Free Will and Determinism in Joseph Conrad's Major Novels

Against this background a paradigmatic analysis of three of Conrad's most significant novels - Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and The Secret Agent - investigates the writer's position in the free will and determinism debate by identifying certain recurring themes in which the freedom-of-the-will problem manifests itself. Light is thereby also thrown on a central Conradian paradox: how Conrad can insist on morality and moral responsibility, which presupposes the existence of free will, in a materialist-deterministic world, which denies it.