KARABÜK ÜNİVERSİTESİ KARABÜK ÜNÝVERSÝTESÝ SOSYAL BÝLÝMLER ENSTÝTÜSÜ DERGÝSÝ KARABUK UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES INSTITUTE

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1 KARABÜK ÜNİVERSİTESİ KARABÜK ÜNÝVERSÝTESÝ SOSYAL BÝLÝMLER ENSTÝTÜSÜ DERGÝSÝ KARABUK UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES INSTITUTE

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3 BAŞLARKEN Batı Karadeniz'in cumhuriyet ve sanayi kenti olan Karabük'te kurulan üniversitemiz bilime, demokrasiye ve barışın önemine inanan, özgür düşünen, araştırmacı, girişimci, insan sevgisi ve saygısıyla dolu, ülkesini geleceğe taşıyacak bireyler yetiştirmeyi amaçlayan bir kurumdur. Misyonumuz araştırmak, çok çalışmak, uluslararası düzeyde araştırma ve yayın yapan öğretim üyelerinin önderliğinde, toplumsal bilince, genel kültür ve iletişim becerilerine sahip, küresel anlamda dünyanın her yerinde çalışabilecek başarılı meslek ve bilim adamları yetiştirmektir. Üniversitemiz henüz çok genç ve yeni olmasına karşın az zamanda büyük işler başarmayı amaçladık. Büyük önder Atatürk'ün ufku görmek yetmez, ufkun ötesine de odaklanmak gerekir sözünden esinlenerek, bilimin bayrağını sonraki nesillere emin adımlarla taşımayı ve kendi alanında en iyilerden biri olmayı ilke edindik. Bir yükseköğretim kurumuna üniversite niteliği kazandıran en önemli kriterlerden biri bilimsel araştırmalara yaptığı katkıdır. Bu dergi, bilime ve araştırmaya verdiğimiz önemin bir sonucu olarak bilimsel gelişmeye küçük de olsa bir katkı sağlaması için hazırlandı. İşte bu görevi üstlenen bir ekip tarafından hazırlanan bu yayının bilimsel üretime katkı yapacağını umuyor ve bu üretime ortak olmak isteyen bilim adamlarımızın bilimsel araştırma ve çalışmaları ile bizi desteklemelerini bekliyoruz. Prof. Dr. Burhanettin Uysal Karabük Üniversitesi Rektörü Karabük Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi iii

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5 BU SAYININ HAKEMLERÝ / REFEREES OF THIS ISSUE Prof. Dr. Belgin ELBÝR Ankara Üniversitesi Dil - Tarih Coðrafya Fakültesi, Ýngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatý Prof. Dr. Ýhsan BULUT Atatürk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi, Coðrafya Bölümü Prof. Dr. Turhan KORKMAZ Zonguldak Karaelmas Üniversitesi Ý.Ý.B.F. Ýþletme Bölümü Doç. Dr. Lerzan GÜLTEKÝN Atýlým Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi, Ýngiliz Edebiyatý Doç. Dr. Servet KARABAÐ Gazi Üniversitesi Gazi Eðitim Fakültesi Coðrafya Eðitimi Anabilim Dalý Yrd. Doç. Dr. Faruk ATAAY Akdeniz Üniversitesi Ý.Ý.B.F. Kamu Yönetimi Bölümü Yrd. Doç. Dr. Mehmet ARI Abant Ýzzet Baysal Üniversitesi Ý.Ý.B.F. Kamu Yönetimi Bölümü Yrd. Doç. Dr. Murat YILDIRIM Karabük Üniversitesi Ý.Ý.B.F. Ýþletme Bölümü Yrd. Doç. Dr. Özcan SEZER Zonguldak Karaelmas Üniversitesi İ.İ.B.F. Kamu Yönetimi Bölümü v Karabük Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi

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7 İÇİNDEKİLER / CONTENTS Sayfa Winnie Verloc As A Tragic Heroine: From Stability To Explosion Trajik Bir Kadın Kahraman Olarak Winnie Verloc: Durgunluktan Patlamaya Yrd. Doç. Dr. Mevlüde Zengin 1-22 İzmir' in Güneye Doğru Gelişim i: Gaziemir Development Of Izmir To The South: A Case Study From Gaziemir Yrd. Doç. Dr. Raziye Oban (Çakıcıoğlu) - Yılmaz Aşkın Feedback Trading Of Foreign Investors; An Empirical Survey On ISE Yabancı Yatırımcıların Geri Besleme Davranışlarının İncelenmes i: İMKB Üzerine Ampirik Bir Çalışma Yrd. Doç. Dr. Serpil Tomak Arend Lijphart' ın Demokrasi Tipolojisi ve Türkiye Örneği Arend Lijphart's Democracy Typology And The Case Of Turkey Arş. Gör. Engin Şahin Sosyoloji ve Arap Dünyas ındaký Geliþimi Çev. Doç. Dr. Hür Mahmut Yücer Karabük Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi vii

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9 Karabük Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi Yıl,1 Sayı,1 s.s. 1-22, 2010 ISSN: X WINNIE VERLOC AS A TRAGIC HEROINE: FROM STABILITY TO EXPLOSION Yrd. Doç. Dr. Mevlüde Zengin Karabük Üniversitesi Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi, Ýngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatý Bölümü mzengin@karabuk.edu.tr ABSTRACT Winnie Verloc, in Joseph Conrad's Secret Agent, seems to be a minor character; yet the whole action is based on her story. Therefore, she becomes as important as the major character, Mr. Verloc. This essay aims to study Winnie Verloc as a tragic heroine in the melodramatic story bulking large in the novel. It has been observed that the seed of Winnie's tragedy has a double dimension. The first is man's repression which has pervaded Winnie's life, beginning from her childhood and lasting till the end of her life.in this respect, it has been pointed out that the four men become essential figures in her plight and thus their roles in her tragic situation have been defined. It has been viewed that Winnie, though sometimes tries to resist it, is subject to the repression, which makes her a tragic heroine. In Winnie's tragedy, the society in which she has been living and the social role attributed to women have been observed to be the second important reason for her tragic situation and this is essentially connected with the first cause.the idea put as a concluding remark is that Winnie shaped by the idealized conception of womanhood, and thus reflecting the typical Victorian woman in her character is actually a victim of the society, and her tragedy is a social tragedy.as a general remark in this study, it has been said that while giving shape to the woman, the society deprives women of humanistic values and drives them to amoral deeds, which causes the self-destruction of women. Key Words: Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent, Winnie Verloc, tragic heroine, man's repression, social tragedy TRAJİK BİR KADIN KAHRAMAN OLARAK WINNIE VERLOC: DURGUNLUKTAN PATLAMAYA ÖZ Joseph Conrad'ın Casus adlı romanında Winnie Verloc ikincil derecede önemi olan bir karakter gibi gözükmekte fakat tüm olayların onun öyküsü üzerine kurulmuş olması onu romandaki ana karakter Bay Verloc kadar önemli bir karakter haline getirmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı romanda geniş bir yer Karabük Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi 1

10 WINNIE VERLOC AS A TRAGIC HEROINE: FROM STABILITY TO EXPLOSION kaplayan acıklı öyküde Winnie Verloc'u trajik bir kadın kahraman olarak irdelemektir. Burada Winnie'nin trajedisinin kaynağının iki yönlü olduğu gözlenmiştir. Birinci neden Winnie'nin çocukluğundan başlayarak ölümüne kadar hayatına yayılmış olan erkek baskısıdır. Bu bağlamda, Winnie'nin trajedisinde dört erkeğin önemli olduğuna işaret edilmiş ve onların Winnie'nin trajik durumundaki rolü belirlenmiştir. Winnie'nin bazen erkek baskısının karşısında durmaya çalışmasına karşın buna maruz kaldığı ve bunun da Winnie'yi trajik bir karakter haline getirdiği görülmektedir. Winnie'nin trajik durumunda, onun içinde yaşadığı toplumun ve toplumun kadına atfettiği rolün ikinci önemli neden olduğu ve bu nedenin de aslında ilk nedenle bağlantılı olduğu gözlenmiştir. Sonuç olarak ortaya konulan düşünce, ideal kadın kavramı ile şekillendirilen ve bundan dolayı tipik Viktorya Dönemi kadınını kişiliğinde yansıtan Winnie'nin aslında bir toplum kurbanı olduğu ve trajedisinin ise toplumsal bir trajedi olduğudur. Bu çalışmada daha genel bir sonuç olarak toplumun kadını şekillendirirken onu insani değerlerden yoksun bırakarak insanlık dışı edimlere sürüklediği, bununsa kadının kendini yok etmesine neden olduğu belirtilmektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Joseph Conrad, Casus, Winnie Verloc, trajik kadın kahraman, erkek baskısı, sosyal trajedi 1. Introduction Winnie Verloc is the heroine in The Secret Agent, among whose characters are a double agent, three anarchists, a scientist producing explosives for terrorist purposes, two British policemen, the Russian Embassy in London, a statesman, a lady from the upper middle class, a charwoman, a devoted mother who is infirm, and a young simpleton. Winnie's dominant role in the novel is a loving sister, who has a dim-witted brother. Winnie is a tragic heroine in the sense that she is both exposed to male repression and imposed to live in accordance with the society's idealized conception of womanhood. Her tragic story consists of a marriage with a secret agent, betrayal of the spouses, the demise of Stevie, Winnie's half-witted brother, in a botched bombing by Winnie's husband, the murder of the husband by the wife, another disloyalty to Winnie by another man and finally Winnie's suicide. Winnie can be considered to be the heroine of the novel in the conventional sense and it may be thought that the story is her story and that she is heroic;hence she wins and deserves the wholehearted sympathy of the reader. Joseph Conrad also considered his female figure, Mrs. Verloc a more important character than Mr. Verloc though the novel's title, 'the secret agent' referring to Mr. Verloc, makes him seem to be the most important character in the novel.in his 1920 Author's Note Conrad drew attention to his conviction of Mrs. Verloc's maternal passion and writes at last the story of WinnieVerloc stood out complete from 2 Karabük Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi

11 Mevlüde Zengin the days of childhood to the end [ ] This book is that story.* (Conrad, 2000:277) Technically, as Walter S. Ryf points out, Winnie was a minor, almost incidental person until she murdered Verloc, whereupon the interest shifted from him to her. (1970:180). Yet Winnie's story bulks large in the novel and the whole action is based on her story because Mr.Verloc, the secret agent, is her husband and it is he who plots an anarchist activity, the bombing of the Greenwich Observatory (though the perpetrator is Mr. Vladimir, the First Secretary of the Embassy), and because Stevie, blown into many pieces in the outrage accidentally, is Winnie's half-idiot young brother. From the beginning till the end of the novel Verloc's deeds and his double even triple role as a spy are given along with his domestic life. Besides, as John Palmer notes, morally, however, Conrad's deepest interest lies with Winnie and Stevie, the norms of male and female innocence, and Verloc's essential victims. (118). This implies that Winnie is a victim of circumstances and she does not deserve her suffering. What differentiates Winnie from a pathetic character is that she always tries to resist her fate determined by a male-dominated society and thus she is far from being a totally-resigned figure. It is only when there is no way out for Winnie that she submits to overwhelming forces. In this essay it is aimed to explore Winnie's tragedy as a result of both man's repression over Winnie and the social role given to her. The two causes of her desperation, suffering and her fatal end are actually intermingled with each other. *All the references to the novel will be made from this edition and from now on only page numbers will be given following the quotations. The late licensed victualler's [Winnie's father's] humiliation at having such a peculiar boy for a son manifested itself by a propensity to brutal treatment; for he was a person of fine sensibilities.(41) Later in the novel, after Winnie learns Stevie's demise, we are told Winnie's bitter memories about her father's anger and her suffering: She remembered brushing the boy's hair and trying his pinafores herself in a pinafore still; the consolations administered to a small and badly scared creature by another creature nearly as small but not quite so badly scared; she had the vision of the blows intercepted (often with her own head), of a door held desperately shut against a man's rage (not for very long); of a poker flung once (not very far), which stilled that particular storm into the dumb and awful silence whish follows a thunder-clap. And all these scenes of violence came and went accompanied by the unrefined noise of a deep vociferations proceeding from a man wounded in his paternal pride, declaring himself obviously accursed since one of his kids was a slobbering idjut and the other a wicked she-devil. (213). Yıl : 1 Sayı : 1 Haziran

12 WINNIE VERLOC AS A TRAGIC HEROINE: FROM STABILITY TO EXPLOSION 2.Winnie'sTragedy Caused by Masculine Repression In The Secret Agent it is observed that brutal force has governed Winnie's world and masculine repression has been effective on her life, beginning from her childhood till she dies. Man's dominance over Winnie's life is created by four men. When Winnie was but eight years old, the family was exposed to the anger of the father due to the simple-minded son, and this has led Winnie to approach her brother with motherly instinct. Her sacrificial role of being Stevie's guardian and protector (168) began at that time. Conrad says that ardour of protecting compassion exalted morbidly in her childhood by the misery of another child (57). In this sense, Winnie's tragedy has been started at an early age by a man. At the end of the second part of the novel Conrad ironically writes: The cause of the second dramatic event in Winnie's life is also a man, her jilted lover's father. While Winnie was working in the boarding house with her widowed mother, she had a lover, the butcher's son seven years ago, before marrying the lodger, Adolf Verloc. She had been walking out with obvious gusto with a steady young fellow, only son of a butcher (42). But she had to split up with him because he seemed not to have the responsibility, which Verloc happily accepted. We see Winnie's vision of her young lover accompanied by a nice imagery, which seems to have probably emerged from Conrad's life as a mariner for long years: Affectionate and jolly, he was a fascinating companion for a voyage down the sparkling stream of life; only his boat was very small. There was room in it for a girl-partner at the oar, but no accommodation for passengers(213). On the contrary, Verloc always with some money in his pockets seemed Winnie to be the right man to marry though there was no sparkle of any kind on the lazy stream of his life. His barque seemed a roamy craft, and his taciturn magnanimity accepted as a matter of course the presence of passengers. (214). Winnie later explains Ossipion the reason for the split-up as suc That was the man I loved then [ ] his father threatened to kick him out of the business if he made such a fool of himself as to marry a girl with a crippled mother and a crazy idiot of a boy on her hands. But he would hang about me, till one evening I found the courage to slam the door in his face. I had to do it.i loved him dearly.(241) It is clear that Winnie is a tragic heroine due to her sacrificial role and because beyond her mother and brother, she has no vision (Newhouse, 1966:130). She did not maintain the resolution of marriage with Verloc happily because it 4 Karabük Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi

13 Mevlüde Zengin had cost her some effort, and even a few tears (166) and, as Winnie's mother observed, after that romance came to an abrupt end, [ ] Winnie went about looking very dull (42). Her young lover can well be blamed for this case of Winnie's. Therefore, it would not be wrong to consider Winnie's life before she accepted Verloc's proposal to be the source of her present tragedy. Her exboyfriend did not have the means to provide for Winnie's half-witted brother, and her mother, whereas Verloc had, and this factor alone made Winnie decide in favor of Verloc, though the butcher's son was closer to her in age and more attractive thanverloc, and he had won her affection.it is also obvious that Winnie had a capacity to love and sexuality too, and she betrayed her own nature when she contracted this marriage of convenience. The case is also self-denial for Winnie's part. After marriage, her love as such was only for Stevie. Norman Sherry puts the matter as such: All that she has of love and passion has flowed out to his half-witted brother (1963:188). C. B. Cox also argues that her wifely pretences hide a violent maternal passion for Stevie, exalted morbidly in her childhood by the oppression of their father (1977:29). This is a betrayal of her husband. Winnie's tragedy caused by Verloc has a double dimension. The first and the most apparent one is due to Verloc's being caused Stevie's perishing in a botched bombing, and this anarchist deed leads to the murder ofverloc by Winnie, which makes her a murderess, and to the suicide of Winnie, an ignorant bystander caught in the toils of fate (Wright, 1966: 181). What Winnie does not know about her husband is that he is an imposter and a double agent working both for the Embassy of a foreign country and as a police informer.he has also a group of anarchist friends.what Winnie was told about them is that they are political friends. Winnie does not know, either, that it is a long time since Verloc served the five-year sentence which earned him a great reputation as an anarchist. Since his release he has sent his reports and sheltered behind his ownership of a shop selling mildly pornographic literature. Verloc, an agent provocateur working for Russian Embassy, is ordered, by Mr. Vladimir, the First Secretary of the Embassy, to bomb the Greenwich Observatory; it would be an attack to the middle-class's conviction of science. The real intention of Vladimir is to show the police's inefficiency before an anarchist activity and thus to make England make a law which would prevent the country from being a refuge for anarchists. Verloc chooses Stevie as the agent to carry out his plan for destroying the Greenwhich Observatory rather than do it himself or choose one of his anarchist friends; because he is a coward, and the affair is against the anarchists in the country and all the anarchists are inefficient. Verloc is, all the while a humane man (205) yet he preys on Stevie's devotion since Stevie is so sensitive against injustice and he is in the conviction of being engaged in a humanitarian enterprise (233) when he accepts to put the bomb at the gate of the Greenwich Observatory. Thus Verloc makes use of Stevie's feeble-mindedness. The lad fails to do that because he stumbles over the root of a tree and falls over and thus the bomb carried by him explodes. The boy is blown into many pieces. Exploring the Yıl : 1 Sayı : 1 Haziran

14 WINNIE VERLOC AS A TRAGIC HEROINE: FROM STABILITY TO EXPLOSION case, Chief Inspector Heat observes the pieces of Steveie's body: a heap of rags, scorched and bloodstained, half concealing what might have been an accumulation of raw material for a cannibal feast. (81). Winnie learns of her brother's death first from Heat showing the proof towinnie a piece of Stevie's overcoat with Verloc's address sewn on it and then the details through the conversation between Heat and her husband on the evening of the day when Stevie died. The fact that her innocent young brother has been died is tragic enough for Winnie, but the facts about the dynamiting and the last condition of Stevie's dead body are even more tragic. She hears: Blown to small bits: limbs, gravel, clothing, bones, splinters all mixed up together [ ] they had to fetch a shovel to gather him up with. (185). About half a dozen times these grim contents of the dynamite affair are referred in the novel. For instance, Winnie remembers pictorially in her pathetic situation: A park smashed branches, torn leaves, gravel, bits of brotherly flesh and bone, all spouting up together in the manner of a firework and she thinks that they had to gather him up with the shovel (228). Conrad put Winnie in such a tragic situation that she is given no other choice than screaming or silence, and we are told: instinctively she chose the silence because she temperamentally a silent person (216). What makes Winnie desperate is not only the death of her brother but also the shattering of her illusions. Winnie's discovery of Verloc's failed plot is a shock that shattered her complacent assumption that her husband would at least be a good provider. (Wollaeger, 1990:144) When she last saw Stevie leaving the house with Verloc, she thought that they might be father and son (166).Winnie seems to be haunted by the idea that her illusion has cruelly been destroyed by Verloc, whom she had trusted with Stevie's future. This catastrophe enrages Winnie, who stabs her husband and afterwards by her fear of the gallows she leaves the house, intending to commit suicide by leaping from a bridge. On her way she meets Comrade Ossipion, an anarchist friend of Verloc's. She is once again betrayed by a man. Eventually Winnie commits suicide, leaping overboard in mid-channel. The other side of Winnie's tragedy caused by Verloc, which is not as obvious as the first, but is felt throughout their marriage of convenience, is Winnie's subjection to Verloc. In other words, it is impossible to say that even if Stevie had not died, Winnie would have led a happy marriage with Verloc. Though the reader is told that Winnie's husband behaves decently towards her, it is felt that she is not leading a happy marriage of love with Verloc, she married him as she had doubts about her mother's and especially Stevie's future. Even Winnie's mother never understands why Winnie had married Mr. Verloc and thinks her girl might have naturally hoped to find somebody of a more suitable age (42). Obviously, they married because of Winnie's feeling of responsibility of keeping her family intact rather than love towards Verloc. Such a marriage can be seen as a metaphor for any cruelty. It is a pity for Winnie not to expect too much from her husband for her character has been constructed by the society.we see, in the following passage, that she has learned what to be expected or should not be expected from a husband: 6 Karabük Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi

15 Mevlüde Zengin Confident of the power of her charms, Winnie did not expect from her husband in the daily intercourse of their married life a ceremonious amenity of address and courtliness of manner; vain and antiquated forms at best, probably never very exactly observed, discarded nowadays even in the highest spheres, and always foreign to the standards of her class (169). This way of thought of Winnie seems to be subjection rather than an acceptance. We know that when she was flirting with the young butcher's boy, he took her to the theatre for a few times, which Verloc never did.we also know that she was very happy at that time.therefore, it can be asserted that Winnie, in her marriage life, has denied her identity. Winnie's surrender to Verloc for her brother's sake is only possible because she is able to maintain her resolution of 'not looking too deeply into things'. (Hay, 1963:256) Throughout seven years of marriage, Winnie has also turned to be a woman who is content with comparative isolation. It is told that after Verloc went out with Stevie to take him to Michaelis's, Winnie found herself oftener than usual all alone and she had no desire to go out (168). In this sense, as a woman, Winnie has become alienated from the society in which she lives. The reader may surmise that Winnie must suffer learning that her husband, with whom she has been married for seven years, and who seems to have an honest work in the shop, turns out to be a secret agent dealing with dishonest deeds, and that, in the final analysis, he is a sham. But there is no implication, in the novel, of Winnie's sadness at her husband's disloyalty to her about his real job because Winnie's marital tie with Verloc is not that of a marriage of love; theirs is a marriage of convenience. Winnie's conception of marriage amounts to security and confidence for Stevie loyally paid for on her part (214). Therefore, Winnie concentrates on just Stevie's perishing and Verloc's having betrayed her about Stevie. Murder is, in a sense, Winnie's response to man's repression. She instinctively perceives Verloc as nothing while looking at Verloc's dead body after she has stabbed him. Metaphorically, Winnie, who has been devalued by man, for the first time in her life, devalues man in the following scene: Nothing brings them [the dead] back, neither love nor hate. They can do nothing to you. They are as nothing. Her mental state was tinged by a sort of austere contempt for that man who had let himself be killed so easily. He had been the master of the house, the husband of a woman, the murderer of her Stevie. And now he was of no account in every respect. He was less practical account than [ ] that hat lying on the floor. He was nothing. He was not worth looking at. He was even no longer the murderer of poor Stevie (233). Yıl : 1 Sayı : 1 Haziran

16 WINNIE VERLOC AS A TRAGIC HEROINE: FROM STABILITY TO EXPLOSION The fourth tragic situation of Winnie is her committing suicide, to which is, in effect, contributed by two men: Verloc and Ossipion. In this sense, she suffers from the men's egoistical and hypocritical nature and deeds. Through the end of the novel, we see Ossipion with his brutal role in her tragic story. It would be better to give here the concatenation of events which drove Winnie to suicide along with Ossipion's role in her tragedy because we last see Winnie with Ossipion in the novel. After Winnie stabs Verloc to death, she is terrified with the idea of being hanged with the gallows: Mrs Verloc was afraid of the gallows. She was terrified of them ideally [ ] that last argument of men's justice [ ] 'The drop given was fourteen feet' had been scratched on her brain with a hot needle [ ] No! that must never be. She could not stand that ( ). Winnie's not being able to bear the thought of being hanged is a part of her impending tragedy. When she thinks of the noose, she hopes to escape it by drowning in the Thames instead. Winnie is a protagonist struggling against her tragic fate in the sense that she tries to get rid of her plight.however, she is not a pathetic figure.when she realizes that she has not immediate strength to reach the river, the thought of escaping abroad comes to her as a substitute. When she comes across Ossipion, the feeling of sympathy, even from a man she has disliked (because she has, for many times during her marriage, been exposed to Ossipion's shamelessly inviting eyes, whose glance had a corrupt clearness, (214) ) gives her hope. It is especially that fear of men's justice which ironically, propels Winnie into the power of another man. The irony here is that fearing men's justice, Winnie seeks a shelter from another man, who would drive her to suicide. The horror of the scaffold keeps flowing through her mind and she is so desperate that she slips her hand under his arm (238) and she walks almost amorously with Ossipion arm in arm along the walls with a loverlike manner (239). She begs Ossipion: Save me. Hide me. Don't let them have me. (246) Then she wants to be killed by Ossipion rather than being hanged. Later with the hope of life, Winnie abases herself by promising to be his slave and mistress. She is driven into self-abasement by desperation. She says: Don't let them hang me.tom!take me out of the country.i'll work for you. I'll save for you. I'll love you [ ] I won't ask you to marry me (252). As a tragic heroine Winnie tries to resist her tragedy. Her manners are not like those of a resigned person. Hatred, dread of the scaffold, and hope of escape are tumultuously intermingled in Winnie's mind. (Wright, 1966:196). Her last words show her wish of self-forgetfulness and yet her fear and helplessness: 'How could I fear to die after he was taken away from me so cruelly! How could I! How could I be such a coward! 8 Karabük Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi

17 Mevlüde Zengin She lamented aloud her love of life, that life without grace or charm, and almost without decency, but of an exalted faithfulness of purpose, even unto murder [ ] 'How could I be so afraid of death! [ ] I tried to do away with myself. And I couldn't. (260) Winnie's trust is betrayed once again by a man.while he seems to be helping Winnie, Ossipion is actually thinking of getting Verloc's shop, savings and her widowed wife. Ossipion wrongs her, telling her that he has no money to buy tickets to escape and thus taking all the money she has. He buys two tickets and they get on the train. When Ossipion feels the train roll quicker, rumbling heavily to the sound of the woman's loud sobs, and then crossing the carriage in two long strides, he opens the door deliberately and leaps out of the train. (260) Winnie is not seen in the novel after she is deserted by Ossipion.We are told that Ossipion, who ten days before took all her money, is haunted by the newspaper summation of Winnie's death. The last sentence of the item of news headed Suicide of Lady Passenger from a cross-channel Boat, reads thus: An impenetrable mystery seems destined to hang for ever over this act of madness or despair (267). We learn what has happened to Winnie through Ossipion's precise knowledge which he gets from the newspaper. Winnie seeming, not to know what to do, is helped on board by the gangway of the steamer. As Winnie is weak, she is induced to lie down in ladies' cabin by a stewardess. On her return she cannot find Winnie there. Winnie is found in deck. She is so pale and ill that she could not speak a word.then the steward and stewardess go away to arrange for her removal down as Winnie seems to be dying.(268) But they see that Winnie is not there when they come back. She is found nowhere.the only thing she leaves is her wedding ring. It is clear that Ossipion's desertion of Winnie fills her with unutterable dismay. When Ossipion also betrays her trust, Winnie can take the only free action left to end the dread of the gallows and the fear of death (255). Winnie is a tragic heroine not only while living but also after her death. The police investigating the case of outrage are unconcerned with the fate of Winnie. Though the Assistant Commissioner remarks that they are in the presence of a domestic drama (195), nobody cares for Winnie's despairing suicide and Ossipion's care seems to be coming from his pangs of conscience. As a conclusion, it can be said that Winnie's lot is so much the result of man's repression, which has been felt as a controlling power over her life and eventually in the shape of a fatal end. Though Winnie as a tragic heroine has tried to resist the repression in three cases [ her father's, her jilted lover's and, to an extreme extent, Verloc's] she has eventually become too weak to resist Ossipion's double-dealing; therefore, she commits suicide. Yıl : 1 Sayı : 1 Haziran

18 WINNIE VERLOC AS A TRAGIC HEROINE: FROM STABILITY TO EXPLOSION 3.Winnie's Plight as a SocialTragedy The Secret Agent is a novel in which one can find the seed of the tragedy in the status quo of Winnie if one looks into the things closer contrary to Winnie, who confirms in her instinctive conviction that things don't bear looking into very much. (161) and whose motto is things did not stand being looked into. (159) Similar phrases are the often-repeated ones in the novel to characterize Winnie. If the reader looks 'inside' the things, a range of unstated moral criteria can be found behind the pitiful history of Winnie. Through the things Conrad left unsaid in the novel, the thing found out is a social tragedy. Irwing Howe argues that there is nothing to be admired in the sordid world of The Secret Agent, and thus the novel lacks a moral positive to serve literary ends. (1962:96) If the reader reaches the unspoken facts through Winnie's visible tragedy, s/he can construct the moral awareness, which Howe would like to see located in the characters in the novel. Then it would be clear that Winnie's melodramatic story was not put in the novel just to arise the sentiments of the reader towards Winnie. Conrad dealt with the critical issues such as pressures on women, the place of women in society and social roles of women to make a critique of the social condition. In the Author's Note he wrote: I have never had any doubt of the reality of Mrs.Verloc's story. (278) Of course, he did not mean the simple verisimilitude of the plot but the essential accuracy of a woman's life in society. Conrad was aware of the female dynamic, and the questioning of the traditional, and largely passive, roles of women. (Spittles, 1992:134). The period was unjust, repressive and consequently violent, even tragic for women. The time, in which the action in the novel is set, is the year 1886.We can predict this from the carved writing in Winnie's wedding ring left lying on the seat before she committed suicide. One hour after her suicide one of the steamers finds the ring, inside which th there is a date: 24 June 1879 (268). If we add seven years (the duration of the Verlocs' marriage) and 1879, the total adds up to 1886, the setting of the events in the plot. So it is clear that Winnie epitomizes the woman living in Victorian society. It can be observed that Winnie represents Victorian women in many ways if we have a short glance at the women's condition in the Victorian period: There was agitation for improved employment th opportunities for women in the 19 century. Women in the population who remained unmarried because of the imbalance in numbers between the sexes, [ ] had few employment opportunities, none of them attractive or profitable [ ] Bad working conditions and underemployment drove thousands of women into prostitution, which became increasingly professionalized in the nineteenth century.the only occupation at which an 10 Karabük Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi

19 Mevlüde Zengin unmarried middle-class woman could earn a living and maintain some claim to gentility was that of a governess, but a governess could expect no security of employment, minimal wages and an ambiguous status, somewhere between servant and family member, that isolated her within the household (Abrams, 1996:931). Winnie's actions can be examined to trace the complex motives and forces behind them. Winnie's situation represents a classic Victorian/Edwardian situation in that she is trapped into a social fate over which male has control. The character of Winnie projects an image of many ordinary late Victorian women caught in a socio-economic trap: of dependency on a husband. Winnie with her elderly mother to care for takes another responsibility for her halfwitted brother, Stevie, which intensifies her burden in the society. The obvious way of accomplishing her aims, in Edwardian social context, is marriage to someone who will accept Winnie's responsibilities. In the mind of Winnie's mother, Verloc is the ideal (14). Winnie, marrying Verloc, is placed in a position of submission in order to fulfill her dutiful role. Even worse in order to get into this position Winnie has had to forego the possibility of a happy marriage. She explains her former situation to the bewildered Ossipion as such: 'I was a young girl. I was done up. I was tired. I had two people depending on what I could do, and it did seem as if I couldn't do any more.two people mother and the boy. He was much more mine than mother's. I sat up nights and nights with him on my lap, all alone upstairs, when I wasn't more than eight years old myself. And then He was mine, I tell you. You can't understand that. No man can understand it. What was I to do?there was a young fellow ' The memory of the early romance with the young butcher survived, tenacious, like the image of a glimpsed ideal in that heart quailing before the fear of the gallows and full of revolt against death. (240-41) The passage makes clear that Winnie's fate is to sacrifice every desire of her for the sake of the others. It is clear that she has married Verloc not because of love but to provide financial security for her kith and kin. It shows that Conrad was completely aware of the social dynamic through which he lived, and he did not write in overtly topical manner nevertheless he dealt with the issues of the period. They were in many ways uneasy times, with confidence and prosperity being undermined by uncertainty and doubts about the future. (Spittles, 1992:138) Uncertainty had a physical basis in the social dynamic. She became a quasi-mother whilst still a child, and in a sense, she becomes a metaphoric mother and protector to both her own mother and her brother. (Spittles, 1992:136) A woman of Winnie's social class could do that at the time Yıl : 1 Sayı : 1 Haziran

20 WINNIE VERLOC AS A TRAGIC HEROINE: FROM STABILITY TO EXPLOSION only through a marriage of convenience. In the novel, with the intrusion of Mrs. Neale, the charwoman, Conrad gives us the idea that ifwinnie had not married a man with money, her situation would not have been so much different from that of Mrs.Neale, who is victim of her marriage and oppressed by the needs of many infant children (161), and who works on all fours amongst the puddles, wet and begrimed, like a sort of amphibious and domestic animal living in ash-bins and dirty water (164). The other choice as told bywinnie was to go on the streets. (241) It is the irony in Winnie's situation that she departs her young lover the butcher's son in order to protect Stevie and make his future guaranteed and then marrying Verloc, a man of intrigues as he is a secret agent, she is faced with the mere butchery organized by Vladimir and applied by Verloc. Eloise Knapp Hay also points out this irony: The girl who sacrificed her love for a romantic butcher boy has taken instead a man who inadvertently butchers her brother (1963:257). Winnie is a woman whose character was shaped by her social role. Victorian society was preoccupied not only with legal and economic limitations on women's lives but with the nature of woman itself. To understand the idealized conception of womanhood, we can have a look at The Subjection of Women (1869), a far-seeing essay written by John Stuart Mill, who was one of the intellectuals in Victorian life and society, and who portrayed the condition of women in the Victorian society.the object of his work was to change law and public opinion so that the half of the human race might be liberated from slavery into the status of individuals (Abrams, 1996:1033). In The Subjection of Women Mill argues that what is now called the nature of women is eminently an artificial thing the result of forced repression in some directions, unnatural stimulations in others (1986:1060). In the novel in many instances, Conrad displayed the artificiality in Winnie's character. While Winnie directing her true love to her brother, her husband Verloc is deprived of true love and interest. It is observed that she approaches her husband in a habitual placid manner, taking the responsibility toward her husband just as a duty of a woman. For example, she tells her husband You'll catch cold standing there (57) and You'll catch cold walking about in your socks like this (158). She also feels responsible for the order of the house and the setting the dinner table whenever Verloc comes home, thinking that he must be hungry. Of the kind behaviors create artificiality in Winnie's manner towards her husband. But it must not be understood that Winnie purposely treats Verloc artificially; her artificiality is an unconscious one. She seems to have adapted artificiality to her nature unconsciously. Having such kind of qualities, Winnie seems to have been overburdened with the social roles which the Victorian society expected to see in women.in those times the role of women in society was strengthened by the literary works. For example Alfred Lord Tennyson's The Princess is merely one example to these writings. A part from the poem can be quoted here to show how women were regarded invictorian England. In the poem the king voices a more traditional view of women's role: 12 Karabük Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi