THE SINNER – SAINT SYNDROME IN
GRAHAM GREENE’S NOVELS’
DISSERTATION
For The Degree of Master of Philosophy
In
English
Submitted By
Pooja
Univ. Roll No.:- 15081059
Univ. Reg. No.:- B2IMPHIL (ENG) 0049
Session: - 2014-15
Kalinga University
CERTIFICATE
Pooja , D/o- RadheShyam Mishra, The student of Master Of Philosophy In English , Kalinga University, Raipur has Completed Her Dissertation, Entitled “ The Sinner – Saint Syndrome In Graham Greene’s Novel’s Under My Supervision And Guidance.
I certify that this Dissertation is a record of work done by the candidate herself.
(………………………………………………….)
PREFACE
The present study is an attempt to analyse and interpret the theme of the sinner-saint syndrome in Graham Greene’s novels. Ever since I read Graham Grange’s two novels.
The Power and the Glory and Heart of the matter, I have been getting more and more interested in his fictional writings. In this connection I must say that Greene’s works are rather readily available because he continues to be the main literary export of England to the English- Speaking world. It was on account of my unabated interest in Graham Greene’s writings that I did also go through some of his critical books on him which could be available to me from time to time. A good deal has been written on the various aspects of Graham Greene’s writings, and yet I could identify a few other aspects of his fiction that have been dealt with in a rather fragmentary manner. The theme of the Sinner – Saint Syndrome is one such aspect, and it would be highly illuminating if this topic could be developed in the right direction. It is by all means a challenging topic, a topic full of great possibilities, and yet I have found the whole endeavour so very rewarding and enjoyable.
Green was prolific writer, and he kept on writing almost sixty years in the long span of his life. It is indeed remarkable to note that at a time when the top intellectuals and eminent writers of England were veering towards Marxism, Green was perhaps the lone exception to have embraced human-Catholicism in 1926 of the age of twenty two.
As we go through his novels, we find that he is rather a rebel Christian and that he does not always abide by the established tenets of Christianity. He himself says in very clear terms that his perception of Christianity is intellectual rather than emotional, and that religion must keep on changing in accordance with the positive demands and compulsions of the time. I propose to consider the sinner-saint syndrome in his five major novels, which are also acclaimed as Christian or catholic novels, namely Brighton Rock, The power and the Glory, The hearts of matter, The end of the affair and A Burnt of case.
The present dissertation has three main parts, Part one – Introduction contains only one chapter in which I have tried to trace Greene’s evolution as a writer, besides considering the various influences that conditioned his mind and arts and his stature in the sphere of contemporary English fictions. Part– II Expositions has five chapters in it. In the five chapters, I have endeavoured to examine the dilemma or predicament of the protagonists of the five novels who appear both saint and sinner at one and the same time. In Greene’s novel the distinction between virtue and vice, Six and grace, damnation and salvation, and Heaven and Hell has either disappeared or thinned out considerably. Every major character in Greene’s fictional writing in pursuit of his or her own salvation whatever the mode, Level or mood. A sinner in his novel is not really a sinner, a saint in his novel is not always a saint, and His protagonists are the picaresque saints who move out in search of their salvation through inner and outer adventure. In Brighten Rock, the protagonist, Pinkie Brown by name is a sinner because he is a hardened criminal, a murderer, without any feeling of remorse or compunction in him Nevertheless, for certain valid reasons he is hailed as a saint in the novel.
In the power and the Glory, the anonymous priest is a sinner because he is alcohol addict, and also because he has an illegitimate child. And still, he is nothing short of a saint because he sacrifices his life for the sake of his religious conviction. The heart of the matter, Henry Scobie in an honest commissioner of police, Believing ardently in justice, He is almost saint like full of compassion and noble service to others, and yet, he commits suicide in a state of despair . In the end of the affairs, search miles commit all kinds of sins as a saint. Similarly in A Burnt – out case, Query falls into the pit of unmitigated depression; He is a sinner but his image is projected in the novel as that of a saint because of his service to humanity.
Part three – conclusion – contains only one chapter. In chapter VIII – I have made my own sincere efforts to sum up my findings as neatly and cogently as I could manage to do so. I have tried to show that there is a very thin line between vice and virtue in Greene’s novels, and naturally in his novels, the roles of the hunter and the hunted are reversible at times the hunter becomes the hunted, and at other times the haunted becomes hunter. The main body of this dissertation in necessarily followed by Bibliography, containing a select list of books and journals I went through in the process of preparing the present study.
I must confess that I do not claim much originality for my work, and yet, I may be permitted to say that it would contribute, at least of in some ways, to a greater understanding and appreciation of Graham Greene’s novels. However, in all modesty, I may submit that the present work may and dose have its limits chiefly because no topic worth the name can exhaust itself in the form of on single study.
I express my deep sense of gratitude to my supervisor, department of English, Kalinga University, Raipur, without whose active co-operation and inspiring guidance it would never have been possible for me to complete the present study. I am also grateful to other faculty members who encouraged me to pursue this aspect of Greene’s novel with full spirits. At the same time I also upon this dissertation work as the direct and natural outcome of the bearings of my parents. I cannot go without saying that I am very thankful to my Husband Professor Sidharth Raju and my Father Professor Radheshyam Mishra, who helped me in collecting and compiling all the necessary details related to my dissertation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction 1
2. Brighton Rock 13
3. In the Power and the Glory 21
4. The Heart of the Matter 31
5. The End of the Affair 37
6. A Burnt Out Case 45
7. Conclusion 52
BIBLIOGRAPHY 62
CHAPTER I
1. Introduction
Graham Greene (1940-1991) is undoubtedly one of the greatest contemporary novelists. He is Britain’s main literacy export’ in the present times. He appeals to us as few novelists of our times do, and has, not unnaturally, a wider and faithful readership both at home and abroad. Green has something in him that satisfies the common reader as well as the discerning ones. Greene received his early education at Berkhamsted School where his father was headmaster. In the confines of his father’s school, he was given a conventional middle class and upbringing. From there Green went to Balliol College, Oxford. It was at the end of his oxford career in 1925 that he published a collection of poems entitled, Babbling April.
Green has been a prolific writer. He has brought out nearly thirty five books which include novels, entertainment, collection of short stories, plays and essays, travelogues and memories. His first novel, THE MAN WITHIN was begun when Greene was not quite twenty two. It met with instant success when it was published in 1929. Perhaps Greene himself considers it embarrassingly romantic and derivative, but redeemed by its youthfulness. Greene’s next book, Stumble Train was published in 1932. On his own admission, it was his first ‘entertainment’. It’s a Battle Field was published in 1934. Her Greene dramatizes the nature and implication of personal guilt, isolation and failure in corrosively malignant world. The next novel, England Made Me published in 1935, is as Walter Allen puts it in his essay ‘Graham’, one of Greene’s finest evocation of ‘the seedy world of Modern economic man at his most Urbanized and atomized. The year 1936 saw the publication of two books, A Gun for sale and journey without maps, the letter being a travel book.
Brighten Rock published in 1938, perhaps marks the climatric of Greens obsession with Evil. The confidential agent and The Lawless Roads were both published in 1939. The lawless Roads, Which is travelogue, was published also in America as another Mexico and as we find the experience received from this journey led to the writing of one Greenes finest novels, the power and the glory which was published in 1940. A rather critical book of sorts, British dramatic, came out in 1942. It was followed in 1943 by the publication of the ministry of fear. After a lull of a couple of years, Greene came out with his first collection of short stories, nineteen stories in 1947. The next year saw the publication of his novel, the heart of the matter which may be viewed as a novel depicting the innate sinfulness of man and his need for divine mercy. Why do I write? Came out the very same year, and it is actually an exchange of letters with Elizabeth Browne and V.S. Pritchett. The third man and the fallen Idol were brought in 1950. One of the main sources of information about Greene’s unhappy childhood and other influences on him is a book essays called The Lost childhood and other essays that was published in 1951. The same year another important novel entitled The End of the affair was published. This novel too explores the seminal theme of sin and salvation.
Graham Greene’s first play, the living Room came out in 1953, and some of his short stories were published as Twenty one stories in 1954. His next two novels the Quiet Americans and loser takes all came out the following year. Another play by Greene’s entitled The Pelting shed was published in 1957. Like its predecessor, it too deals with religious theme. But the next play, The Complaisant Lover, Published in 1959, is lighter in tone and belongs rather to the category of the comedy of manners. This play was preceded in 1958 by novel called our man in Havana. The year 1961 has a somewhat special importance for Graham Greene’s, Since he published a novel, A Burnt – Out Case , a travelogue , In search of a character: Two African Journals, and Edited Ford Maddox ford During the span of this Year, He brought out yet another collection of short stories, A sense of Reality, In 1963. Greene’s next play, carving a statue, came out in 1964. After a gap of one year he published a novel captioned the complaints, in 1966, and he brought out his fourth collection of short stories, May we borrow Your Husband? And another comedies of sexual life in 1967. Perhaps the most entertaining of Greene’s novels, Travels with my aunt, was published in 1969, and the very same year he brought out his collection collected Essays. His two important autobiographical exercises, A short of life and ways of escapes were published in 1971 ways escapes were published in 1971 and 1980 respectively. Greene’s other novels, the honorary consul (1973). The human factor (1978), Doctor Fischer of Greener or the Bomb Party (1980), Monsignor Quixote (1983), The captain and the Enemy (1984) and the tenth man 1985, Came out in regular and unceasing succession. And Greene’s other plays, The Returns of A.J. Raffels, yes and No, and for whom the bell chimes were presented on the stage, respectively in 1975 and 1983. It is interesting to discover that while his play, The Great Joules, Was staged way back in 1939; it was published only in 1981. Now all the plays have been put together as the collected plays of Graham Grene (1985).
It is almost a critical common place to say that the Greene’s longer fictional writings are broadly divided into Entertainments and Novels Proper. In fact, there are Greene’s own coinages to differences his supposedly light fiction from its serious counterparts. His entertainments are supposed to be less serious than his novel, and the criterion of distinction between these two categories is that of the writer’s commitment, or its dilution. To the potential problems of human existence in the present age Greene’s entertainments are easily identifiable as much by the stress on outward action as by a comparative lack of development in the characters and a marked used of melodramatic devices to connect various section of the narrative. However, to the serious minded reader of Greene’s Novel, This distinction between ‘Novels’ and Entertainments seems not only to be superficial but also fatuous. In both entertainments and novels we get, Essential speaking the same stuff on which the writers sensibility works itself out with a remarkable kind of firmness and consistency. It is indeed true that we get an overdose of suspense and thrill and excitement in his entertainments and yet they have their own profundity. Just as his serious novels do have their own lighter sides. Graham Greene’s is so outstanding a figure in modern English Literature that it was not Unusual to see a vast body of critical opinions. Often pulling in different and differing directions, about the various aspects of his writing. It was in the post – Second world war period, Especially after the publication of Greene‘s three major novels, The power and the glory, The heart of the matter, And the end of the affair that there was a veritable burst of critical interest in him. All the three novel may be said to have been written, More or loss, in tune with his commitment to Roman Catholicism. It is pertinent to mention at this point that at a time when a considerable number of British and continental writers were leanings towards the lift, Greene had embraced the most ancient from of Christianity in 1926, at the age of 22.