The Shadow-Line

The Shadow-Line depicts the development of a young man upon taking a captaincy in the Orient, with the shadow line of the title representing the threshold of this development. The ironic constructions following from the conflict between the 'young' protagonist (who is never named) and the 'old' drive much of the underlying points of this novel, namely the nature of wisdom, experience and maturity. Conrad also extensively uses irony by comparison in the work, with characters such as Captain Giles and the ship's 'factotum' Ransome used to emphasise strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist.