"The Secret Agent"

   When I learned that The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad is considered to be one of the first works on spy work or espionage, I did not know what to think about how the story would be. Truth is, Conrad constructed a story more advanced than I had imagined. He uses the term agent provocateur to imply that Verloc is working two sides, the anarchists and the Embassy. I think the story surprised me because my impression or original thought about the first work of espionage was that it would be more reconnaissance or tapping in on secret conversations, or even perhaps just sneaking into the office of a big company and stealing some files. I certainly did not anticipate such a large scale mission like this for a man to blow up an observatory with a bomb. Aside from the action, I enjoyed how Conrad set up the story and characters. One gets the impression that Verloc is perhaps lazy and certainly that Stevie is unbalanced with a disease or disability that was not known about during the time period it was written.
    I felt the story was a tragedy rather than a comedy. Verloc attempted to work on his relationship with his brother-in-law just as he was asked to do; however, it resulted in a turn of events. He said he was just going to go for a walk with Stevie, but later the reader discovers Stevie died in the explosion. I believe that it is a result of Verloc's attitude on life. Obviously he did not mean for his wife's brother to get harmed in any way, but he comes off as a lazy individual and that may be the reason as to why he poorly planned his time with Stevie that resulted in his death. Conrad does a great job by making Winnie appear as more of a mother figure to Stevie, not just his sister. Winnie and Verloc do not have any kids, but Stevie is Winnie's pride and joy so to speak. She becomes passionately enraged when she learns of the death of her brother. That passion is strong enough that she murders her own husband. Later she drowns herself when she realizes everything that happened.
     In my opinion, Conrad used some of Shakespeare's tragic elements from Romeo and Juliet. He develops a tension in the family with the use of Stevie's death that brings the death of Verloc. Winnie then kills herself after the thought of her love being dead finally settles in her mind. It is not the exact same as Romeo and Juliet but Shakespeare begins the play with a tension between two families and the love between Romeo and Juliet is too powerful for the family to stop. Juliet is under a potion that makes her appear dead so Romeo drinks a poison killing himself so he can be reunited with Juliet in heaven. Little did he know she wasn't really dead, but when she woke from her potion she found her love dead and then killed herself by drinking the rest of the poison. As you can see they are not the exact same, but they have similar components that make them tragedies.
    
I thought it was very well written and the use of a minor character like Stevie to be a major part of the structure and plot is quite genius.