Quest of the Spirit: From Suffering to Acceptance

8.2.Dystopian/Anti-Terrorism: Conrad's Secret Agent: The First Terrorist Novel

                                                        The Secret Agent: The First Terrorist Novel

       Terrorism, brutality, and unwarranted aggression take the lives of countless civilians each day in our world, especially in communist countries and those threatened by its devastating effects! The rules of society are " built upon conventional morality. It leans on the social order. Mine stands free from everything artificial. They are bound in all sorts of conventions. They depend on life, which, in this connection, is a historical fact surrounded by all sorts of restraints and considerations, a complex and organized fact open to attack at every point; whereas, I depend on death. which knows no restraint and cannot be attacked. My superiority is evident" (Conrad 67). This passage from Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent (1907) embodies the anarchist's creed, one which employs  death, terror, uncertainty, and destruction in the name of social progress.   According to critic F. R. Leavis, in The Great Tradition, " . . . The Secret Agent is one of Conrad's two supreme masterpieces, one of the two unquestionable classics of the first order that he added to the English novel." In essence, The Secret Agent is the first terrorist novel. Throughout the story, the author uses irony, fatalism, and suspense to create a tone of tragic loss and betrayal. The conflict occurs between Verloc, a secret service agent, and Vladimir, the First Secretary of the Party, who demands that he  bomb a nearby location , a terrorist act which which tragically cost him the life of his a wife, her younger brother, and himself. Conrad uses internal dialogue throughout the plot, as the main character attempts to justify his character and behavior to those whom he loves the most.  The narrative commences with protagonist Adolf Verloc, agent for the center of general intelligence, leaving his small shop in London in the charge of his brother-in-law.  Verloc cares very little about the shop's business which included "shady" items such as crude pictures of dancing girls, "ancient French comics, bowls, bottles of ink , and rubber stamps, curfew books with titles hinting at impropriety, and old copies of newspapers with titles such as The Torch and The Gong" (17).Customers  mainly include either "very young men or poor middle-class ones.  Conrad describes Verloc's wife Winnie as a "young woman with a fully bust, in a tight bodice, and with broad hips" (18). Frequently, Verloc conducts his confidential business during the night, returning around three in the morning; and often travels to the Continental to obtain his directives (20).On many occasions, Verloc's socialist and anarchist associates meet in his shop after hours. His wife, and her younger brother Stevie, know  very little of his secret affairs  and Adolf warns them not to divulge any of the conversations held during these meetings (20). The Verlocs themselves have no children, but they  rear Stevie, who is highly sensitive yet mentally challenged (22). Conrad uses this "shady" and mysterious setting to establish a tone of intrigue and suspense, especially on the evening of Verloc's visitations, during which times these unkempt gentlemen discuss practices and procedures to promote their policies. Verloc views himself as a "protector" of the people (24), that everyone needs protection (24).  As the protagonist walks enters the Embassy, Privy Councillor Wurmt  tells Verloc that "we are not satisfied with the police work here," and that  the main character should initiate "an occurrence which would stimulate the police's vigilance" (27). Wurmt also says, "The general leniency of the judicial procedure here , and the utter absence of all repressive measures, are a scandal to Europe" (28) Because of Wurmt's dissatisfaction with Verloc's the inability to find any significant information, the Councilor attacks the protagonist's corpulence and orders him to the First Secretary Vladimir (29), notorious for his use of violence to attain his ends and the terror he inspires in his  hearts of his subordinates. Vladimir tells Verloc's associate Ossipon that no policeman will ever arrest him because of an explosive attached to a flask on his chest that he wears at all times, a bomb that would kill everyone within a sixty yard radius (65). As Vladimir, or the Professor,  attacks Verloc's loyalty to the Cause, the hero  disagrees,  asserting that he had spent "five years in confinement in a fortress " for acquiring "an improved breech  block of their new field gun"(30). Verloc declare that he has been a spy for eleven years, and only ironically  was betrayed by a woman whom he knew in his youth.  Verloc also alludes to his prominent social standing  as a speaker in the general assemblies, a position which confirms the comrades' high regard for his character (31). Verlac also tells Vladimir about an organization in which he is one of the vice-presidents, an organization  called The Future of the Proletariat, which is not anarchist but "open to all shade of revolutionary opinion" (34-35). Verloc's sign is the triangle, and this body of men his "warnings had the power to change the schemes and the dates of royal, imperial, or grand-ducal journeys, and sometimes cause them to be put off altogether" (35). Nevertheless, Vladimir declares that "when you cease to be useful , you shall cease to be employed" (36).  It is at this phase of Verloc's career that Vladimir orders him to start "bombing buildings" to gain the English's attention, not to bomb churches or political figures, but science buildings because science is the growing edifice of civilization. Vladimir calls for an "act  of destructive ferocity so absurd as to be  incomprehensible, inexplicable, almost unthinkable; in fact, mad? Madness alone is truly terrifying, inasmuch as you cannot placate it either by threats, persuasion, or bribes" (40). Vladimir demands the provocation of a "dynamite outrage"   within a month! ( 43).