No Safe Heaven

Abstract

Adopted from the Greenwich bombing which had taken place in 1890, The Secret Agent is a dramatic portrayal of the sociological concept of “anomie” – radical disorder in the social structure and consequent personal dislocation. Despite its ironic scepticism, the novel carries with it certain implications for conduct. It does not amount to a political program, any more than it provides to a moral code, but it suggests an ideal social order through its representation of a world with order. This paper thus seeks to explore Conrad’s version of a modern world in a state of fragmentation.