The Desperate Act in the Secret Agent

                  There are several aspects in The Secret Agent that make the plot so addictive to read. One of those is a turning point in the novel when the reader finds out that the person who had been blown up to tiny little pieces by the Observatory bomb was Stevie. He was the poor innocent lad who had to be scraped off the ground by a shovel. Of all the many anarchist characters that have been developed, Stevie would be the last person on the list anybody would have expected to be dealing with bombs. This setback caused Stevie's sister, the psycho Winnie, to stab her husband to death. Thus, creating a humorous scene toward the end of the novel, when a different character, Ossipon, decides to literally jump off of a moving train to get away from Winnie, who is trying to escape the country. The fact that Ossipon was desperate enough to risk his own life to get away from a single woman, is both comedic and depressing because Ossipon resorted to this dangerous choice. I found this piece of literature extremely hilarious due to the classic stereotype of the scene. Honestly, how many tragedies end up with a certain insane twist that is extremely unexpected? All of them.  This act of despair represents how the author, Conrad, has a sense of humor in his personality while creating such a realistic masterwork based off of a true event.