An Existentialist Interpretation Of The Secret Agent

Joseph Conrad is acknowledged as one of the most influential writers in the twentieth century. As a transitional figure, he has experienced the great social changes and the emergence of various thoughts. Being an acute writer, Conrad knows better than his contemporaries to catch the impressions immediately and meditates them in his works. The Secret Agent, as one of such work, is based on an attempt to blow up the Greenwich Observatory in1894. It depicts people’s absurd life in the chaotic world-London during the transitional period, which reveals the authentic human condition in a witty way, just like what the modern existentialists have done.Based on Sartrean Existentialism, this thesis attempts to explore Conrad’s profound insight into human’s spiritual wasteland and to expose his moral concern about human living condition at the era of great changes. It consists of three parts. Chapter One analyzes the absurdity of the world. Sartre believes that man has been thrown in an absurd world which is chaotic and disordered. In The Secret Agent, the civilized city London has been described as an enormous sea of darkness, gloomy and suffocating. The depiction of chaos and irrationality reveals the harsh reality people have experienced during the transitional period. Chapter Two discusses the main characters’ free choice of being. According to Sartre, the outside world or the objective world already exists and we can not change it, but people can choose to be themselves and they are also endowed with the freedom to make choice and testify their own existence. Living in absurdity, both Winnie and Verloc exercise their freedom and make their own choices. However, they do not obtain self-transcendence for their neglecting of what Sartre has emphasized "responsibility". Chapter Three delves on the relationship between the individual and other people, exploring the alienation of interpersonal relationships. Conrad depicts the complicated relationships between men and women, masters and servants, exposing that every character is a secret agent of sorts. The man’s good nature degenerates into barbarism, and harmonious relationship changes into hostile relationships, which is identified with Sartre’s philosophical idea of "being with others." Sartre once stated the idea that "Hell is the other people". In this novel, Conrad fully illustrates this point of view.Through the above analysis, we can have a more comprehensive understanding and evaluation of The Secret Agent. Meanwhile, it provides a new perspective to interpret Conrad’s existential evaluation of human life and philosophical exploration into the ultimate meaning of human existence. Just like the existentialists, Conrad expresses his anxiety for the loss of social value and tries hard to squeeze some order out of absurdity.