The Secret Agent

Content warning: This section of the guide discusses suicide, abuse, and ableism.

“It appeared that Mr. Verloc was ready to take him over together with his wife’s mother and with the furniture, which was the whole visible fortune of the family.”

The Verloc family came into being as a commercial transaction. Winne came to her husband as a package deal, with Verloc accepting her hand and her furniture as well as her family duties. The nature of the marriage is evidence of Verloc and Winnie’s pragmatic lack of romanticism.

“You—a member of a starving proletariat—never!”

Vladimir points out the disconnect between Verloc’s status and his supposed ideology. Verloc, Vladimir mockingly notes, is large-bodied and indolent, even though he is a supposed defender of the starving working class. Vladimir dismisses the entire anarchist movement in this manner, framing Verloc as an embodiment of the hypocritical and vapid revolutionary ideals held by the anarchists.

“The demonstration must be against learning—science.”

Vladimir wants to target science rather than any other institution. He is an inherently reactionary figure, who wishes to preserve the status quo. Anarchism is a threat to this, and science represents the cutting edge of the future. By attacking science, he can attack a beloved representation of the potential future in the minds of the public and turn opinion against change.