Character Analysis
An Honest Murderer?
The first thing we ever learn about Leggatt is that he's a murderer, but that doesn't stop us (or the story's narrator) from liking him right away. It's hard to put our finger on it, but there's something about this guy that inspires confidence in spite of his checkered past. From the moment the narrator meets him he likes Leggatt:
The voice was calm and resolute. A good voice. The self-possession of that man had somehow induced a corresponding state in myself. (1.36)
You can't underestimate the importance of this effect, since the narrator's main anxiety is his insecurity over being a captain. The fact that Leggatt makes him feel self-assured is way more important to him than Leggatt's past.
As the narrator continues to describe Leggatt, we might begin to wonder if he's thinking about the guy's appearance a little too much:
He had rather regular features; a good mouth; light eyes under somewhat heavy, dark eyebrows; a smooth, square forehead. (1.43)
All the while, the narrator reminds us that he feels as though he's describing himself. These types of comments help support the idea that Leggatt might actually be a figment of the captain's imagination. Or if he actually is real, the captain sure likes to project a lot of his own feelings onto the guy.
It's Like You're My Mirror, My Mirror Starin' Back at Me!
Many modern readers are constantly on guard for characters in books or stories who aren't actually real (just watch The Sixth Sense ). The narrator tends to push us in this direction in The Secret Sharer too, as he constantly refers to Leggatt as a "ghost" or a "double." Just check out this one description of Leggatt that the narrator gives early on:
It was, in the night, as though I had been faced by my own reflection in the depths of a somber and immense mirror. (1.33)
Either the narrator is totally making Leggatt up here, or he is projecting so many of his personal issues onto a stranger that we can never really know who the "real" Leggatt is. After all, we're kind of at the narrator's mercy since he's the one telling the story.
Even the narrator starts to question Leggatt's existence in the latter half of the story:
It would not be true to say I had a shock, but an irresistible doubt of his bodily existence flitted through my mind. (2.100)
After all, how is it possible that so many people could walk around the captain's room and never catch sight of the guy? Then again, it's impossible to know if Leggatt is real for several reasons. First, because Conrad never clears the matter up, and second, because the story's narrator is telling us this story from way later in the future. Who knows how much he even remembers properly? It's safe to say at this point that if you're the kind of reader who loves closure, The Secret Sharer might not be right for you.