The Motifs of Gothicism in The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad

Key words: horror, violence, provocation, darkness, urban, murder, bombing ABSTRACT The stereotype utilization of a fear-causing beast in dark abyss teams up with Gothicism in a general sense. The ever-articulated elements of black horror are claimed to be transformed into the dynamics and requirements of modern life. Claimed to have a critical eye on traditional Gothicism, Joseph Conrad appears to be provocative for the re-analysis of gothic tendencies in his novels. If the objective of horror fiction stipulates the involvement of dangerous and gloomy imprisonment of a victim, we can well also expect such darkness injected into a ‘spy novel’ like The Secret Agent (1907). In fact, contrary to the trend, Conrad experiments on a unique debate with the gothic tradition educating readers about the optimistically and unprecedentedly endorsed elements of Gothicism in The Secret Agent. This paper, thus, deals with the motifs of Gothicism such as darkness, silence, domesticity, psychological violence, and etc as reflected in the novel, which could be labeled as quite different from the mainstream