English Literature

Joseph Conrads The Secret Agent has its lead characters based on Martial Bourdin, a French anarchist who died gruesomely in 1894 after explosives he was carrying detonated on him. The target he intended to bomb remains a mystery up to this date, but speculations are that he intended to blow up the Greenwich observatory. Conrads motivation to write this novel arose out of his fascination with the villainy of anarchists and terrorists who could orchestrate criminal activities with total disregard of the law (Burleigh, 147). Conrad recalls discussing the story of the attempted attack on the Greenwich observatory with Ford Madox and describes it as a blood-stained inanity of so fatuous a kind that it was impossible to fathom its origin by any reasonable or even unreasonable process of thought.

    The Greenwich bombing is employed to deliver the themes of terrorism and anarchy. Verloc works for an agency that requires him to actively engage in undertaking terrorist activities. Many of the characters in the novel take part in terrorist activities in one way or another motivated by their desire of starting a political revolution that is anarchistic. At the time the novel was written, terrorism was increasingly becoming an international threat. Conrad however notes that Winnie, the protagonists wife, is the most grievous of all anarchists in the novel because according to him, she is the one who commits the most atrocious act of violence against another person. Bomb attacks had been done in many parts of Europe and the United States of America and there had been numerous politically motivated assassinations including several heads of states.  The bombing of the observatory is used to symbolize Russian revolutionary Mikhail Bakunin, and Peter Kropotkin is the two people heavily used by the author to portray anarchists (Simmons  Stapes 92).

    The plot to bomb the Greenwich observatory is symbolic of anarchy. First, it would appear unusual to choose such an unlikely target for an attack like that (Conrad, 43). In the real case, the bomb Bourdin was carrying was small, almost not able to cause any serious damage to the observatory. The conspirators in Conrads novel led by Vladimir intended a purely destructive execution of the attack and wanted the anarchists who would be implicated in the bombing to make it clear and create a sufficiently firm impression that they were out to change the entire establishment. Moreover, Vladimir passes a message of changing the system to extent that governance is abolished. It is very ironical that the real form of political anarchism is schemed by a secret agency of the government.

    The role of terrorism in the novel is important in bringing out the motivations of perpetrators of acts of violence. Both the police and the public are portrayed to have a common that terrorism is becoming a major threat, which is hard to speculate on the possible attacks.  Conrad deliberately manipulates the chronology of the events that led to the bombing of the Greenwich observatory therefore corrupting the traditional perception of time. However, his carelessness leads to the death of his brother in law and his wife Winnie is so mad at him for this. Morality is put to the test (Burleigh, 152). Should having divergent political opinion be a motivation of committing acts of terrorism and shedding innocent blood and destroying property The effect on the lives of orchestrators of acts of terrorism as explored. Verloc is obliged to undertake the bombing of the observatory in order to maintain his job. His conscious does not permit him to incur any human casualties in the process of executing this activity, and he wants to survive so that he can look after his family.

    It is because of holding different opinion on politics of the day and the system of government in place that motivates extremism. The main character of this novel, Verloc, is employed by a quasi-political outfit. The FP has a revolutionary ideological background and actively publishes pamphlets to spread their opinions. These take a firm hold on the life of Verloc and all the other characters and influences their personal beliefs and private lives. How anarchism is depicted in this novel still remains relevant in todays world but on the narrower sense of fighting terrorism. The FP discusses what role anarchism must play in contemporary life and chief police inspector Heat is quite aware of the threat this outfit poses. This is why he imposes a curfew on Michaeli, constantly monitoring his movement and even instructing him to notify the police every time he is moving out of the country.

    The bombing of the Greenwich observatory is a manifestation of the view held by anarchists that no system of governance in any form whatsoever should exist. Such were the political belief of Mikhail Bakunin. He also rejected the idea of social and political hierarchy, the authority of God and any form of external authority being wielded on the individual whether from a sovereign authority or from any system that may be put in place by man (Burleigh, 154).

The anarchists believed in a collective anarchism. The people would be the creators of wealth, freely managing their methods of production through production associations they would freely form and join. The system would offer every person an equal means of subsistence and support while guaranteeing an equal opportunity to every child, male or female, to acquire an education and get every other need fulfilled until adulthood. Every adult would have the privilege of having an equal allocation of resources and opportunity to make a living.

     In God and State, Bakunin wrote to the effect that individual liberty should be characterized by a person only obeying the laws of nature as he or she has recognized and interpreted them, but not on account of these laws being imposed on him. Furthermore, he believed that social classes should not exist in society, and that the according of privileges on individuals particularly the ruling class was peculiar as the granting of a higher status on some people killed intellect and the spirit of the other people.

    The Greenwich observatory bombing is representative of the anarchists desire to realize a revolution. This is contradictory to Mikhail Bakunins belief that a revolution did not have to be orchestrated through the use of violence (Conrad, 54). Rather, the workers are supposed to organize themselves on a federal basis, to create ideas and wealth and chart a way into the future. In the Secret Agent, Conrad uses the Greenwich bombing to bring out the disaffection of people who harbor hostilities towards the existent social order, greed as is visualized by Verloc opting to participate in a bombing so that he maintains his employment status. This bombing is a perfect representation of the anarchist revolutionary movement of the 20th century that brought about many political uprisings later. It is representative of the extremism that may arise in a situation of political instability.