Joseph Conrad's story The Secret Sharer is a first-person narrative written in two parts from the point of view of an inexperienced ship captain. The separation of the two segments coincides almost perfectly with a distinction in the narrative voice. In the first part of The Secret Sharer, the captain is out of place, unpretentious and uncalculating. At this point, narrative descriptions help establish the situation because they are more like isolated observations. It is with the discovery of Leggatt that the narrative begins to evolve. Due to an instant and unexplained relationship, the Captain undoubtedly receives Leggatt's story and puts him into hiding. At this point, paranoia begins and the narrator's mind certainly begins to lose its structure: "The dual functioning of my mind has distracted me almost to the point of madness," the captain admits (Conrad 96). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The narrator's thought process is most clearly illustrated during the arrival of the Sephora captain in the second part of the story. The narration shifts from a generally situational narration to a more personal and introspective one; for example, the captain observes that “my lack of excitement, of curiosity, of surprise, of any pronounced interest, began to arouse his distrust” (99). Of course, there's no explanation for how the captain knows the distrust is being provoked; there is no depiction of Archbold's expressions or actions. Readers must, at this point, either trust the narrator's intuition or assume that his fears are unfounded. In the same paragraph, Conrad effectively communicates the multiple levels of seemingly erratic conscious reasoning that we all possess: “And yet how else could I have received it? No good heart! It was impossible for psychological reasons... Moody? Yes, but the anger could have provoked a direct question” (100). The captain is aware of the actions and counter-actions, he becomes particularly complicit: “By its novelty for him and by its nature, punctilious courtesy was the way best suited to restrain the man” (100). The captain shows here that his mastery of reasoning has not left him, but his improbable fears are still present: "If he had known how much I was afraid that he would test my sense of identity with the 'other ! »(100). These unjustified fears sow doubt in the reader's mind about the mental well-being and, therefore, the reliability of the narrator. When Archbold next speaks, he says, "I think I only had a distance of over two miles to your ship." Not a little more” (100). This is an obvious indication of suspicion, but the narrator quickly deflects a more direct question (whether Leggett might have had the ability to swim that distance) by saying, "And quite enough, too, in this horrible heat » (100). One might suspect self-preservation as the motive for this reorientation, but the author goes on to state: “Necessity is the mother of invention, but fear also is not devoid of ingenious suggestions. And I was afraid that he would ask me point blank for news about my other self” (100). The captain admits to fearing that he is the instigator of his deception but maintains his fear of being directly questioned. He explains that “for psychological (not moral) reasons” (100), he cannot lie directly. Readers can only speculate about the psychological reasons that prevent him from lying rather than deceiving or preventing a situation in which he.