Common Themes in The Secret Sharer, Heart of Darkness, and The Shadow Line Joseph Conrad's stories The Secret Sharer, Heart of Darkness, and The Line of shadow share a number of themes. All three stories deal with a process of maturation that involves the loss of youthful illusions, a process usually accelerated by an actual "trial" that tests the protagonist's professional abilities as well as his assumptions about his identity and sanity. mental. By successfully facing the crisis, the protagonist rebuilds his own identity and develops moral ideas rooted in the recognition of his own and others' human weaknesses and therefore of the necessary interdependence of men. Each story is told from the point of view of a narrator: Marlow in Heart of Darkness and an unnamed captain in his first command in both The Secret Sharer and The Shadow Line. They all display a naive or idealized view of the world. Marlow chooses to go to the Congo because, since he was a boy, that part of Africa has always "enchanted" him. When the narrator of The Shadow Line unexpectedly obtains command of a ship to replace a recently deceased captain, he longs to go "to sea. The sea, which was pure and safe and friendly" (96). Likewise, the narrator of The Secret Sharer prematurely delights in the "great security of the sea" (23). All three narrators are also solitary figures. The two new captains are isolated by virtue of their positions; they cannot become intimate with their men without the risk of losing their respect, and Marlow is culturally isolated in the African jungle. Each narrator encounters a real physical test. The new captain of The Shadow Line discovers, when at sea and with a crew suffering from tropical fevers, that the "crazy" for... means of paper... stress. At the same time, by allowing themselves to be temporarily seduced, then examining and separating the errors of their doubles, narrators draw new conclusions and incorporate new knowledge not only about themselves but also about the responsibilities and realities of their chosen roles. Marlow announces that he "remained faithful to Kurtz to the last" (149), and the captain of The Shadow Line admits that survival would not have been possible without his devoted crew who are "worthy of [his] immortal esteem" ( 120). A hint of these signs of maturity that recognizes the interdependence of men can also be found in the nameless captain's final gesture towards Leggatt in his gift of the white hat. This expression of compassion for Leggatt's "mere flesh" saves the ship and indicates that he has emerged from his self-centered isolation to begin learning to lead his men..