How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
[And] all the time the dual working of my mind distracted me almost to the point of insanity. (1.11)
The captain hints more than once at his feelings of insanity. Sure, he might just be exaggerating, but there's definitely something deeper going on with the "split mind" he keeps referring to. He constantly feels like he's in two places at the same time, and that doesn't really sound all that sane.
Quote #2
My nerves were so shaken that I could not govern my voice and conceal my agitation. (2.82)
The captain doesn't like surprises, and a lonely life on the sea has left his nerves so frayed that he can barely deal with even the teeny tiniest bit of anxiety. This is definitely not what you want in a captain.
Quote #3
This was the sort of thing that made my terrifically whiskered mate tap his forehead with his forefinger. (2.82)
The captain can't stand the way his chief mate is always tapping his head in the captain's presence. He's not entirely sure what the gesture means, but he assumes the chief mate is saying that he is stupid, drunk, or insane. Then again, the captain might just be paranoid.
Quote #4
It was this maddening course of being shouted at, checked without rhyme or reason, arbitrarily chased out of my cabin […] that accounted for the growing wretchedness of his expression. (2.83)
The steward of the captain's ship has a tough task. For starters, he has no clue that the captain is trying to conceal a fugitive in his cabin, so he (the steward) is constantly getting bossed around with no apparent logic to all of the orders. This lack of consistency eventually leaves the steward feeling overworked and completely unsure of himself. By the end of the book, he's practically insane with confusion. Poor guy.
Quote #5
I think I had come creeping quietly as near insanity as any man who has not actually gone over the border. (1.100)
In the first half of the book, the captain tells us straight up that he thinks he's coming close to insanity. Now he thinks he hasn't quite gone over the edge, but that doesn't mean we have to take his word for it.
Quote #6
It would not be true to say I had a shock, but an irresistible doubt of his bodily existence flitted through my mind. (2.100)
Even the captain has to wonder sometimes whether Leggatt is an actual person. After all, how could he do such a good job to avoid detection by other people on the ship? It's not like the thing is huge enough for a person to hide forever…unless that person were invisible . (Disclaimer: We at Shmoop are not actually suggesting Leggatt has an invisibility superpower, we just think it would be really cool if he did.)
Quote #7
The strain of watching the dark loom of the land grow bigger and denser was too much for me. (2.173)
By the end of the book, the captain has almost gone over the edge into insanity. He realizes that he could be killing himself and his whole crew by taking his boat toward the "dark loom" of Koh-ring island. But he can't help himself. Jeez, and we don't even know whether or not if this Leggatt dude is actually real to begin with.
Quote #8
But what I felt most was my being a stranger to the ship; and if all the truth must be told, I was somewhat of a stranger to myself. (1.7)
This comment about being "a stranger to myself" seems like a giveaway about the mental health of our narrator. That's not to say that he's totally insane. But if you think about the space between sane and insane as a sort of spectrum, them you can definitely say that the captain is leaning a little toward the "insane" end at times like this.
Quote #9
My strangeness, which had made me sleepless, had prompted that unconventional arrangement, as if I had expected in those solitary hours of the night to get on terms with the ship of which I knew nothing, manned by men of whom I knew very little more. (1.16)
So it turns out that our captain/narrator hasn't been sleeping very well lately. We guess that explains why he wanders the decks of his ship alone in the middle of the night. It also lends support to the idea that Leggatt might be a hallucination…or not.
Quote #10
I asked myself whether it was wise ever to interfere with the established routine of duties even from the kindest of motives. My action might have made me appear eccentric. (1.18)
On the road from sanity to insanity, we imagine that you pass through several stages, like strange, eccentric, half-mad, and erratic. At this stage, the captain is a little worried that his crew will find him eccentric. But by the end of this book, he wonders whether he's plunged all the way into full-blown insanity. Sounds like he's made quite the journey.