Compiled, designed & circulated by:

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Compiled, designed & circulated by:

Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College

ENGLISH (CC); SEM-III: PAPER- C6T (The Secret Sharer) Critical discussion of part-II of The Secret Sharer: —

In the very opening of part-II of The Secret Sharer, we get an encounter between the Skipper of Sephora and the narrator. The skipper of the Sephora came to the ship of the narrator in search of Leggatt. The eyes of the narrator did not fail to give a minute detail of the physical appearance of the Skipper of Sephora. From the conversation in between the narrator and the Skipper of Sephora we come to know that his name was Archbold. When the skipper of the Sephora was giving the details about himself to the narrator, he (the skipper of the Sephora)

seemed to be criminal confessing his crime to the narrator. There, the narrator said that the skipper of the Sephora was not happy with his congeal life.

After the primary hospitality, the skipper of the Sephora came into his own business. That is to say that he started concocting stories about Leggatt. As Leggatt was not far from the narrator and the skipper of the Sephora during their conversation, the narrator pretended himself to be deaf. The aim of the narrator was to let Leggatt hear their conversation.

The narrator found discrepancies in the words of the skipper of the Sephora. The skipper of the Sephora told the narrator that Leggatt was not at all a good fellow in his appearance. He killed

the man without any reason. The skipper of the Sephora also told the narrator that he did not like Leggatt.

The narrator could not be a passive listener to these tales of the skipper of the Sephora because he was well aware about the fact. Thus, he protested by saying that the man was killed by the sea. Here, it is very important to note the protest of the narrator in the telling tales of the Skipper

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Compiled, designed & circulated by:

Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College

ENGLISH (CC); SEM-III: PAPER- C6T (The Secret Sharer)

of the skipper of the Sephora about Leggat. The narrator became so absorbed in the character of the Leggatt, his secret sharer that he could not accept the false charge against Leggatt, his second self.

When the narrator was unable impatient to hear the words of the skipper of the Sephora and saw a kind of sceptical gesture in the skipper of the Sephora, he (the narrator) diverted the mind of the skipper of the Sephora by persuading him to take a look of the saloon, bathroom, and cabin of the ship. By doing this the narrator tactfully saved Leggatt to be discovered by the skipper of the Sephora. Ultimately, the skipper of the Sephora left the ship of the narrator in vain.

Then, Leggatt defended the charges against him made by the skipper of the Sephora to the narrator.

The narrator then gave us a detail of what Leggatt ate for all the days in the narrator’s ship. The narrator said that he offered his tinned food to Leggatt for all these days. The narrator said:

“It was lucky that some tinds of fine preserves were stowed…; and it was all I dared to do for him in that respect.” (p. 42- The Secret Sharer- Simon & Schuster Enriched Classic).

There was an apprehension of the discovery of Leggatt by the crewmen of the narrator and especially by the steward of the ship. This apprehension came to its peak when one day the steward entered into the cabin of the narrator during their dinner. The narrator and Leggatt got a narrow safe by the intelligence of the narrator.

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Compiled, designed & circulated by:

Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College

ENGLISH (CC); SEM-III: PAPER- C6T (The Secret Sharer)

After this incident Leggatt requested the narrator to maroon him into a safe place. The narrator at first denied Leggatt’s suggestion because in that case they both might be caught red handed.

Then Leggatt told the narrator that there was no way out except that. He then alluded the biblical incident of Cain in The Genesis 4:14. When Cain killed his brother Abel, God cursed Cain from the ground. The earth would no longer yield crops for him. So, Cain’s life as a farmer came to an end. God also banished Cain from his home, sending him out as a fugitive and wanderer on the earth. In Earlier verse Cain protested that the punishment was more than he deserved. He lost crops from the ground, home and a relationship with God. So, Cain would be unprotected in the world. Others would try to find him and kill him for his heinous misdeed to his brother. According to Leggatt his condition was no better than that of Cain in The Bible because as he described, he killed one of his fellow mates in his ship. Though he managed to abscond from his imprisonment, he would be handed over to the law and sentenced the capital punishment, if he would be caught. So, Leggatt told the anonymous Captain of the ship that his condition was just like the condition of Cain because he was also metaphorically banished from the earth. So, he had no other way to live his life except going into some unknown land. The Captain, finally, agreed to help Leggatt and did accordingly for Leggatt’s security.

Thus, above biblical allusion, referred to here by Leggatt, made a kind of psychological enlightenment into the inner psyche of the Captain. So, as usual Leggatt worked as an agent of psychological development within the narrator. Leggatt’s reference of the above biblical allusion might also be a hint at his sound knowledge in The Bible because in the succeeding verse god told Cain that his (God) provisions would be merciful. Likewise, Leggatt thought that the help of the captain would give him a ‘new life’.

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Compiled, designed & circulated by:

Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College

ENGLISH (CC); SEM-III: PAPER- C6T (The Secret Sharer)

After this the narrator went to the deck. Then came back after some time after giving orders to his mates. Then they(the narrator and Leggatt) started developing the plan to maroon Leggatt.

They started examining a map for a safe place. Then the narrator proposed that he would maroon Leggatt at Koh-ring, an island off the coast of Cambodia.

Then the narrator told Leggatt how he would leave the ship. The narrator would smuggle out Leggatt into the sail locker as the sail locker communicated with the lobby of the ship. Then Leggatt would be able to go out through the quarter-deck because the narrator would order one of his fellow-mates to leave the quarter-deck wide open. As at that very time there would be no one of the ship Leggatt would be able to maroon himself into the water safely. The narrator also instructed Leggatt to use a side rope to maroon himself because otherwise his jump would create a nuisance.

At the time of their whispering, the bell for supper was heard. After the supper the narrator came into his cabin and gave three Sovereigns (The currency of Great Britain). The narrator also gave his floppy white hat of captain to Leggatt. The narrator thought it might save Leggatt from the sunlight.

Then very tact fully the narrator managed to let Leggatt go away forever. The narrator ordered his crewmen to make the ship closer to Koh-ring as much as possible. As a result, the ship was about to lose its way. The narrator thought as if their ship was at the verge of the entrance of Erebus, the dark part of the underworld through which the dead must pass on their way to Hades.

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Compiled, designed & circulated by:

Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College

ENGLISH (CC); SEM-III: PAPER- C6T (The Secret Sharer)

When the ship was almost lost at the narrow part in between the sea and Koh-ring, the narrator wanted a sign for the location of the ship and the land. According to the narrator, if the sign would be white in colour it would be the best. Suddenly, the narrator would be able to trace a glossy white thing into the sea. The more he tried to recognize the thing the more it became recognizable to him. In his utter dismay, the narrator understood that it was his floppy white hat which he had given to Leggatt.

So, the hat, though a trifle thing literally, it has become highly symbolic here. The hat is pluri- significant. Though the narrator gave the hat to Leggatt to save himself (Leggatt) from sunlight, the hat was of no use to Leggatt because he would go into a ‘new destiny’ which was ‘far from madding crowd. It may also suggest that the narrator did not need the hat anymore because his duty as a captain would be over after this journey. As the narrator, said Leggatt to be his alter- ego or dual-self, in the absence of Leggatt the hat would be of no use to the narrator because his ‘half’ would not be there. The hat on the water of the sea helped the narrator and his crewmen to be saved from the clutches of death. So, the hat helped them to evade ‘Erebus’.

Though Leggatt went away forever, he removed the hat of the narrator and the narrator and his mates were saved for that. So, it was an unconscious gratitude of Leggatt to the narrator for the hospitality given to him (Leggatt) by the narrator.

Ultimately the narrator saw Leggatt to go into his ‘new destiny’ and he (the narrator) was able to come back from the verge of death along with his ship and crewmen.

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