In Joseph Conrad's novel The Secret Agent, the characters may appear to live in distinct compartments and isolated from one another, however their lives intrude into each other in ways they cannot appreciate. Winnie and Verloc are no exception; like more or less all characters, they are compelled together by a condition of continual mental blindness. .
In this novel, Conrad defamiliarises family ties and relationships in a number of ways. At the beginning of the book, we are not only introduced to the Verloc household but also to the tensions that exist between them. For example Winnie and her mother do not seem to have a close mother-daughter relationship. Conrad also portrays the breakdown that occurs between spouses, "Winnie did not expect from her husband in the daily intercourse of their married life a ceremonious amenity of address and courtliness of manner." These traditions are "vain and antiquated" because she did not bother how her husband treated her as long as her brother is protected and well cared for. As we see in the novel, Winnie's prime concern and only object of devotion is her brother Stevie. He is cared of by his sister, with a fierce, quasi-maternal protectiveness, and this desire to protect him has led her to marry Mr Verloc, whom she believes to be a reliable source of income and therefore security for her family; moreover he "was ready to take him over with [her] mother and with the furniture". So she makes a futile sacrifice of not marrying the butcher's son in order to marry the well to do Verloc and therefore "secure" her brother's life. .
Mr. and Mrs. Verloc's marriage is a lie - they married each other for completely different reasons, love being out of the question. Moreover they do not even know each other; this is clearly seen when Winnie (and her mother) mistake Verloc's indolent and egoistic nature to him being easy-going and good-natured.
