In Joseph Conrad’s ”The Shadow Line”, written in 1915, the author explores the passage to manhood.
The story begins with thoughts of youth and its lack of introspection and reflection. The narrator speaks of ”rash moments”, such as when one suddenly marries. He says there is a ”shadow line” that must be crossed from youth to adulthood.
This is indeed a work full of ’sudden passions, ’ in which Conrad is able to show how the full intensity of existence can be experienced by the man who, in the words of the older Captain Giles, is prepared to ’stand up to his bad luck, to his mistakes, to his conscience.’ A subtle and penetrating analysis of the nature of manhood, ’The Shadow-Line’ investigates varieties of masculinity and desire in a subtext that counters the tale’s seemingly conventional surface.
’The Shadow-Line’ is based upon events and experiences from twenty-seven years earlier to which Conrad returned obsessively in his fiction. A young sea captain’s first command brings with it a succession of crises: his sea is becalmed, the crew laid low by fever, and his deranged first mate is convinced that the ship is haunted by the malignant spirit of a previous captain.
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