The Secret Agent

by

Joseph Conrad

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Comrade Alexander Ossipon Character Analysis

Comrade Ossipon is a member of Verloc’s anarchist circle along with Michaelis and Yundt, Comrade Ossipon is the primary author of the Future of the Proletariat political pamphlets. Ossipon is also friends with The Professor. He is a medical school dropout with an interest in pseudo-scientific social theories. Ossipon also enjoys women (especially those with money) and has always been attracted to Winnie Verloc, though she ignores him. After the Greenwich bombing, Ossipon latches onto Winnie in hopes of getting Verloc’s money. When Ossipon discovers that Winnie has killed Verloc, however, he becomes terrified of the whole affair. He helps Winnie escape to France but flees with Verloc’s money at the last minute. After news of Winnie’s suicide (she jumps overboard into the English Channel), Ossipon can’t stop thinking about her.

Comrade Alexander Ossipon Quotes in The Secret Agent

The The Secret Agent quotes below are all either spoken by Comrade Alexander Ossipon or refer to Comrade Alexander Ossipon. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Anarchy, Terrorism, and Corruption Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4 Quotes

"I have the means to make myself deadly, but that by itself, you understand, is absolutely nothing in the way of protection. What is effective is the belief those people have in my will to use the means. […] Therefore I am deadly […] Their character is built upon conventional morality. It leans on the social order. Mine stands free from everything artificial. They are bound in all sorts of conventions. They depend on life, which, in this connection, is a historical fact surrounded by all sorts of restraints and considerations, a complex organised fact open to attack at every point; whereas I depend on death, which knows no restraint and cannot be attacked. My superiority is evident."

Related Characters: The Professor (speaker), Mr. Adolf Verloc, Comrade Alexander Ossipon
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:

"You revolutionists," the other continued, with leisurely self-confidence, "are the slaves of the social convention, which is afraid of you; slaves of it as much as the very police that stands up in the defence of that convention. Clearly you are, since you want to revolutionise it. It governs your thought, of course, and your action too, and thus neither your thought nor your action can ever be conclusive […] The terrorist and the policeman both come from the same basket. Revolution, legality—counter moves in the same game […] at bottom identical.”

Related Characters: The Professor (speaker), Comrade Alexander Ossipon
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

She started forward at once, as if she were still a loyal woman bound to that man by an unbroken contract. Her right hand skimmed slightly the end of the table, and when she had passed on towards the sofa the carving knife had vanished without the slightest sound from the side of the dish. […] But Mr Verloc did not see that. He was lying on his back and staring upwards. He saw partly on the ceiling and partly on the wall the moving shadow of an arm with a clenched hand holding a carving knife. It flickered up and down. Its movements were leisurely. They were leisurely enough for Mr Verloc to recognise the limb and the weapon.

Related Characters: Mr. Adolf Verloc, Mrs. Winnie Verloc, Stevie, Comrade Alexander Ossipon
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis:
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Comrade Alexander Ossipon Quotes in The Secret Agent

The The Secret Agent quotes below are all either spoken by Comrade Alexander Ossipon or refer to Comrade Alexander Ossipon. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Anarchy, Terrorism, and Corruption Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4 Quotes

"I have the means to make myself deadly, but that by itself, you understand, is absolutely nothing in the way of protection. What is effective is the belief those people have in my will to use the means. […] Therefore I am deadly […] Their character is built upon conventional morality. It leans on the social order. Mine stands free from everything artificial. They are bound in all sorts of conventions. They depend on life, which, in this connection, is a historical fact surrounded by all sorts of restraints and considerations, a complex organised fact open to attack at every point; whereas I depend on death, which knows no restraint and cannot be attacked. My superiority is evident."

Related Characters: The Professor (speaker), Mr. Adolf Verloc, Comrade Alexander Ossipon
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:

"You revolutionists," the other continued, with leisurely self-confidence, "are the slaves of the social convention, which is afraid of you; slaves of it as much as the very police that stands up in the defence of that convention. Clearly you are, since you want to revolutionise it. It governs your thought, of course, and your action too, and thus neither your thought nor your action can ever be conclusive […] The terrorist and the policeman both come from the same basket. Revolution, legality—counter moves in the same game […] at bottom identical.”

Related Characters: The Professor (speaker), Comrade Alexander Ossipon
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

She started forward at once, as if she were still a loyal woman bound to that man by an unbroken contract. Her right hand skimmed slightly the end of the table, and when she had passed on towards the sofa the carving knife had vanished without the slightest sound from the side of the dish. […] But Mr Verloc did not see that. He was lying on his back and staring upwards. He saw partly on the ceiling and partly on the wall the moving shadow of an arm with a clenched hand holding a carving knife. It flickered up and down. Its movements were leisurely. They were leisurely enough for Mr Verloc to recognise the limb and the weapon.

Related Characters: Mr. Adolf Verloc, Mrs. Winnie Verloc, Stevie, Comrade Alexander Ossipon
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis: