“Poor Stevie”

Abstract

The article presents an interpretation of ‘The Secret Agent” in which the autistic Stevie is the most important character in the whole novel. The analysis of the statements and behaviours of individual characters allows us to show how confusing their attitude toward Stevie was. The article functionalises knowledge about the ways of defining physically and mentally ill people at the turn of the twentieth and twentieth centuries, and proves that an autistic man was not distinguished from cases of the most severe psychiatric diseases, as evidenced by many scenes in the novel. The article incorporates the perspective of disability studies into Conrad’s studies.