africa, where he got the inspiration for a book he wrote later in 1907 called the Secret Sharer. Years later, Albert Guerard wrote an ethical review, analyzing the book as a psychological study of self identification. Through out the years, scholars would argue that Leggatt was a just a figment of the Captain's imagination. "The story is a drama of consciousness and conscience, symbolic explorations of …

…And our best chance for survival, moral survival, lies frankly recognizing these capacities." (Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 13 p103). The Captain could relate to Leggat, feeling security. The Captain's security was never established until he met Leggatt, being his opposite and equal at the same time. Insecurity runs through out this whole book, until the very end when the Captain notices his hat in the water and feels secure about guiding his ship out of trouble.