The Secret Agent characters

Appears from the start

A London shopkeeper who secretly supplies information to a foreign embassy while allowing a small circle of anarchists to use his premises. Heavy, indolent, and protective of his comfortable domestic routine, he is ordered by his embassy contact to create an outrage dramatic enough to provoke a British crackdown.

Appears from the start

Verloc's much younger wife, who helps run the shop and has built her life around providing security for her widowed mother and vulnerable brother. Her calm, reserved manner conceals the strength of her devotion to Stevie.

Appears from the start

Winnie's younger brother, a sensitive and intellectually disabled young man who lives with the Verlocs. He reacts intensely to tales of cruelty or suffering and depends on Winnie for reassurance and protection.

Appears from the start

Winnie and Stevie's elderly mother, who shares the Verloc household at the opening. Aware of her infirmity and anxious that Stevie should remain secure, she tries not to burden her daughter's marriage.

First appears in chapter 2

A forceful official at the foreign embassy who regards Verloc's reports as inadequate. He demands an attack on a target associated with science, believing public alarm will force Britain to act against political exiles.

First appears in chapter 3

A former medical student and member of Verloc's revolutionary circle. Energetic and opportunistic, he is more interested in women and self-preservation than in sacrificing himself for doctrine.

First appears in chapter 3

An elderly anarchist orator whose fierce rhetoric survives despite age, illness, and dependence on others. He attends the gatherings at Verloc's shop and voices contempt for conventional morality.

First appears in chapter 3

A well-born political idealist associated with Verloc's group. Having served a prison term, he now lives quietly in the country under the patronage of a sympathetic society lady and is valued by the police as a comparatively harmless revolutionary.

First appears in chapter 4

A solitary bomb maker who carries an explosive device on his body so that anyone attempting to arrest him risks being destroyed with him. He rejects gradual political reform and treats indiscriminate destruction as a weapon against society itself.

First appears in chapter 5

A senior Scotland Yard detective experienced in monitoring London's anarchist circles. Practical and confident in informants and physical evidence, he recognizes a clue recovered after the Greenwich explosion.

First appears in chapter 6

The official responsible for the police investigation into the Greenwich bombing. Intellectually independent and wary of Heat's reliance on secret informants, he takes personal charge of tracing the attack's political connections.

First appears in chapter 7

The Home Secretary, a powerful and overworked statesman to whom the Assistant Commissioner reports. He authorizes an unofficial approach intended to contain the diplomatic consequences of the bombing.