Secret Agent

[tsathul]

Anyone who has read secret agent plz respond. This excerpt is from chapter 12.
Mrs.Verloc, after murdering Mr.Verloc, laments about her life to Comrade Ossipon. But I cant get around this sentence. Someone plz explain this.
"She lamented aloud her love of life, that life without grace or charm and almost without decency but of an exalted faithfulness of purpose even unto murder. And, as often happens in the lament of poor humanity, rich in suffering but indigent in words the truth - the very cry of truth - was found in a worn and artificial shape picked up somewhere among the phrases of sham sentiment."
What does she mean by "a worn and artificial shape"?

[Paulclem]

She is indigent in words meaning she has no command of the language, or is poor with them. I think in this case the worn and artificial shape refers to the words she uses to express her love of life. It may be that Ossipon doesn't take her seriously because of this, though he is clearly terrified of her, and thus abandons her on the train.

[Syd A]

Ossipon... is clearly terrified of her, and thus abandons her on the train.

Really? That's your reading of it? From what I remember of this book, he manipulated her in order to steal her money (or something else she was carrying, I can't recall), and then abandoned her, desperate, hopeless, and broke. I don't recall Ossipon as a timid person.

[Babak Movahed]

It is difficult to say... I always got the sense that Mrs. Verloc's whole subscribed to that idea. She, like most female characters in Conrad, are subject to the oppressive nature of a patriarchal society. She is wholly tied to another male figure in the story at all times, and her existence is devoid of her own meaning.

[Paulclem]

Really? That's your reading of it? From what I remember of this book, he manipulated her in order to steal her money (or something else she was carrying, I can't recall), and then abandoned her, desperate, hopeless, and broke. I don't recall Ossipon as a timid person.

He was terrified at this savage woman who had brought him in there, and would probably saddle him with complicity, at least if he were not careful. He was terrified at the rapidity with which he had been involved in such dangers - decoyed into it. It was some twenty minutes since he had met her - not more.
Ch 12

He is terrified of her and also of being implicated in the murder of Verloc. It's funny that he's referred to as the robust Comrade Ossipon.

[Paulclem]

It is difficult to say... I always got the sense that Mrs. Verloc's whole subscribed to that idea. She, like most female characters in Conrad, are subject to the oppressive nature of a patriarchal society. She is wholly tied to another male figure in the story at all times, and her existence is devoid of her own meaning.

Yes I remember that. She's unworldly and assumes a kind of passion with Ossipon without any grounds for doing so.