A simple tale.
A Lack of Loyalty
Conrad's A Secret Agent is a novel of corruption, terrorism, and unclear loyalties. With the protagonist, Mr. Verloc, Conrad is able to portray a story that hold no sympathy for any of its characters.
|
Anarchy:
Anarchy is the main "purpose" or motive that drives the characters in the plot of The Secret Agent. While Verloc is an unmotivated and seemingly harmless man, he is still a spy working to bring anarchy to his country. His occupation however, is just a job to him. Verloc is a spy because he can be and his motives do not not go further than simple self-interest. |
Adolph Verloc:
Verloc is a unique charcter in the sense that he does not hold much of the characteristics one would expect a protagonist, especially one that is an anarchist, to have. For one he lacks passion for much of anything, but certainly not for his supposed cause. Quote: "[Verloc] embraced indolence from an impulse as profound, as inexplicable and as imperious as the impulse which directs a man's preference for one particular woman in a given thousand" (Conrad, 10). In this quote, Verloc is described as not truly loyal to anything or anyone; not his wife or job. If anything, Verloc is the most loyal to himself and to the ideal of being lazy. |
Winnie & Stevie:
In The Secret Agent , the reader find the biggest example of loyalty mostly employed by Winnie towards Stevie. She makes decisions and takes action all with Stevie in the forefront of her mind. Ultimately, this loyalty towards Stevie is what ends up to cause Verloc and her own demise. Quote: "She had to love him with a militant love. She had battled for him—even against herself. His loss had the bitterness of defeat, with the anguish of a baffled passion" (Conrad, 181). In this quote, the reader can feel how enraged Winnie is upon hearing of Stevie's death. So much that she destroys the life she worked so hard to build. Her loyal devotion made her life dependent on Stevie's to point that Stevie's death was her own. |