From the start of Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Sharer", it's obvious that one of the main themes that Conrad is attempting to establish is that of isolation. When the author opens the story, he describes the skipper as a stranger aboard his own ship. This theme is played on throughout the story, as the skipper has very little dialogue with anyone other than his doppelgänger, Leggatt. Because of the skipper's brutal sense of loneliness throughout the story, the reader begins to believe that his secret sharer may actually be a figment of his own imagination.
There are several specific examples of this isolation that can be found in the text. For example, the captain says, "All these people had been together for eighteen months or so, and my position was that of the only stranger on board." (7) Not only does the captain feel like a stranger aboard his own ship, but he also lacks self-definition, as seen when he says, "But what I felt most was my being a stranger to the ship; and if all truth must be told, I was somewhat of a stranger to myself." (7) This theme help to explain why Leggatt was introduced to the story in the first place, and gives the reader sympathize with the captain when he has to let his secret sharer go.
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