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Stevie has no outlet for his pain over others’ suffering, something that Conrad suggests is often the case for a society’s most vulnerable members. Used to suffering himself, Stevie is especially sensitive to such suffering in others, yet because of his own disability, he’s limited in his ability to express it-or do much about it. For Stevie, the horse’s and cabby’s situation of pain and poverty sums up the “badness” of the whole world. He could say nothing for the tenderness to all pain and all misery” overpowers him. ‘Poor! Poor!’ stammered out Stevie, pushing his hands deeper into his pockets with convulsive sympathy. As he looks at the thin horse and hears the cabby talk about his family’s poverty, Stevie feels deep compassion that he can barely express: “‘Bad! Bad!’ His gaze remained fixed on the ribs of the horse, self-conscious and somber, as though he were afraid to look about him at the badness of the world.

During a cab ride, he entreats the cab driver not to whip the infirm, terribly slow horse, and when the driver doesn’t stop, Stevie scrambles down from the cab and insists on walking alongside the cab instead. He especially can’t stand it when other beings suffer, though there is little he can do about it. He gets into his passions over it." Stevie is vulnerable to exaggerated anarchist rhetoric because he takes it literally, and it stirs up his emotions. He was out of his mind with something he overheard about eating people's flesh and drinking blood.

Stevie gets worked up about things he doesn’t understand, as his sister, Winnie, observes: "If I had known were coming to-night I would have seen to it that he went to bed at the same time I did. However, he also hints that the vulnerable will ultimately be vindicated.īeing weak and vulnerable himself, Stevie is especially sensitive to others’ suffering.

Through the example of Stevie’s vulnerability and shocking death, Conrad argues that the most vulnerable members of a society often have no outlet to voice or cope with their suffering, which makes them susceptible to further exploitation. Stevie’s struggles-culminating in Verloc’s callous recruitment of him to carry out the Observatory bombing-end up destroying him.

Indeed, Stevie’s sufferings are more acute because his own background of abuse and disability causes him to feel others’ pain as if it’s his own. More specifically, Winnie Verloc’s disabled brother, Stevie, exemplifies the frustration of vulnerable people who have no outlet for their sufferings. The anarchist characters claim, at least outwardly, that their activities are meant to improve poor people’s lot in life. The struggles of the poorest and weakest in society are a frequent focus of The Secret Agent.