Subversion of Stereotypical Gender Roles in Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent
Date
2018
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of english
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.
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Description
Keywords
English Novels, The Secret Agent