The Secret Agent Lies and Deceit Quotes

Mr. Vladimir is something of a cultural chameleon. His name suggests that he's Russian, but then again, this might just be a code name like "Yellow Dart" or "Swamp Thing" (that's the one no one wants). Also, his ability to suddenly switch between languages without a trace of an accent suggests that he's even more familiar with the world of deception than Verloc. This gives Vladimir a very intimidating vibe, and it's part of what makes Verloc afraid of him. This ability to shift languages also shows that Mr. Vladimir has no principles, no core moral beliefs that he's trying to protect. He's a total cynic, and is willing to do anything he can to crush the people who actually do have moral ideals. Pardon our (flawless, idiomatic) French, but the dude's a bit of a meanie.

Mr. Vladimir totally grills Verloc on how he (Verloc) got caught by the French police in his younger years. Verloc tries to explain that he went all goo-gah over a femme fatale who sold him out to the police, but Mr. Vladimir doesn't care. Femme fatales are a dime a dozen in the spy game. This might not seem all that important, but it's significant for showing that Verloc himself has been the victim of deception in the past. While it might not justify his lying to Winnie, it definitely makes the guy a lot more human.

When he finally has something resembling an upper hand with Mr. Vladimir, Verloc decides to show off his booming voice, which has made him trustworthy as an undercover agent because its allowed him to speak at open-air meetings and to look like a good leader. That said, this is a pretty superficial way to gain peoples trust, and the book might be critical of just how easy it is to fool people. In any case, Mr. Vladimir isn't impressed, and doesn't care about how well Verloc can deceive people. What he cares about is getting the police to stop worrying about people's rights and to start taking down left-wing thinkers whether they've committed crimes or not.

Mr. Vladimir hatches his plan for Verloc to stage a bomb attack somewhere in London. Vladimir does this because he really, really hates political radicals, and feels like the English police are too respectful of people's stupid rights. He wants to create a situation in which the police will start rounding up all political dissenters and arresting them, and he feels he can do this if he stages an attack. The fact that he wants the attack to be on a building might make us think for a moment that he respects human life, but in reality, it's just a strategic choice. The most meaningful attacks on society, the book suggests, are symbolic ones. Oh yeah, and Vladimir doesn't care if anyone dies.

Verloc has spent the evening listening to his anarchist friends, hoping to get one of them to plant the bomb for him at the Greenwich Observatory. But he soon gets fed up with his "friends" for just being a bunch of talkers. Here, Conrad gives you an in-depth look at the lazy work Verloc's been doing for the past seven years. Verloc cherishes his lazy life more than anything else, and he's really threatened by the idea of getting a (gasp!) real job. Through this scene of deception, Conrad shows us that anarchists and political radicals tend to be all talk, and the person who's supposedly spying on them from the "lawful" side of society is just trying to protect his laziness. Neither side is all that admirable, since at the end of the day, it's just a bunch of people not doing anything.

Here, Heat commits an act of deception by stealing evidence from a crime scene without informing the reporting constable. In fact, he's really careful to hide what he's done, since Heat is a dude who likes to play by his own rules.

In this scene of deception, Conrad again shows how the police try to cultivate an image of themselves as upholders of the law. But in reality, Heat uses deception just as much as (if not more than) the criminals in order to get things done. He's totally the Dirty Harry of London.

In a funny way, the Assistant Commissioner of Police takes it on himself to get involved with the spy games going on in this book. He plans to visit Verloc's shop without Heat, even though its pretty weird for a bureaucratic to do this. He even twists up the ends of his moustache and eats an anonymous meal at an Italian restaurant so he can enjoy what it feels like to be a spy. Just as Heat has his own (not always legal) way of doing things, the Assistant Commissioner decides that he's going to investigate a case on his own terms. This whole sequence satirically shows how very important matters of justice are often decided by the personal whims of police officials.

Verloc comes very, very close to telling Winnie about being a secret agent and about the insane task he's been assigned. But when he looks at her, he decides not to. At several points in the book, he's tried to talk to her about how he isn't feeling well. But she always takes this as a sign that he's getting fed up with Stevie, so she starts talking about how useful and kind her brother is. There is a total lack of communication between the Verlocs. You might almost feel bad for Verloc, considering how little his wife ever thinks about him. Both have their own reasons for not communicating, but the book strongly suggests that this lack of communication is what allows Verloc's deception to keep going.

At this fateful moment, Verloc proposes the first phase of his terrible plan to Winnie, suggesting that they should send Stevie out into the country to live with Michaelis. Winnie's noticed that Stevie has been acting weird; but what she doesn't realize is that Verloc's been brainwashing him to plant a bomb. This is definitely the worst lie in the entire book, and as readers, we might already be able to tell where all of this is heading. Our ability to see the lies, combined with our inability to do anything about them, gives a sense of dramatic irony to the book, but also a sense of helplessness. Just as there's nothing Stevie can do to heal the world, there is nothing we can do to save Stevie.

Comrade Ossipon commits the last terrible act of deception in this novel. He pretends that he'll help Winnie escape from England after killing her husband, but at the last second, pulls a total James Bond and jumps off a train with all her money. In doing this, he basically signs Winnie's death warrant. This act of deception is the one final kick in the gut that Conrad gives you as a reader. Despite how awful the world of this book has been so far, this sudden betrayal can still come as a total shock. But Conrad can't resist; he needs to tell you one last time that people are huge jerks.