Subversion of Stereotypical Gender Roles in Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent

Abstract

This research proposes to explore gender relation in Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent. Gender is sociologically determined trend on the society. On the novel female protagonist Winnie get mischievously treated by male protagonist Mr. Verloc, where we can feel masculinity is mistakenly used by Mr. Verloc. We shall argue that Conrad deal narratively with his own traumatic history by displacing it into winne's otherness. This traumatic events is ironically expressed in the falling down of the novels. The house of an overweening unquestioned patriarchy. This thesis especially aims at exploring the paradigm shift of gender roles in Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent. The main problem of the research was what caused the subversion of gender roles and how was it subverted. Consequently the objectives formulated were to explain the reasons behind the subversion of gender roles and the way it has subverted. The research come to the conclusion that males' unjust treatment and over exploitation upon females and growing awareness of females about their position and rights came out to be the main reasons behind this subversion. Mr. Verloc stands as the representative of unjust, exploitating male upon his wife Winne, and it is Winnie who became aware of her position and rights. The study has shown that conscious females' act of crossing the limits of patriarchal general rules even at the cost of violence are the steps of dismantling the traditional gender concept. Gender studies has been used as the tool of analysis in this study. vi