According to Merrion-Webster Inc. Dictionary, a doppelgänger is a double, an often ghostly or evil counterpart to a character. It comes from the German language, doppel- double + -gänger goer. It might be asked, “What does a doppelgänger have to do with a paper on Joseph Conrad?” The answer is a lot, especially if Conrad’s “The Secret Sharer” is being discussed. In this short story, the two characters, the captain and Leggatt, share many similarities, as well as differences. When comparing the similarities and differences, they can be used to show the duality between the captain and Leggatt. Conrad used Leggatt as a do