Ironies In The Secret Agent

The Secret Agent, written by Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), is now regarded as his consummate achievement in the art of fiction by J.Berthoud. A careful reader may find ironies in the fiction, which are used as artistic techniques. Irony has been a slippery concept and it will be a worthwhile attempt to survey the ironies in the work. It is well acknowledged that The Secret Agent is a great ironical work and Conrad's ironic strength shapes the book· into a new genre. The thesis intends to examine ironies in the novel, discussing the concept of irony, irony in the characterization, irony in the structure, and irony in the morality of The Secret Agent. The ironies act as a chain to gear up the form and the content of the novel artistically.The thesis contains four chapters, along with an introduction and a conclusion. The introduction introduces briefly the background and motivation of this thesis. Chapter One conducts a study firstly of irony concept, then of artistic features of ironies in The Secret Agent, and finally of critical responses to ironies in this novel. Chapter Two analyzes irony of the Characterization in The Secret Agent. The thesis author divides characters into three groups, namely, the poor and helpless, the rich and upper, and the anarchists. Conrad depicts the poor and helpless with tragic irony and applies comic irony to the rich and upper. When picturing anarchists, Conrad's tone turns to satirical irony. Different ironic attitudes towards three groups of characters reflect that the irony towards three groups takes on a double edge. Chapter Three is on irony of structure in The Secret Agent. Structure here refers to narrative structure. Discussions of narrative structure can emphasize narrative's complicated relations with time, order and disorder, and generic conventions. Maneuvers in the creation of irony may find in three ways: the irony of narrative time, the irony of parody, and the irony of narrator. Chapter Four gives descriptions of moral irony in The Secret Agent. Conrad's moral purposes are analyzed according to the ironies scrutinized in previous chapters. Actually, almost every setting, character, and action in the novel mocks and is mocked by elusive moral judgments. Lastly comes conclusion, in which the main points of the thesis are briefly summarized.