Captain Leggatt example essay topic

The Secret Sharer: the essay In the long short story The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad the narrator plays the captain of a merchant ship that is foreign to him. He is assigned to this foreign ship on a very short notice. He is expected to lead the crew to their destination, safely. This captain is lonely he has not one soul to speck to. He doesn't know these people who he somehow is suppose to lead.

His first night on the ship he finds his soon to be best friend, Leggatt. He finds his new best friend mysteriously floating in the water as if he was dead. He speaks to him for the night and finds that they have fallen asleep in his room. The captain doesn't even realize he had been sleeping. The narrator listens to the man explain why he had been floating in the water and then realize that him and the man have plenty in common, both mentally and physically. The narrator feels connected to the man.

Leggatt is being hunted for. He is being hunted for murder and also for going against the order of the captain of the Sephora, which is the ship, he was also assigned to. The stowaway is so much like the captain. For the captain Leggatt represents a goal that the captain has set out to accomplish. He knows this man is a good man as well as he is a good man.

He sees himself in Leggatt and therefore wants to help him. One might ask why the captain would go out to far lengths to save this mans life. For one the captain is lonely and is lusting for some excitement, secondly he would have wanted someone to do the same thing for him as he is doing for this man (he realizes that life is so important) and thirdly the captain falls in love with Leggatt. Leggatt told him the circumstances of the murder and the narrator says he would have done the same thing. In this the narrator realizes his flaw. Primarily, the captain is about as excited as a bunch of teenagers watching the snow melt.

The captain has nothing to do. He is a lonely guy before he meets Leggatt. Leggatt brings hope and adventure to this voyage, something this captain is in desperate need of. He was being made fun of by "his" crew and he couldn't relate to them because of the fact that he was new. He says", ... I knew very little of my officers.

In consequence of certain events of no particular significance, except to myself, I had been appointed to the command only a fortnight before. All these people had been together for eighteen months or so, and my position was that of the only stranger on board". (19). He needed some thrill and hiding Leggatt would suffice for now. Secondly the captain realizes that he would want someone to do the same for him, and in a sense he feels like he is doing for himself because he sees Leggatt and himself as one person and he can relate to the situation that Leggatt had found himself in. He says, "He appealed to me as if our experiences had been as identical as our clothes.

And I knew well enough the pestiferous danger of such a character where there are no means of legal repression. And I knew well enough also that my double there was no homicidal ruffian". (26). This quotes backs up that feeling as he thought they were the same person because he could relate to his situations therefore he realizes that he and Leggatt are two of the same person. He could look at Leggatt and see himself therefore he came to the conclusion that Leggatt is him and as him he would have did the same thing, and of course he knew that he (the captain) was no ruffian, but an intelligent being. The captain feels grateful to be able to help out an individual who is for good running away from the bad, here the captain would want someone be kind unto him as he is being kind unto others.

Lastly, the narrator love Leggatt, I mean really loves him. He said, "I got a sleeping suit out of my room and, coming back on deck, saw the naked man from the sea sitting on the main hatch, glimmering white in the darkness, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands". (25) He also mentions", A mysterious communication was established already between us two-in the face of that silent, darkened tropical sea". (24). The narrator just painted us a romantic scene between two people seeing love at first sight. Leggatt realizes that the captain has already fell in love with his handsome face so right off the back Leggatt tells the captain that he has killed a man of the Sephora.

He already had deep feelings for Leggatt so now Leggatt only has to tell him his story the captain is struck with passion. The captain has plenty to go for in this adventure because that is exactly what it is for him, an adventure. The captain knows he loves this man and he would even risk his live and the entire crews life for the safety of this one individual. He feels he has nothing to lose in the sense that the crew thinks that he is a moron anyways, he has no friends and he is a lousy captain. Although this isn't his fault he still feels the pain and loneliness derived by this. This is why he is so apt to love.

It is very easy for him to fall in love with so little. The captain makes so much out of so little to make him feel a self worth. He is down and out and then God sent him "something to do.".