The Enemy Within: The Dichotomy of Hate and Love in the Secret Agent

The novelist Joseph Conrad, though from nearly a century ago, has been proclaimed to be one of the greatest writers of the twenty-first century because he gives some very powerful and objective insight as to what might be at the root of terror in the world. In The Secret Agent, though Conrad allows the political drama to take up most of the action of the story, it is in the resolution of the domestic front wherein his most valuable lesson lies: that secrecy, oppression and abuse are behind all the ills in society. Winnie, the heroine, is exploited both on physical and emotional levels by her husband, Verloc; she is marginalized and is made to feel worthless, only to retaliate with violence. Just as the anarchists in the story target the heart of English society by bombing the Greenwich observatory, Winnie stabs Verloc in the heart in retaliation for his abuse. As we comprehend the political events of this story, we cannot help, but associate them with those that have been happening since 9/11 and that is where Conrad s novel becomes useful. Its objectivity and universality teach us a lesson that can be valuable to us today; it teaches us that secrecy, marginalization and injury can only end in tragedy. Those who feel themselves slighted or exploited resort to evil acts out of desperation. This paper will take a descriptive approach rather than a prescriptive approach, including dichotomies that confront people: friend and foe, neighbor and stranger, as well as dichotomies that divide minds: love and hate, empathy and disdain, trust and fear.