Saturday, December 08, 2007

The Secret Agent - post V

Should have posted this last night but things intervened so here is the last post on The Secret Agent with just a review to come.

Having stumbled back to his home after the bombing in Greenwich Park Mr Verloc faces the challenge of explaining to his wife why her brother died. The problem is that his wife is not listening and she realises that the man in front of her is a killer who took the life of her brother.

The more he moans on about the embassy and the pressure he was under to carry out the bombing the less he gets through to her and in the end is rewarded with a knife in the stomach. Mrs Verloc then stumbles around in shock and rushes out of the house and into the arms of one of the other members of the anarchist group. The Doctor, as he is known, has a weakness with women and announces all too quickly that he has always loved her. But after having been introduced to her husband's corpse he starts to panic and although appearing to go along with her plans to flee to the continent jumps off the train and leaves her to travel to the continent alone.

The chronology then skips with the Doctor talking to the bomb carrying Professor sharing a rather frank and bitter exchange before pulling out a newspaper report detailing the suicide of Mrs Verloc who threw herself off the cross channel ferry. As he stumbles off to the wreck of his life the bitter professor shuffles off through the streets with his bomb under his coat. His power is ignored but his arrogance remains and his stumbling off into the dark sums up the contrast between those who choose to use their own suicide as a weapon and the masses around them who have no such concept.

A review will follow soon...