The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale
The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale was published in 1907 and has remained in print since. Conrad was inspired by an actual bombing gone wrong in 1894, which resulted in the accidental death of a French anarchist in London. It deals with themes of betrayal and morality amid an ongoing struggle between revolutionary intrigue and the machinations of a state and its police. It has inspired many adaptions, including to film as recently as 2021.
Summary
Adolf Verloc, the story’s protagonist, is a middle-aged man balancing the roles of husband, head of household, and sometime shopkeeper with underground revolutionary organiser and informant. He leads a double life, one characterised by a duplicity typical of his trade, though we soon learn his domestic life is also built upon foundations of secrecy, insincerity, and expediency. And it is these personal relationships which are to suffer the most from his attempts at self-preservation when his livelihood comes under threat.
“Mr Verloc carried on his business of a seller of shady wares, exercised his vocation of a protector of society, and cultivated his domestic virtues…he had embraced indolence…was too lazy even for a mere demagogue, for a workman orator, for a leader of labour. It was too much trouble. He required a more perfect form of ease…Such a form of indolence requires, implies, a certain amount of intelligence.”
The action takes place against a bleak London background, the effect of which is compounded by several other story elements: Verloc’s appearance (described as “burly in a fat-pig style”), his ‘shady’ business located in “a narrow street in Soho” which acts as a front for his covert activities as a secret agent, and his loveless marriage to Winnie, who we learn has accepted the arrangement as a way to provide for both her disabled brother Stevie and her elderly mother. It unfolds as a very human tragedy, one arising from the incompatibility of ordinary domestic life and a hidden world of vice, intrigue, and deception.
Verloc is a long-serving agent of the Russian 1 embassy in London, having earned a reputation for being an effective operator. Despite this, he is hauled before new management in the form of Mr Vladimir - its First Secretary and a man determined to rein in Verloc’s scheming associates (a colourful cast of English anarchists). Vladimir is immediately hostile to his loyal employee, whom he sees as an unconvincing radical - Verloc is fat, lazy, and married - and proceeds to shake him from his indolent slumber with insults and threats to his employment.
The purpose of the summons soon becomes clear: Vladimir seeks to enact “universal repressive legislation” against the hotbed of revolutionaries being housed by a state that has gone soft on what he perceives as a dangerous threat to the continent. But he first needs a pretext; an incident that will provide a “jolly good scare” to the torpid masses of middle-class England. This is to be an attack on a symbol of scientific progress cherished by the public: the Greenwich Observatory in London. The meeting with Vladimir is a pivotal moment in the story that leads directly to the unravelling of a proud man - one whose perilous existence requires rubbing shoulders with the wrong people.
Verloc’s other life is centred around his dependents: his wife Winnie, her mother, and her brother Stevie. They are unaware of the true source of their provision, though it allows them to look past, or at least rationalise, Verloc’s often brusque manner and neglectful behaviour. Winnie has adapted to a life of sacrifice and disappointment with impassive and dutiful resolve, having taken on a maternal role for Stevie (who has an unnamed intellectual disability 2) since a difficult childhood where she was forced to protect him from their father. By marrying Verloc, she has given up the chance of having her own children, and at one point wistfully imagines he and her brother’s likeness as father and son. It is a life lived under false pretences, with no real connection or affection. The situation seems as grim as the Soho streets and the impression is made that it cannot last.
“She had never really understood why Winnie had married Mr Verloc. It was very sensible of her, and evidently had turned out for the best, but her girl might have naturally hoped to find somebody of a more suitable age'… ‘Might be father and son,’ she said to herself. She thought also that Mr Verloc was as much of a father as poor Stevie ever had in his life. She was aware also that it was her work.”
Though the makeshift family exists because of Stevie, Verloc does not seem to understand Winnie’s worry and sacrifice for the young man, regarding him as little more than an annoyance. Stevie is innocent, trusting, and childlike; the object of both affection and anxiety for Winnie and her mother. He becomes naively loyal to Verloc, perceiving him as “good” under the influence of his sister and guardian.
“Winnie after the death of her father found considerable consolation in the feeling that she need no longer tremble for poor Stevie. She could not bear to see the boy hurt. It maddened her…Nothing now in Mrs Verloc’s appearance could lead one to suppose that she was capable of a passionate demonstration.”
All this is prelude to our discovery of “a man blown up in Greenwich Park”. We learn of the event from Verloc’s anarchist associates, including man known as ‘The Professor’ - a dissident expert in explosives who harbours a grudge against humanity and who provided Verloc (initially assumed to be the victim) the materials for the bomb. But the police investigation led by Chief Inspector Heat and his superior, the Assistant Commissioner, soon uncovers that there was a second man involved, and it was he who was “blown to pieces”. It is clear, though not confirmed, from the descriptions of the two men and the accidental nature of the death that the victim is Stevie, who had begun to accompany Verloc on his outdoor excursions upon Winnie’s naïve suggestion. Inspector Heat then discovers a crucial piece of evidence: part of the deceased man’s velvet collar with an address inscribed that leads to a discovery of the true victim.
The pieces of the puzzle are revealed early on in the story, and it then remains for Heat and the Assistant Commissioner to put them together. But before they do, the reader is returned to events prior to Stevie’s unthinkable end. We learn more of Stevie’s empathetic nature and this understanding reinforces the senseless and unjust nature of his death. It is confirmed that it was Verloc who inexplicably, and quite literally, led Stevie to his death.
In the final third of the story, Winnie belatedly learns of Stevie’s fate and the extent of Verloc’s flawed character becomes clear. Comrade Ossipon re-emerges to prey upon the presumed-to-be newly-minted widow, though by this time things have escalated to such a point that even he is shocked; he then engages in an act of betrayal that ends any idea of redemption for all involved.
Analysis of key events and themes
Betrayal: Dishonesty and betrayal seem inherent in the life of the anarchists, including Verloc, who serves as a Vice-President of the ‘Future of the Proletariat’ society. We first learn that a young Verloc was betrayed by a love interest and that this event resulted in him serving five years’ in prison; Verloc himself betrays his anarchist revolutionary friends in his role as secret agent; Verloc feels betrayed by Winnie when she unintentionally leads the police to him by writing their address on Stevie’s coat; Stevie is betrayed by Verloc; Winnie’s trust in Verloc is betrayed when she entrusts him to look after Stevie; Verloc is murdered by Winnie; Winnie is betrayed by Ossipon who she believes will help her escape punishment.
Tragedy: The sense of tragedy in Stevie’s death is brought out by the circumstances surrounding it. Stevie is killed horrifically without an understanding the danger he was placed in by someone he trusted (Verloc). He is an innocent who suffered abuse as a child. He is the precious object of affection and duty for Winnie. He comes to trust and admire Verloc and Winnie even imagines them as father and son at one point. Winnie married Verloc knowing they would not have children after sacrificing the attentions of a more suitable man and this is a source of regret for her. Stevie’s death invites the reader to reflect upon the morality of the actors involved.
Truth: Verloc conceals the extent of his secret life from his wife and her family. Winnie accepts this secrecy and asks no questions to maintain support for Stevie and her mother. Winnie enters into a loveless marriage with Verloc for financial reasons. The Assistant Commissioner is perhaps the most moral character due to his integrity in pursuit of the truth: there is a measure of justice in his eventual confrontation with Mr Vladimir, whose reckless scheming caused the series of events.
Literary methods and techniques
Non-linear chronology: We learn of Stevie’s death before being returned to the events that preceded it. This technique allows Conrad to present the reality of the shocking event before examining what preceded it and then its consequences. The foreshadowing of later events helps to build anticipation for the final scenes involving Winnie’s response to Stevie’s death and Verloc’s betrayal.
Characterisation: Stevie, through his disability, dependence, and naively empathetic nature, is an object of sympathy. Because of this, it is difficult to imagine Stevie’s death as anything other than tragic. This technique reminded me of the character Stephen Blackpool in Charles Dickins’s Hard Times; an innocent and virtuous man who suffers a similarly unjust fate.
The depiction of the ‘revolutionaries’ as undesirables and outcasts whose view of humanity is shaped by their own personal defects and shortcomings contributes to a sense of futility in the whole affair. It is hard to empathise with these characters or their motivations.
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1 This fact is not stated but seems likely.
2 He is described as a ‘degenerate’ in a ‘scientific’ sense by ex-medical student Ossipon.
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