Heart of Light under Eastern Eyes : The Polish Illusion of the West in The Secret Agent

Heart of Light under Eastern Eyes : The Polish Illusion of the West in The Secret Agent

The Secret Agent, a narrative of anarchists in London, the capital of the British Empire, can be entitled "Heart of Light" as the counterpart of Heart of Darkness, the colonial Congo. The idea of the "light" of the Western civilization or the "West" was invented to disguise the deteriorated reality of imperial Europe in the late 19th century, Yet the illusory idea of the West originates in the East, which either envies or despises it, as revealed from the perspective of the Russian embassy and anarchists in the novel. The illusion of the West is particularly strong in Conrad's Poland, as the Poles have not only been colonized by Russia but have also adopted the culture of Western Europe. The reality of the Western democracy is no different from Eastern autocracy. The West is distinct by its efficiency, which manipulates the reality of the secret hierarchical system into the surface-reality of the liberal and egalitarian society. Necessarily, the English anarchists who confront the superficial reality are "shams." The moments of awakening from the mistaken reality of the West are depicted in the novel as a chain reaction that begins with Verloc the secret agent and continues with his wife Winnie and anarchists. The Secret Agent is distingiushable from Conrad's earlier works because the protagonists have changed from liberal imperial idealists to anarchists revolting against the empire. The possibility of resistance against the dark colonial reality opens.