SOURCE: Devers, James. “More on Symbols in Conrad's ‘The Secret Sharer’.” Conradiana 28, no. 1 (1996): 66-76.

In the following essay, Devers provides an interpretation of key symbols in “The Secret Sharer.”

Despite the many critical articles written on “The Secret Sharer,” I believe I can shed more light on certain important symbols mentioned at various points in the story. The symbols I will treat are 1) Leggatt's name, 2) the masculine symbols of cigar and whiskers, 3) the scorpion in the inkwell, 4) the “sham delicacies”, 5) the captain-narrator's problem with hearing, 6) the liquor referred to in the interview with Archbold, 7) the white, floppy hat, 8) Koh-ring, and 9) the two ships. Almost everything I will say here revolves around a proper understanding of the double and how the double relates to the conscious and unconscious minds.

In dealing with past criticism of these symbols, I have sometimes reproduced in this essay symbolic meanings taken out of...