This essay explores the concept of mechanical time in two modernist Anglophone texts: Joseph Conrad's quasi-espionage novel

The Secret Agent

and Jean Rhys' semi-autobiographical novel

Voyage in the Dark

. It contends that mechanical time in these two works is best understood not as a uniform

regular

or consistent measurement of temporality but as an exploration of amorphous

sometimes claustrophobic

subjective experiences. By analyzing specific excerpts that evoke ticking or clockwork rhythms from both texts

this essay connects Rhys'

Voyage in the Dark

to another of Conrad's works—distinct from

Heart of Darkness

from which its title is derived. It suggests that the characters' acute awareness of the gap between mechanical time and their private

subjective experience of time brings with it an unavoidable awareness of finality and mortality.