The naked man from the sea: identity and separation in 'The Secret Sharer'

Abstract

'The Secret Sharer', Conrad's greatest contribution to the literature of the double, defines a whole series of concerns and conflicts central to both his life and fiction. While producing a dynamic narrative structure, the motif of the divided self becomes a device to overcome the boundaries of adventure in favour of a psychological realism of striking profundity, the drama of a divided subjectivity. Here the double, a fascinating and mysterious murderer, is both the projection of the protagonist's dark side and an empathetic other instrumental in the individuation process and emergence of the sense of self.