Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Viktoria Fedorova

Moral Values In Espionage Novels by Graham Greene

Bachelor's Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D.

2017 / declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

Viktória Fedorová

2 Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my supervisor, Stephen Paul Hardy, PhD. for all his valuable advice. I would also like to thank my family, my partner and my friends for their support.

3 Table of Contents

1. Introduction 5

2. Graham Greene: Life and Vision 10

2.1. Espionage 15

2.2. Greene and Catholicism 17

2.3. The Entertainments and "Serious Novels" 21

3. The Ministry of Fear 23

4. The Quiet American 32

5. The Comedians 46

6. Conclusion °1

7. Works Cited 65

8. Resume (English) 67

9. Resume (Czech) 68

4 1. Introduction

The aim of this thesis is to analyse and compare the treatment of moral values in three espionage novels by Graham Greene- The Ministry of Fear, The Quiet American and The

Comedians- to show that the debate of moral values in Greene's novels is closely connected with the notion that the gravity of sins committed is connected to the amount of pain one's decision causes to other human beings. The evil committed by his characters is to be judged individually and one of his characters' greatest fears is the fear to cause the pain to other human beings. Espionage novels were used because Greene's experience with espionage is often projected into his novels and it is often central to the plot. Lots of his characters are in contact with the secret services, either by accident- as is the case of Rowe- or by direct involvement (Pyle), or by the means the direct confrontation with the members of secret service (Fowler, Mr Brown, the Smiths).

The main characters in these espionage novels- Rowe, Fowler and Mr Brown- are all, from the Catholic point of view, sinners. Rowe commits murder when he kills his wife to relieve her from the pain caused by serious illness. Fowler commits adultery with Phuong and betrays his friend by handing him over to the secret forces. Mr Brown is connected with the same issue because he meets with Martha and in the end, he betrays his friend, Major Jones.

All of them have committed the capital sin; and yet the reader cannot see them as bad men because one sympathizes with the motivation for the sinning. For understanding these men, the reader must know the motivation that underlines their actions and therefore the motivation of the characters is more important in their analysis in the terms of morality than their actions because even the most sinful actions are done with the greatest motivation in their minds.

In Greene's novels, the characters often take part in society haunted by war, dictatorship and extreme conditions. The conditions of constant fear, terror and extremity

5 (sometimes even absurdity) of the situations are the conditions into which he positions his characters. The characters are often faced with the difficult choices in which they have to decide between the two evils and they often encounter themselves in the extreme situations which require moral choices. Even though his characters decide to sin wilfully, their motivation can pardon them because they try to avoid causing pain to the innocent and the people they love.

Greene divides his novels into two categories- "the serious novels" and "the entertainments". This terms are coined by Greene himself who felt that division is important to make because the themes discussed in entertainments and in serious novels differ. Norman

Sherry says about the entertainment: "An entertainment is generally a melodramatic thriller where there is an almost exclusive concentration on outward action and less on character development" (Sherry, Life of Greene vol. 2 13).The entertainments are aiming at the larger public but they contain similar debates about the morality as his serious novels. This thesis aims at providing the analysis of the treatment of moral values in the espionage novels from which one belongs into the category of entertainments and the other two belong to the category of serious novels to show that in the terms of morality, the themes are similar in both categories of his novels.

The first chapter deals with the contextualization of Greene's novels with his biography and his personal experience with the special emphasis on two areas- his experience with espionage and his personal perception of faith and religion. Espionage is often encountered in the centre of the action and the main characters are often involved in the secret services themselves. Furthermore, Greene himself was involved in the espionage since the early years in the Oxford when he was involved with the German espionage and managed to get the funds from them to make the trip to Germany with Claud Cockburn. His most notable experience as a spy comes from the period of the Second World War from which much of his

6 inspiration for Our Man in Havana comes.

Furthermore, the understanding of Greene's faith is crucial for this analysis because it provides the insight into his vision about the morality, his faith and the treatment of sin and interpersonal relationships in his novels. Greene is sceptic about the existence of God and

Greene questions the religious dogmas and stereotypical representations. On the other hand, he visited locations where Catholics were persecuted and this had a deep spiritual influence on him, especially his trip to Mexico during the witch-hunt for the Catholics in this country.

The main sources used in this chapter are Greene's two autobiographies A Sort of Life and The Ways of Escape. First one deals with his childhood and the life as a young adult, his conversion to Catholic faith and the experience with publishing his first novels. The second one deals, as is visible from the title, with his countless travels and his adult experience and his constant urge to employ himself in the dangerous situations to escape from his depression.

Second main source used in the second chapter is the trilogy The Life of Graham Greene written by Greene's official biographer Norman Sherry. This trilogy gives a very detailed account of life of Greene and into the situations that inspired Greene in creating characters and situations in his novels. This trilogy is divided chronologically with the first volume ranging from 1904 to 1939, second volume ranging from 1939- 1955 and third volume ranging from 1955 until Greene's death in 1991.

The third chapter deals with the analysis of the novel The Ministry of Fear with the main emphasis on the morality of the main character, Rowe. The Ministry of Fear is an entertainment published early after Greene's "Catholic novels" and contains the debates about moral values which are similar to the debates used in his earlier novels. This novel is a representation of the entertainment in this analysis. It takes place in the location which is typical for the world of Greene's novel- London during the blitz. The main moral debate in the book is formed by Rowe's guilt for the murder of his wife that he committed because of

7 compassion and the question whether he can be removed from his guilt. The espionage in this novel is represented in the mysterious organization which tries to kill Rowe because he knows too much.

The next chapter analyses The Quiet American, the novel which draws from

Greene's experience during his travels to wartime Indochina. This analysis is centred on character of Fowler and Pyle, the first one, an elderly, cynical journalist who lives with his

Vietnamese mistress, Phuong and the second a young, naive and ambitious member of

American economic mission who later manages to win the heart of Phuong in the competition between the two men. Pyle is at the same time the member of American secret service who has as its aim to establish network with the "third force" in Vietnam. Pyle, by his naivety and his idealism manages to get many innocent people killed and Fowler decides to betray his friend. In this novel one can encounter Greene's switch from the novels connected with the

Catholic themes to the novels with the focus more on the political situation.

The last chapter, The Comedians, is the most politically focused novel from the novels analyzed in this thesis. In this novel Greene takes us to Haiti haunted by the presence of the figure of Duvalier and his reign of fear. Although The Comedians is not, strictly speaking, espionage novel, it is included here because it contains some characteristics of the genre and also because it represents good example of Greene's later fiction. William M.

Chace characterises espionage novels and the act of spying in Greene's espionage fiction in his essay concerned with espionage novels by Graham Greene called "Spies and God's Spies:

Greene's Espionage Fiction". He says that:

Indeed, "spying" -the act of gaining and holding knowledge surreptitiously, the

process of achieving advantage over others by remaining detached from them and yet

cognizant of their activities, the contest of an emotional relationship in which one of

the parties holds exclusive pieces of covert information about that relationship—is

8 central to Greene's work. (Chace 159)

In this novel, this aspect is portrayed through the Haitian secret police, Tontons Macoute and their leader- Captain Concasseur. Concasseur is detached from the others because of the fear of the secret police and it can be argued that he is also achieving advantage over them because he knows a lot about them. This is portrayed in the scene when Brown enters the brothel Mere

Catherine and meets Concasseur who says to him: "I seem to see you everywhere" (Greene,

The Comedians 124). This implies that he knows a lot about Brown, he knows which places he visits and his occupation and what does. The fear of the secret forces and the terror of being exposed to their power is also present in the story and the whole atmosphere is very close to that of the espionage novels.

In the analysis of this novel the focus is on the characters of Mr Brown, the Smiths and

Martha and the means of dealing with the extreme situation around them by these characters.

Mr Brown is an owner of the hotel in the country which discourages the tourism by its horrific state regime. The Smiths come to establish the vegetarian center where it is the last thing which the country needs to improve its conditions. And Martha is the wife of the ambassador and the mother to Angel, the character which is used to wake the motivation to act in Mr

Brown .

9 2. Graham Greene: Life and Vision

The aim of this chapter is to contextualize the world of Greene's novels by providing information about his biography. Greene draws enormously from his personal experience and from the observation of the people he met on his countless travels. He travelled mainly to the countries which were struggling with civil wars, revolutions, dictatorship or were simply hardly accessible. Espionage and Greene's faith are given special attention in this chapter to give insight into the Greene's experience with the world of the spying and to provide the context to Greene's treatment of moral values in his novels.

Graham Greene was born in Berkhamsted on October 2, 1904. Greene was born as the fourth of six children. His father worked in the local school and later he was promoted to hold the office of the headmaster. His mother was a cousin to the famous writer Robert Louise

Stevenson.

While in school, he was bullied by his schoolmates because he was a headmaster's son and also because of his solitary nature. This resulted in the severe depressions and later this traumatic experience led to Greene's mental breakdown. Norman Sherry says about this in the first volume of Greene's biography: "Graham Greene's time as a boarder at St John's was traumatic for him, but also seminal for his future as a writer. He returns to it again in his work" (Sherry, Life of Greene vol.1 65). He did not tell anybody about his traumatic experience and dealt with it by himself. According to Sherry, "always after this we will witness Graham's tremendous sympathy for the hunted man (for he had felt hunted); the hunted man would become the staple of his fiction and he would have a profound interest in, and compulsive love for, the down trodden everywhere" (Sherry, Life of Greene vol.1 91).

However, the experience with bullying had not only inspired his "love for the down trodden" as said by Sherry but also his view on betrayal and negative human experience. Furthermore,

10 his experience with bullying lays the basis of the world of Greene and his novels that has later become to be commonly referred to as Greeneland.

Greeneland is the term that is used to describe the setting of Greene's novels. The background of his novels is usually very dark and seedy and the main characters often face the war, extreme forms of dictatorship or revolution. Norman Sherry mentions Greeneland in the first part of his trilogy: "When we use the term 'Greeneland' to describe the characteristic landscape of his novels we usually have his concern with betrayal in mind. He treats betrayal obsessively, its source, its nature, its prevalence in the world as a malady, its necessity the unstated part of every man" (Sherry, Life of Greene vol.1 71). This concern with the betrayal is linked to his experience with bullying and it is other example of how bullying in his early years inspired his dark vision of the world which is transferred to the world of his novels.

After he suffered a mental breakdown as a result of his experience with childhood tormentors, he was sent to the psychotherapist Kenneth Richmond to London to be treated by psychotherapy in Richmond's house for a few months and during this time he also lived there.

Psychotherapy provides influence visible throughout Greene's entire work. He was supposed to keep dream diary while being treated and the treatment itself consisted mainly of the analysis of his dreams. Greene himself describes a treatment in his autobiography A Sort of

Life: "I was led to think no further back than to my childhood, and my relation with my father and mother. I sought the cause of my rebellion in myself, in my loves and my fears" (Greene,

Sort of S3). Childhood usually plays important role in the development of the personality traits of his characters. It is visible in character of Pinkie in Brighton Rock whose childhood clearly marked his opinions about sex and marriage. He is forced to watch his parents during the intercourse because of the poverty in which the family lives (they live in a shabby house with only one room) and this resulted in his detestation of the act of sex in his relationship with Rose. Rowe in The Ministry of Fear is influenced by the childhood too, because every

11 time he thinks about the murder of his wife (he killed her because of....) he remembers retrospectively the scenes from his childhood.

Greene gives the description of his view of the role of childhood in the life of man in his essay "The Lost Childhood" published in The Collected Essays in which he is dealing with the influence of his childhood reading upon him and his later work. It starts with the sentence:

"Perhaps it is only in childhood that books have any deep influence on our lives"(Greene,

Collected Essays 13). He sees the books that he read as child as very influential for his later development as an author and also as a human being. As he mentions adventure stories as his primary readings in his early years, these can be viewed as one of the inspirations for his future travels. Finally, it was the book that he read at the age of fourteen that inspired him to write his first novel.

Another thing that Greene learnt from his psychotherapeutic experience is the importance of dreams. The description of his treatment by psychoanalysis continues in A Sort of Life: "I kept perforce a dream diary" (Greene, Sort 0/88). Later he described the session with Mr. Richmond: "I would begin to read out my dream, and he would check my associations with his watch. Afterwards he would talk in general terms about the theory of analysis, about the mortmain of the past which holds us in thrall" (Greene, Sort of 90). This description shows that the main part of his treatment consisted of interpretation of the dreams.

He kept a dream diary for his entire life and it is later published under the name A World of

My Own.

In his autobiography, Ways of Escape, Greene admits that some ideas from his novels are inspired by his dreams when he writes: "The subject, I remember, was suggested by a dream, the fruit of anxiety ridden-weeks" (Greene, Escape 21). Another thing that might have had influenced his view on the importance of dreams is described by Sherry when he described Greene's dreams in which he foresaw certain disasters. After citing Greene's letter

12 addressed to his mother which described one of such dreams, Sherry says: "This was not the first time Graham had had such dreams of disasters of which he could not have known. When he was seven and on the night of the Titanic disaster he dreamt of a shipwreck" (Sherry, Life of Greene vol. 1 106). The same importance that dreams have on his own life is transferred to the world of his characters. For example in The Comedians Mr. Brown's dream about the parrots mirrors Mr. Brown's own experience.

After finishing his studies in Berkhamsted, he studied history at Baliol College,

Oxford. While studying there he published his first book- the book of poems called Babbling

April. He was very busy while studying at Oxford, he wrote for the magazines and was editing Oxford Outlook. At this time he was no longer a solitary character, he made many friends during this period, mainly Eric Guest, Claud Cockburn and Peter Quennell. He graduated with a second-class degree from History. At this period he still suffered from depression and this is the time when his game with Russian roulette started. Sherry says about this: "his adventure with Russian roulette and later his incessant travelling to inaccessible and often dangerous places, is not simply the desire to test himself but to escape from a depressed condition" (Sherry, Life of Greene vol.1 277). Depressions accompany him for his entire life.

When he left Oxford, he was a private tutor for a few months and then he was supposed to start working for the tobacco company in China as a businessman. Although he wanted to see China, he could not leave Britain for that long because that would mean separation from Vivien. Even though he took training, he decided to stay in Britain and found a job as a sub-editor in Nottingham Journal. Later he moved to London and worked as sub-editor at The Times. While he worked as a sub-editor, he also worked on his novels and in 1928 his first novel The Man Within is published. After the success of this novel Greene left his work as sub-editor and worked as a full-time writer.

In 1927 Graham Greene married Vivien Dayrell-Browning with whom he had two

13 children: Lucy Caroline and Francis. Their marriage did not last and they separated in 1947.

He wanted to divorce Vivien but she would not agree because of her religion, the same thing that is visible in the character of Fowler's wife who is also Catholic and does not agree with the divorce.

During his life he travelled to hardly accessible and dangerous places. He visited

Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Malaya, Vietnam, leper colonies in Congo and many other countries. He projects his experience with these countries into his novels and the major part of his second autobiography, Ways of Escape, is dedicated to his travels abroad. He often travels to the dangerous countries when he is troubled in his personal life. Sherry writes about this:

Journeys were Greene's means of controlling depression. He often came out of

melancholy with a sudden eagerness for new ventures. When he spoke of ways of

escape, Greene meant and escape from self- a self which felt there was nothing in life

worth having, nothing worth doing, until he reached the point where the seeds of

inspiration of what he had seen and heard, what he'd experienced, could be cultivated

into the landscape of Greeneland (Sherry, Life of Greene vol.3 73)

For Greene these journeys into the dangerous and unknown regions represent the way how to forget oneself and these trips provided the inspiration for his novels and for the dark background of Greeneland which he incorporated in his novels from his experience of running away from his depression. He designed the world of his novels by observing the situations that his characters go through in the world of his novels.

Greene died of leukaemia in 1991 at the age of 86. He spent his last years mainly in company of Yvonne Cloett who was his mistress from 1960s until the end of his life. He lived in France during his last years.

In conclusion, Greene's experience from childhood influenced his whole life and

14 this notion gets transferred to his novels. Furthermore, that he was bullied and later treated by psychotherapy transformed his vision of the world. Psychotherapy influenced his preoccupation about the dream world and its influence on the conscious side of the person which he presents to the world when he is not dreaming. Furthermore, Greene's constant travels to the unknown and dangerous places inspired him to use these places as a background to his novels. The dark settings of his novels often forces the main characters into the border situations when they are faced with the fear and dangers.

2.1 Espionage

During his visits to foreign countries, Greene worked as a spy on some of his visits. He was trained as the agent of the espionage during the Second World War. At the beginning of war he worked at Ministry of Information where he was involved in writing the pieces of propaganda. In 1941 he joined MI6 and went through training in Lagos. After that, he was sent to Freetown, Sierra Leone as a spy. Later he worked in London when his profession consisted of positioning the spies in the places where they were of the importance and counterespionage in Lisbon area. His experience from London is biggest source of information which he used as the basis for the espionage experience used in his novels.

Firstly, Greene saw spying as a thing that is inevitable in a modern society. Sherry says about Greene's relation to spying: "As a profession whose purpose was to obtain secret political or military information about 1 country on behalf of another, he did not condemn it"

(Sherry, Life of Greene vol.1 132). During the two world wars, spying became increasingly important in the military strategy of the armies. To know enemy's next move proved to be crucial in the strategy of winning the war. Greene, living in London during the Blitz knew all this and that he did not condemn spying at an international level.

Sherry provides more information about this subject when he writes about the work of

MI6:

15 Essentially, MI6 gathered enemy information and disseminated false information; the

ultimate goal was to penetrate the enemies' secret operations, to become a part of them,

to know their intentions. If you can persuade your opponents to believe the

disinformation provided so completely that it enters their files and comes to be

accepted, then the enemy can be misled and their reactions controlled" (Sherry, Life of

Greene vol.2 167).

From this information about the work it is visible that Greene worked mainly on the grounds of counterespionage while in London. It can be concluded that from this description of the work of MI6 it is more effective to use espionage as the military strategy in the war because by knowing your enemy's intentions you are more likely to protect the areas where he is going to strike. Furthermore, by providing the false information to the enemy, the enemy can be easily controlled because one possesses information about his weaknesses.

Furthermore, Sherry provides insight into the paper which served for training of the agents called 'Memorandum on the Work of the Section of Civil Affairs & Security'. This manual "gives 3 possible reasons why people give away information: 1. the desire for money;

2. dislike of the person or persons about whom the information is given; 3. desire to try and win a position which would obtain them protection from their own people or police" (Sherry,

Life of Greene vol. 2 86). This shows an insight into the process of gaining the information from the contacts and shows the reader the context of the spy's work.

On the other hand, Greene also condemns spying when it is done on the personal level. This type of spying is present in the autocratic countries where the government creates an effective system of spying applied on their own citizens created to disqualify the regime's opponents. Such a system was also present in Haiti which Greene visited more times, first time in 1954. In the sixties he saw the presence of Duvalier's secret police Tontons Macoute.

Sherry wrote following about this secret police: "Tonton Macoute is Creole for 'Uncle Grab

16 Bag' (a legendary bogeyman who stuffed little children into a sack)" (Sherry, Life of Greene vol. 5 316). This description suggests that this secret police was feared in the country. Sherry also mentions that Tontons Macoute operated also abroad and that Greene himself was afraid that they would find him and kill him because of his description of Haiti in his work.

What is more, from the definition of spying provided by William M. Chace already mentioned in the introduction shows that espionage is an uneven relationship. He characterizes spying as "the act of gaining and holding knowledge surreptitiously, the process of achieving advantage over others by remaining detached from them and yet cognizant of their activities, the contest of emotional relationship in which one of the parties holds exclusive pieces of covert information about that relationship" (Chace 159). The side which possesses more information is the side which is dominant in this relationship. The dominant side can interfere without having to be directly present.

In conclusion, in his espionage novels Greene draws from his experience as a spy.

The characters in his novels are in the contact with the secret services. In the modern era, spying became unreplaceable military force which allows to understand and control the enemy and Greene did not condemn the process of gaining information from other countries.

His experience with the espionage during the Second World War is the major source for his novels.

2.2 Greene and Catholicism

Greene often deals with the themes connected with moral values, evil and goodness.

Moreover, he is classified by some critics as Catholic writer because the characters in his

novels are often met with the theological questions about sin, goodness, evil or their own

faith. Greene's characters share his views about the position towards God and their own

faith and the characters also share Greene's doubts about the propositions of the Catholic

17 Church.

Greene converted to Catholicism after he met his future wife, Vivien. She was a

Catholic convert and Vivien was the main reason why Greene joined the Catholic Church.

In Sherry's biography, Greene's friend Claud Cockburn recollects his conversation with

Greene about this matter:

I knew him before Vivien. Quite early on, Graham said to me that he had fallen

madly in love with this girl, but she wouldn't go to bed to him unless he married her.

So I said, 'Well there are lots of other girls in the world but still if that's the way you

feel, well go ahead and marry her. What difference does it make? And then he came

back and said, 'The trouble is that she won't marry me unless I become a Catholic'

I said 'Why not? If you're really so obsessed with this girl, you've got to get it out of

your system.' He was rather shocked, because he said, 'You of all people, a noted

atheist.' I said, 'Yes because you're the one that's superstitious, because I don't think

it matters. If you worry about becoming a Catholic, it means you take it seriously

and you think that there is something there' (Sherry, Life of Greene vol. 1 193).

From this conversation it is visible that Vivien was prior inspiration for his conversion.

Sherry gives us another insight into Greene's conversion when he says: "Catholicism and

Vivien provided a way of escaping his personality problems. Thus Greene came to

Catholicism because of his admiration of Vivien" (Sherry, Life of Greene vol. 1 274). Greene

took lessons with father Trollope to learn about Catholicism, the doctrines of the Church and

these provided the safe place where he could escape from his daily routine and his

unhappiness caused by his dull surroundings in Nottingham. After taking these lessons he joined the Roman Catholic Church.

However, Greene was never an unconditional believer and he had many doubts about the

existence of God as is visible from his autobiography and also from Sherry's biography. His

18 doubts are transferred onto his characters and their doubts about the existence of God mirror

Greene's own doubts. In his autobiography A Sort of Life Greene describes his doubts in a

greater detail: "I didn't disbelieve in Christ-1 disbelieved in God. If I were ever to be

convinced in even the remote possibility of a supreme, omnipotent and omniscient power I

realized that nothing afterwards could seem impossible. It was on the ground of dogmatic

atheism that I fought and I fought hard" (Greene, Sort of 167). It is visible that Greene had a

problem to believe that there is God as he is described in Catholic Church- as an ever-present

figure who sees and judges everything.

He goes on by saying that: "I can only remember that in January 1926 I became

convinced of the probable existence of something we call God though now I dislike the word

with all its anthropomorphic associations and prefer Chardin's Noosphere..." (Greene, Sort of

168). Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a French Jesuit, paleontologist and geologist. In The

Phenomenon of Man Chardin says the following about noosphere: "Much more coherent and just as extensive as any preceding layer, it is really a new layer, the 'thinking layer', which,

since its germination at the end of the Tertiary period, has spread over and above the world of

plants and animals. In other words, outside and above the biosphere there is the noosphere"

(Chardin 182).

In this description the noosphere is described as "thinking layer" which suggests that

it is the layer which consists of the human thoughts. Furthermore, Chardin's localization of

the noosphere "outside the above the biosphere" suggests that is one of the layers which

encircles the Earth. To sum up, the noosphere is the layer of human thought which encircles

the Earth. This phenomenon is for Greene easier to believe in rather than the picture of God as

he is stereotypically portrayed in Catholic imagery. It also describes more about his vision of

God- that rather than human-like figure watching and judging everything, he sees God as a

natural phenomenon. This natural phenomenon does not interfere but contains the knowledge

19 and thoughts of the human beings.

Greene's stance towards sin, which he provides in one of the interviews with Sherry, shows that he does not agree with the strict division of sins into categories. Greene says:

It's got a kind of professional dogmatic ring about it. Crime, I don't mind

the word crime but the word sin has got a kind of priestly tone. I believe that one

does something wrong... and it may be a little wrong and it may be a big wrong.

I never liked that strict division of mortal sin and venial sin in the Catholic Church.

And then again it depends on the consequences, some apparent little wrongs can

cause more pain than apparent big wrongs. It depends on the circumstances

and human relations" (Sherry, Life of Greene vol. 3 692).

This shows that he thinks that each sin should be considered individually and that in each case the amount of pain that it causes to the others should be important factor in considering one's action. Greene says that each sin should be considered in connection with the "the circumstances and human relations". Thus his characters are often in the situation in which they sin and yet one can does see them as evil.

This view is visible mainly in his Catholic novels. Scobie in The Heart of the Matter commits suicide because he wants to protect others who are close to him. Another example is visible in the character of whiskey priest in The Power and the Glory who drinks and has a child but, on the other hand, he is unable to refuse to come to the dying man even though he knows it is a trap.

Furthermore, Sherry stresses this importance of the effect of the sin on other human beings. He says that "Greene's religious heroes are not primarily interested in their own souls: they are concerned with saving others" (Sherry, Life of Greene vol. 3 688). Other human beings and their feelings play important role in the decision making of many of his characters.

Fowler at last decides to betray his friend because the picture of the mother holding her dead

20 child raised his concern for the ordinary people and his effort to prevent such things from happening and from the naivety of Pyle.

To sum up, Greene's stance towards faith and religion is mirrored in the world of his novels. He does not believe in the existence of God as he is stereotypically portrayed in

Christian literature and art but rather as a phenomenon which contains human knowledge and human thoughts. His views of the religious dogmas and the teachings of the Catholic Church show that his understanding of the concepts of faith and sin differ from the typical views of the Church. He did not agree with the strict separation of the sins in the categories because he expressed an idea that the each action of the person should be judged individually in connection to the people affected by this sin rather than the soul of the individual.

2.3 The Entertainments and "Serious Novels"

Greene divides his novels into two categories- "the serious novels" and "the

entertainments". In this analysis, one entertainment, The Ministry of Fear, first published

in 1943 when Greene's interest was centred more on the catholic themes, and two serious

novels, The Quiet American, first published in 1955 and The Comedians, first published in

1966, centred more around the political themes are used.

There is some debate about the distinction between Greene's entertainments and

his more serious novels. In the interview by Simon Raven and Martin Shuttleworth

published in Paris Review in 1953, Greene describes the distinction between the two. He

said, "The entertainments are distinct from the novels because as the name implies they do

not carry a message" (Raven and Shuttleworth 6). He elaborates this distinction in the

interview with Walter Allen broadcasted in radio in 1955: "In one's entertainments one is

primarily interested in having an exciting story as in a physical action, with just enough

character to give interest in the action, because you can't be interested in the action of a

mere dummy. In the novels I hope one is primarily interested in the character and the

21 action takes a minor part" (Pryce-Jones 62). From these explanations, it can be concluded that the entertainments are less concerned with the serious issues and can be described as thrillers, the novels which major focus is on excitement and on the reader's enjoyment of the book whereas his novels are focused on the issues concerned with the personality traits and inner world of the characters.

On the other hand, Robert O. Evans writes in the introduction to Graham Greene:

Some Critical Considerations, the book which gathers the essays about Greene and his novels: "That distinction, however, is superficial, for the same themes appear in novels and entertainments and the same techniques, more or less, appear in both" (Evans vii).

One could argue that the distinction between the entertainments and his more serious works is not as clear as Greene's explanations seem to suggest. In addition, the distinction is even less visible in the case of morality and moral values, for the entertainments, in my opinion, are just as much thorough in their examination of human behaviour as the serious novels, and the distinction is very difficult to draw.

In conclusion, the distinction between the entertainments and the serious novels is very difficult to draw and Greene deals with the similar themes in both of these genres.

Greene himself makes the distinction between the entertainments as the one of the action and characters- he says that in his entertainments, the action is more important while in his serious novels the focus is on the character development. However, I would argue that the character development is equally important in both of these genres as they deal with the similar themes and both deal with the moral values as portrayed through the characters.

22 3. The Ministry of Fear

In The Ministry of Fear the question of morality is connected to the notion of how much pain the characters cause to other human beings mainly through the character of Arthur

Rowe. Rowe is a murderer who kills his wife because she is ill and he cannot bear looking at her suffering. His mercy killing is put into contrast with the murders done by "the others" whom are exemplified mainly through the character of Willi Hilfe. These "others" does not care for the pain that their actions might be causing and what they see is only their vision of the world. This is similar to the position that character of Pyle holds later in The Quiet

American.

The setting of the novel is London during the blitz. In the description of the destruction that London faces Greene draws from his personal experience because he worked as air-raid warden in some areas of London during that time. Sherry says about this: "This was the world Greene knew intimately: an empty London with sudden bursts of noise, incessant bombing, an umbrella shop burning at the corner of Oxford Street" (Life of Greene vol.2 48). The destruction that takes place in London during the blitz is transferred to the pages of the novel. The characters hide in the air-raid shelters and Rowe's house is destroyed during one of the raids just as Greene's house was destroyed. Moreover, Sherry also describes

Greene's position towards staying in the shelters: "So Greene felt at home in the nightly air• raid shelter" (Life of Greene vol.2 52). This experience is also transferred to the world of the novel when Rowe hides in the shelter after he loses his home and after Hilfe manages to persuade him that he is wanted for murder.

The reader learns about Rowe's stance towards murder right at the beginning at the novel when he is visited by a man who tries to poison him because of the cake that Rowe accidentally won. In their conversation Rowe exposes his stance towards murder and the guilt

23 that he feels because of the murder of his wife:

Rowe said slowly, 'It's like any other crime. It involves the innocent. It isn't

any excuse that your chief victim was... dishonest, or that the judge drinks...'

The stranger took him up. Whatever he said had an intolerable confidence.

'How wrong you are. Why, even murder can sometimes be excused. We've

all known cases, haven't we... ?

'Murder...' Rowe considered slowly and painfully. He had never felt this

man's confidence about anything. He said, 'They say, don't they, that you

shouldn't do evil, that good may come.'

'Oh poppycock,' sneered the little man. 'The Christian ethic. You're

intelligent. Now I challenge you. Have you ever really followed that rule?'

'No,' Rowe said. 'No.' (Ministry 26)

That Rowe himself is a murderer is exposed only later in the novel. However, from this conversation Rowe's sense of guilt is already visible when he is thinking about the murder.

He feels the need to be punished for his sin and the thing that he is not judged by the secular powers lies hardly on his conscience. On the other hand, the secular powers admitted that his killing is a mercy killing and that he should not be judged for that, although he is sent to the asylum for the certain amount of time. Rowe is struggling to find his place between these two positions and this is why he is so struck by the stranger's confidence. He says that "he had never felt this man's confidence about anything" and in this confidence lies the contrast between the stranger and Rowe.

While Rowe is concerned about his sin and cannot stop blaming himself, the stranger is confident that murder can be justified. There seems to be nothing that can shake his confidence about the possible justifiability of the murder and he is so confident about his truth that he goes on to persuade Rowe about his truth. W.H. Auden deals with this in his essay

24 "The Heresy of Our Time" in which he deals with the war between the two sides as presented in The Ministry of Fear. He says: "The secret war in The Ministry of Fear is between those who pity and those who can bear pain- other people's pain endlessly, the people who don't care. Yet both sides have a common bond; both have murdered" (Auden 94). Rowe pities the people who are suffering and would do anything to stop their suffering. He expresses his opinion about this later in the novel: "He was brought up to believe that it was wrong to inflict pain, but he was often ill, his teeth were bad, and he suffered agonies from an inefficient dentist he knew as Mr Griggs. He learned before he was seven what pain was like- he wouldn't willingly allow even a rat to suffer it" (Greene, Ministry 95). From this is visible that for Rowe it is not possible to cause pain to any living being and that he cannot bear looking at the other's people suffering. His case is similar to the cases of Fowler in The Quiet

American and Mr Brown in The Comedians who are moved to action by seeing the people around them suffer. Rowe is also moved to murder by the sight of the human suffering when he sees his wife in pain caused by her illness. He does not cause pain to other human beings but rather works on relieving their pain.

On the other hand, there is the group of people who are "those who can bear pain- other people's pain endlessly". In the novel these people play much bigger role in the disasters going on around them. While Rowe commits mercy killing, these people does not stop even though they know their actions cause pain to other human beings. This group of people is exemplified in the character of Willi Hilfe who says the following about murder to

Rowe: "The difference is that in these days it really pays to murder, and when a thing pays it becomes respectable. The rich abortionist becomes a gynaecologist and the rich thief a bank director" (Greene, Ministry 49). He continues with the comparison of the "old-fashioned murderer", a group to which Rowe evidently belongs, and the new type of murderer, a group to which he himself belongs. He says: "Your old-fashioned murderer killed from fear, from

25 hate- or even from love, Mr Rowe, very seldom for substantial profit. None of these reasons is quite- respectable. But to murder for position- that's different because when you've gained the position nobody has a right to criticize the means" (Greene, Ministry 49). From this comparison one can feel more sympathetic to the old-fashioned murderer Rowe who kills because he loves and cannot bear looking at human suffering than to the new type of killing aimed to gaining of a personal profit. While the first type of murderer is connected with love, the second one can never be connected to the feeling of love.

This is also exemplified in Willi Hilfe who in his way towards personal profit goes even so far as to trying to murder his sister. When Rowe comes to Willi to persuade him to give him the microfilm which contains the secret plans stolen from the British, they talk about this and Hilfe's stance towards the murder of his sister is revealed:

'You didn't mind trying to eliminate your sister.'

He said blandly and unconvincingly, 'Oh that was a tragic necessity,' and gave

a sudden grin which made the whole affair of the suitcase and the bomb about as

important as a booby-trap on the stairs. He seemed to accuse them of a lack

of humour- it was not the kind of thing they ought to have taken to heart (Greene,

Ministry 219).

Hilfe is one of those who Auden defines as the ones "who can bear pain- other people's pain endlessly". His character serves the aim of providing the contrast to Rowe's murder. While

Rowe cannot stop accusing himself and feels guilty to the marrow of his bones, his killing is one of the mercy killings that serves the objective of relieving the pain. On the other hand,

Hilfe does not mind causing pain to other human beings and he is willing to go as far as to hurt his own sister, the human being that is closest to him.

This comparison of the two characters is often mentioned by Anna Hilfe who falls in love with Rowe and would do anything to make him realize that he can be happy again if only

26 he leaves his guilt behind. When they meet in the hotel room where she tries to save him from her brother she says to him: "You think you are so bad but it was only because you couldn't bear the pain. But they can bear pain- other people's pain- endlessly. They are the people who don't care" (Greene, Ministry 107). She says the word that Auden later uses in his essay to define the people who belong to one of the categories that belong to the two sides of the

"secret war in The Ministry of Fear", as Auden puts it. Anna Hilfe learns a lot about Rowe's nature from her reading of the newspapers which describe Rowe and his murder. She sees that

Rowe is different from the people that she knows from her previous life and to whom even her own brother belongs. This people can bear other people's suffering and thus they are unstoppable in their evil behaviour. On the other hand, there is Rowe who cannot bear looking at the suffering and would do anything to prevent the people who he knows from the suffering, even if the damnation of his soul is included in the process.

This is confirmed also by Rowe who says: "there was the point- no to kill for one's own sake. But for the sake of people you loved, and in the company of people you loved, it was right to risk damnation" (Greene, Ministry 140). In here, the contrast between Rowe and

Hilfe is again mentioned. While Rowe kills "for the sake of people he loves", Hilfe kills for

"his own sake". Rowe would rather risk to be damned in the eyes of God than to allow the people to suffer, especially the ones that he loves. He would do anything just to protect his loved ones from the suffering from pain. He is even capable of murder when he pities other people because of their suffering.

Cates Baldridge deals with this in his book Graham Greene's Fictions: The Virtues of Extremity which deals with the analysis of the novels mainly from the view of moral values, virtues and the extreme situations in which the characters often encounter themselves.

In the case of Ministry of Fear he deals with pity and he says: "Just as Pinkie's hate can, in

Greene's view exist in close moral proximity to Rose's love because both are felt with

27 absolutistic intensity, so can pity, because of its ability to motivate dire acts, be falling off from love that nevertheless inhabits love's precincts of extremity" (Baldridge 96). In this he reacts to the essay by Auden that I mentioned previously in which he says: "Graham Greene analyses the vice of pity, that corrupt parody of love and compassion which is so insidious and deadly for sensitive natures" (Auden 94). Baldridge disagrees with Auden and gives the opinion that pity can be the representation of love. Although Auden argues that pity is

"corrupt parody of love", Baldridge reminds one that it "can be falling off from love that nevertheless inhabits love's precincts of extremity". This is also exemplified in Rowe, to whom pity certainly is deadly because it makes him to kill his wife which results in his self- hatred and the impossibility to forgive himself. However, as Rowe admits in his happy state when he is positioned in the clinic after the loss of his memory "one doesn't necessarily kill because one hates: one may kill because he loves" (Greene, Ministry 139). This is the case of

Rowe who kills because he cannot bear looking at pain, especially the pain of the ones he loves.

One finds it easier to believe what Rowe is saying after he loses his memory because he is no longer ridden only by guilt and other passions get the possibility to gain access to his mind. At that time he is even able to love again and he falls in love with Anna. However, one sees that his stance towards other people's pain does not change even after his memory loss:

"He was ill at ease in the company of men who all exhibited some obvious sign of an ordeal, the twitch of an eye-lid, a shrillness of voice, or a melancholy that fitted as completely and inescapably as the skin" (Greene, Ministry 118). His stance towards seeing other people suffering does not change throughout the whole novel. What changes after his memory loss is only that he does not blame himself for the sins done in the past. Even after he learns about being a murder from Willi Hilfe, he is happier and he is not so guilt-ridden than before.

While reading Tolstoy, he comes to yet another conclusion. He says:

28 The old man in the beard, he felt convinced, was wrong. He was too busy saving his

own soul. Wasn't it better to take part even in the crimes of people you loved, if it

was necessary hate as they did, and if that were the end of everything suffer

damnation with them rather than be saved alone? But that reasoning, it could be

argued, excused your enemy. And why not? he thought. It excused anyone who

loved enough to kill or be killed" (Greene, Ministry 140)

This is another comparison between him and the others. While he says that this theory can

"excuse his enemy" he admits that it can excuse anyone who was able to kill in the name of love. According to this new man called Digby in the novel who is different from Rowe especially by his understanding of necessity of evil actions in the face of human suffering, it is better to be damned for the sins that the person does for the people he loves than to refuse to do anything. This stance is similar to The Quiet American and The Comedians in which

Fowler and Mr Brown are also forced to act to relieve other people from their suffering. In the face of human pain, it is worse to not act at all than to commit sin in order to help the people with their pain. While pity certainly can be deadly, it is better to commit the sin of murder and be damned for it than to pity the person one loves and do nothing about it.

As Greene shows in his later novels, the decision to act to relieve the pain of other people can be justified, even if it requires the person to commit sin. This is exemplified through Fowler who betrays his friend to help innocent people of Vietnam and prevent more deaths and pain from happening. It is also exemplified through Brown who also sends his friend Major Jones to fight even though he knows that he is only boasting about his heroic deeds. And so does Pyle decides to act in order to relieve other human being from suffering even more that is necessary. He prefers to be damned because he has committed mortal sin than to not act at all and watch the suffering of his wife.

Furthermore, Baldridge uses the relationship between Pinkie and Rose in Brighton

29 Rock to exemplify that love and pity can be connected. Derek Traversi writes about this writes about this in his essay "Graham Greene: The Earlier Novels" in which he analyses the world of Greene's earlier novels: "Pinkie and Rose are both Catholics; and both are, as

Catholics, excluded by the possession of certain knowledge from the ignorance that might have saved them. Both in particular are convinced of the eternal consequences of their temporal acts" (Traversi 28). This is the same for Rowe who is also convinced of "the eternal consequences of his temporal acts". He cannot forgive himself because he thinks that he can never be forgiven for the murder of his wife even though he learns throughout the course of the novel that he is not a bad person. His desire to be punished for his sins and his feeling that there is nothing he can do which could justify his sin makes him morally better character than

Hilfe who does not regret any of his murders.

Moreover, in the Catholic faith the sinner who shows regret for his sins can be forgiven. However, the one who does not regret his sins can never be forgiven. Thus in this lies a hint that Rowe's mercy killing can be forgiven because what one sees is that he regrets that his impossibility to bear pain forced him to kill. This is expressed here: "It wasn't only evil men who did these things. Courage smashes a cathedral, endurance lets a city starve, pity kills... we are trapped and betrayed by our virtues" (Greene, Ministry 79). It is his virtue of pity that traps him into its chains and does not let him to decide otherwise than to help suffering person even though it means that he would live the lifetime of never feeling happy again and feeling full of guilt. He feels betrayed by his feeling of pity that was instilled on him in his childhood when he learned about the pain and promised himself that he would not allow another human being to suffer it. He knows the pain very intimately and this forces him to murder because he cannot imagine watching other person suffering as he had.

Thus it can be concluded that he is not a morally corrupted character even though he commits mortal sin because the main motivation for his action is to prevent his wife from

30 suffering and also his inability to watch other people suffer. He does this because of love and not for the personal profit and when he forgets about this sin and manages to be happy again, he is even able to understand the people who have committed the sins that are similar to his.

He prefers to be damned because he acts in favour of the people that he loves and cares about than to not act at all. When one compares him to the cold world of Hilfe who is a murderer because of the personal profit and is able to kill even his own sister when he finds it profitable for him, one is able to feel more sympathetic to Rowe's cause.

This is also confirmed by Johns, the helper to the doctor in the clinic where Rowe is put after his loss of memory. He says: "But the idealists don't see blood like you and I do.

They aren't materialists. It's all statistics to them" (Greene, Ministry 127). This also shows the distinction between Rowe and "the others" who does not mind murder because "it's all statistics to them". They are not able to care about other's people pain and does not understand the suffering that their behaviour causes to other people. They see only their ideals or personal profit, the similar thing that can be seen in Pyle in The Quiet American. On the other hand there is Rowe who is avoiding the human pain because he "sees blood". He knows what it means to suffer and this makes him sensible to the suffering of other human beings.

To sum up, it is the guilt-ridden murderer of his wife, Rowe, who is morally good character in this novel because he tries to avoid causing pain to other people and the only reason that drives him to killing his wife is that he cannot bear looking at her pain. His mercy killing is put into contrast with the behaviour of "the others" exemplified in the character of

Willi Hilfe who does not care for the pain of other human beings and is causing even more pain to other human beings that is necessary. He kills only for his own profit and does not stop even if to gain his profit means to kill his sister. On the other hand, Rowe does not look on his personal profit and kill only because he wants to protect his wife from pain.

31 4. The Quiet American

In The Quiet American the notion that morality in Greene's novels is closely

connected to the amount of pain that the characters cause to other human beings is

exemplified most clearly in the character of Pyle. Pyle gets involved in the political

happenings in Vietnam and his innocent idealism results in the suffering of many innocent

human beings and thus he is destroyed. On the other hand, the main character, cynical journalist Fowler, avoids political involvement and becomes involved only after he sees the

suffering caused by Pyle- the pain of innocent human beings makes him reconsider his

position as uninvolved and he decides to do something. Similar thing to this is exemplified

later in The Comedians where Brown also stays uninvolved to finally reconsider his position

and involve himself in the action that can be helpful to the people of suffering Haiti.

The novel takes place during the war in Indochina in the first half of the 1950s. In

this war the French colonial forces fought against Vietminh guerrillas. The novel's main

innocent character, Pyle, belongs to the American mission while covertly working for

American secret services in establishing the connection with "the third force". Adam Piette

writes about the setting of the novel in his book Literary Cold War, 1945 to Vietnam which is

dedicated to analyzing literary representations of Cold war. He says that:

Graham Greene's The Quiet American has often been praised for its prescience

about American involvement in Indochina, less for its analysis of the British view

of the American superpower in imperial mode. The novel cleverly updates the love

triangle of The Third Man to establish this, underlining Greene's interest in the Cold

War as a story about the manner in which the United States opts to take over global

responsibilities from the old colonial powers. The shift in scene from war-scarred

Europe in The Third Man to the communist-insurgent Third World in The Quiet

32 American acknowledges the new fact about the Cold War in the early 1950s: that its

true battleground was no longer Europe and the captive city but the old colonial

possessions of the European nation states (Piette 152).

The update of the love triangle is visible in the character of Phuong who, similarly to Anna from The Third Man, stays loyal to one man even though she is engaged in the short affair with another man. Phuong is loyal to Fowler and she stays loyal to him even though she knows that he cannot marry her. However, when she meets young, idealistic Pyle who wants to marry her, she leaves Fowler and joins Pyle. But when Pyle dies at the end of the novel, she returns to Fowler with her previous loyalty. Similar thing happens with Anna in The Third

Man where she is in love with Harry Lime and is extremely loyal to him. After his simulated death she has an affair with an American innocent Holly Martins to return to her previous loyalty to Harry after she finds out that he is still alive.

However, the most important thing to take from Piette's words about The Quiet

American is when he talks about the political background which suggests that the reader is going to see the exemplification of the greater involvement of the United States in the conflict. This is exemplified through Pyle, a naive young idealist who comes to Vietnam mainly because he thinks that he can save the situation there. However, as the reader comes to see, his actions result only in the greater suffering and pain of the ordinary people around and his involvement is dangerous for the general situation there because he meddles with the

"third force" and the human casualties mean only another obstruction in his way to achieve his ideals.

Greene visited Vietnam several times from 1951-1953 and during his visits he often engaged himself in the difficult situations when he went to see the war with his own eyes. He uses the experience he gained there in his novel when he describes the situations that happen to the main characters during their journey through Vietnam. During his numerous visits he

33 came to like Indochina and understood the situation as it happened there.

Fowler is British journalist who works and lives in the area for more than two years and he lives with a Vietnamese mistress, Phuong. From the beginning of the novel

Fowler is the character who most obviously tries to stay distant from the situation and he does not want to get involved in anything because he thinks that any kind of action can result into pain of other human beings. He understands human suffering as he hurt his wife and later his mistress who he loved. This is described by him when he receives a response to the letter in which he asks his wife to divorce him (the thing that she does not want to do because of her

Catholic faith). Fowler says that: "When we are unhappy we hurt" (Greene, American 118). In this, he expresses understanding for the stance of his wife and the general tone of her letter which is harsh towards himself and his actions in the past. He even expresses compassion for her pain because he knows that his actions in the past resulted in her pain. Furthermore, he knows that she tries to hurt him only because he has caused her pain in the past and she uses this letter as a self-defence so that he cannot hurt her again. He realizes the pain that he caused to other human beings and because of this, he refuses to be involved.

He expresses the same opinions about direct involvement later when he is talking with the French policeman Vigot who investigates Pyle's murder. He quotes the line from

Pascal: "Both he who chooses heads and he who chooses tails are equally at fault. They are both in the wrong. True course is not to wager at all (Greene, American 138). From this it is visible that Fowler is not willing to take any side in the conflict because he feels that either side is in the wrong. He tries to stay neutral throughout the entire course of the novel because he does not want to hurt anybody by taking either side because he feels that taking sides is morally unacceptable. He feels that either side is causing pain to other human beings and by becoming engaged he would be also involved in the human suffering.

This quote from Pascal comes as the response to Vigot's quote of Pascal: "Let us

34 weigh the gain and loss in wagering that God is, let us estimate those two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose you lose nothing" (Greene, American 138). This quote can be found in the book Pensees by French philosopher Blaise Pascal and it is known as Pascal's

Wager.

Jeff Jordan deals with Pascal's Wager in his book Pascal's Wager: Pragmatic

Arguments and Belief in God in which he deals with the arguments that the philosophers used to support their faith in God. In this book he argues that "Pascal's wager comes in various formulations. There is not just one Wager presented by Pascal but four" (Jordan 29). He continues by saying "every member of the family of Pascalian Wagers shares three features"

(Jordan 29). For this analysis the second and the third feature of Pascal's Wager as defined by

Jordan are the most important to understand what is Vigot trying to imply in his conversation with Fowler. Jordan says about the second feature of Pascal's wager that "a Pascalian wager is a decision situation in which the possible gain or benefit associated with at least one of the alternative swamps all the others" (Jordan 30). Although Pascal's Wager is mostly connected to the Catholic belief and the reasons for the belief in God, in the description of the second feature of the Wager Jordan says that: "Pascalian Wagers can come in topics that are not religious, so it is best to understand the swamping property as a gain that is vastly greater than any of its rivals, even if it is not an infinite gain" (Jordan 30). Furthermore, the third feature of

Pascal's Wager as defined by Jordan is also important to understand in order to analyze what

Vigot is trying to imply to Fowler. Jordan says that "The third feature has to do with the object of the gamble. The object must be something that is of extreme importance. The existence of God is not the only relevant topic" (Jordan 30). In summary, Pascal's Wager is a situation in which person is forced to choose sides by considering all alternatives visible to him and choosing the one that seems to be the most beneficial to do. Although Pascal's Wager is mostly connected to the debates about the existence of God, Jordan implies that it can be

35 applied to any situation in which one solution to the problem is incomparably better than any other solution and when the object on which the person is forced to wager is of "extreme importance"

From this, it is obvious that what is Vigot trying to imply by quoting Pascal's Wager to Fowler is that in Fowler's situation the gains of wagering on the wrong side are greater than the loss that it could include for him. Furthermore, from their conversation it is visible that

Vigot already knows about Fowler's involvement in Pyle's death and by quoting Pascal's

Wager he is trying to relieve Fowler's conscience because he thinks that his decision to act in favor of the suffering Vietnam is better than to not act at all. Vigot knows that Pyle is close to

Fowler and what Fowler does is the betrayal of his friend but he also sees the suffering that

Pyle causes whenever he involves himself in the situations connected to the "third force".

Moreover, other characters in the novel remind Fowler of the necessity of being involved because by refusing to take sides he is also causing pain to the innocent human beings. He is quiet observer of their suffering. The same thing happens later in The

Comedians where Mr.Brown is constantly reminded that direct involvement is important for the relieving of the pain of suffering Haiti by his lover Martha. In Fowler's case the reminders does not come from only one person but rather from the people who are directly involved in the effort to help the people. In the conversation with Vigot mentioned before, Fowler's quote of Pascal comes as the response to Vigot when he also cites Pascal: At the time of this conversation Vigot already suspects Fowler's involvement in Pyle's death and he reminds him that if he takes the wrong side in the conflict, there is no loss. However, if he chooses the side that is closer to relieving another people from pain, he "gains all" because his action in taking the correct side can result in relieving the pain of the innocent human beings.

Furthermore, the character that is very influential in Fowler's decision to finally take sides is Captain Trouin. Captain Trouin is the officer who takes Fowler to experience vertical

36 strike at the north of Vietnam even though it is forbidden. After this strike Trouin hosts

Fowler in the opium house and in their conversation he reminds Fowler about the necessity of being involved:

'You don't know what I'm escaping from. It's not from the war. That's no concern

of mine. I'm not involved.'

'You will all be. One day.'

'Not me.'

'You are still limping.'

'They had the right to shoot at me, but they weren't even doing that. They were

knocking down a tower. One should always avoid demolition squads. Even

in Picadilly.'

'One day something will happen. You will take a side.' (Greene, American 151).

As in the case of Martha in The Comedians, Captain Trouin plays the role of Fowler's conscience and reminds him that in the extreme situation when the suffering of innocent human beings will be involved, Fowler would be forced to take sides in order to help to relieve the pain of another human beings. In the face of extreme human suffering one cannot stay neutral for it would mean that in the effect he is also guilty of causing the suffering because he does nothing to stop it.

Trouin goes on by saying: "It's not a matter of reason or justice. We all get involved in a moment of emotion and then we cannot get out. War and Love- they have always been compared" (Greene, American 152). In Fowler's case "a moment of emotion" occurs when he sees the consequences of Pyle's meddling with the third force when the bomb goes on in the square at the time when mostly women and children are present there. When he sees this and talks with Pyle about this he becomes continually more angered about his reaction and decides to take sides and betray his friend. Fowler says: "What's the good? he'll always be

37 innocent, you can't blame the innocent, they are always guiltless. All you can do is control them or eliminate them. Innocence is a kind of insanity" (Greene, American 163). One sees that this is the moment when Fowler is truly convinced to take sides because he sees that Pyle in his innocent idealism and ignorance to the problems he is causing does not realize that the consequences of his actions cause suffering to the people of Vietnam. He causes pain to too many human beings and thus the only solution to end his blind innocence is to eliminate him.

Another character that reminds Fowler of the importance of taking sides to relieve innocent people of their suffering is Heng who represents the Communist party which is involved in Pyle's killing. When Fowler comes to see him after the attack on the square where he sees the deaths of women and children, Heng says to Fowler: "Sooner or later one has to take sides. If one is to remain human" (Greene, American 174). Heng implies that in the face of human suffering one has to take sides if there is any goodness left in him. The only way how Fowler can help the people of Vietnam and especially the civilians who are involved in this conflict only because they happen to be living in these dangerous areas is to betray Pyle and help the communists to kill him. Pyle's innocent idealism changes into killing weapon and for Fowler the observation of the extreme situations which are caused by Pyle and his meddling with the forces he knows nothing about causes him to change his mind.

While Heng is reminding Fowler that he has to be involved in order to help another human beings and to relieve them from suffering, Fowler remembers his conversation with

Trouin. From this it is visible that this conversation is very important for Fowler because it helps him to decide that the only morally acceptable thing to do is to help the communist with killing Pyle. Even though he knows that taking sides in this conflict will result in the pain of other human beings, especially Pyle's family, he decides to take side of the people who try to erase Pyle because he sees that he causes only trouble to Vietnam and that his blind idealism results in the deaths of many innocent human beings. Furthermore, he is appalled by Pyle's

38 lack of concern about the deaths of women and children and his ignorance of the pain of individuals. Morton Dauwen Zabel deals with this in his essay "The Best and the Worst" which deals with the moral values as imposed on Greene's characters, published in Graham

Greene: The Collection of Critical Essays. He says: "It is apparently the cynical journalist

Fowler who is equipped with political and humanitarian 'grace' and the innocent, do-gooding, anti-communist American meddler Pyle who is without it" (Zabel 46). This is visible also in the situation where Fowler and Pyle are locked in the watchtower with the two soldiers because their car runs out of oil. In this situation Fowler shows compassion and understanding of the ordinary people of Vietnam while Pyle is sticking to his dangerous idealism. In the debate about the winning sides, Fowler says: "I've no particular desire to see you win. I'd like those two poor buggers there to be happy- that's all. I wish they didn't have to sit in the dark at night scared" (Greene, American 97). It is visible that Fowler feels compassion for the suffering people in Vietnam. One sees that he does not see any danger coming from the two soldiers because he understands that they too are victims of the war that is going on around them because they are forced to fight in the war that is not their war at all.

Fowler's stance is in deep contrast with Pyle's which is exemplified later in their conversation in the watchtower:

The two man watched us-1 write men, but I doubt whether they had accumulated

forty years between them. 'And these?' Pyle asked, and he added with a shocking

directness, 'Shall I shoot them?' Perhaps he wanted to try the sten.

'They've done nothing.'

'They were going to hand us over.'

'Why not?' I said. We've no business here. It's their country' (Greene, American

106).

While Pyle is ready to shoot the two soldiers because "they were going to hand them over",

39 Fowler feels compassion for them and does not see any reason for shooting them. His experience allows him to see deeper into the problem and he sees that these two soldiers are going to hand them over only because they are afraid of the consequences of not doing so. His compassion to the innocent people is what leads him to act in the end and to become involved in the situation even though he tried to stay distant throughout the course of the novel. He refuses to cause pain to anybody even in the face of death and in extreme conditions and decides to do so only when he sees no other possibility. One sees that he tries to save Pyle from the inevitable consequences of his dangerous idealism many times during the course of the novel. He feels responsible for him because he tries to make Pyle see what the consequences of his ignorant idealism are.

From this it can be concluded that Fowler is the morally good character in this novel because he decides to betray his friend only when he sees that there is no other option for him.

There is nothing that can stop Pyle from meddling into the dangerous matters and causing pain to other human beings and only thing that can be done to help the ordinary people of

Vietnam is to "eliminate" him. Fowler tries to persuade Pyle to leave so that he would not have to take sides in order to relieve the suffering of the ordinary people but his persuasion counts for nothing in the Pyle's ignorant idealism.

In deep contrast to neutral Fowler stands Pyle, the member of American mission in

Vietnam. He comes to Vietnam mainly because he believes that he can help to end war by meddling with the third force, the opinion to which he comes by reading the books of York

Harding throughout his studies. He is blind to the consequences of his actions because his innocence and idealism disallows him to see the dangers of the forces that he is meddling with. Although one might feel sympathy for him at first and his description makes him more likable character than Fowler, one comes to realize very early in the novel that he is very dangerous and that he causes only pain and trouble wherever he goes. He fails to realize that

40 his actions are dangerous and refuses to do so until the very end of the novel where the consequences of his action visualize themselves as the blood on his shoes after the bomb goes on in the square full of innocent victims.

The reader learns about Pyle's desire to do good at the beginning of the novel when

Vigot invites Fowler to come to testify right after Pyle's murder. Fowler thinks about Pyle:

"He was determined-1 learnt that very soon- to do good, not to any individual person but to a country, a continent, a world" (Greene, American 18). Pyle's idealism makes him believe that he is capable of doing universal goodness, of saving the entire country by supporting the right people in their struggle in the war. Fowler says about this: "Pyle believed in being involved"

(Greene, American 29). In opposition to Fowler, Pyle believed that he can help relieve people from their suffering by "being involved". He is engaged right from the beginning of the novel even though it does not seem to be so at first. In Greene's biography, Sherry talks about

Pyle's involvement. He says: "Pyle often speaks with a naivete which is not justified, but

Greene is stressing not only Pyle's inexperience in Indo-China but the dangers of innocence in a complex and difficult society like Vietnam" (Sherry, Life of Greene vol. 2 419). I agree with Sherry on this because Pyle's innocence is blinding him and he fails to see the dangers of meddling with any of the sides involved in this conflict. He does not intend to do any harm to anybody but his intentions fail in the society that he does not know. His idealism learned from books fails in the society that he does not know.

Furthermore, Fowler says about Pyle's involvement the following:

They killed him because he was too innocent to live. He was young and ignorant

and silly and he got involved. He had no more of a notion than any of you what the

whole affair's about, and you gave him money and York Harding's books on the

East and said, "Go ahead. Win the East for democracy." He never saw anything

he hadn't heard in a lecture-hall and his writers and his lecturers made a fool of

41 him. When he saw a dead body he couldn't even see the wounds (American 32).

It is visible that Fowler is directing his anger towards the people who put the ideas about saving the world into Pyle's mind. He feels that his troubling idealism is the product of the education that Pyle received. In here, we see that Greene is again stressing the importance of one's childhood and education upon one's later life and his opinions in adulthood. Pyle acquired his opinions in the process of education and his idealism has cost him his life because he could not get rid of the ideas that are instilled on him in the process of his education.

Moreover, Fowler acts as Pyle's conscience throughout the course of novel. He tries to teach Pyle about the human suffering, tries to explain to him the consequences of his idealistic behavior and wants to pass on some of his experience from Vietnam. After he finds out about Pyle's meddling with the third force, he tries to warn him numerous times that his actions are going to hurt other human beings. After Fowler finds out about Pyle's involvement, in their conversation he says to him: "I hope to God you know what you are doing there. Oh, I know your motives are good, they always are. I wish sometimes you had a few bad motives, you might understand a little more about human beings" (Greene, American

133). In here he tries to warn Pyle about the consequences of his behavior. By saying that he

"wish sometimes he had a few bad motives" he implies that because Pyle is too innocent, he cannot understand the evil forces that are involved in Vietnam conflict and that his good intentions blind him to see that other people might not be as innocent as he thinks.

However, Pyle does not learn from his mistakes and he is continually causing more and more pain to the innocent human beings. He fails to see the consequences of his actions even though they are put right in front of his eyes. After Fowler contacted communist forces to eliminate Pyle, he invites him to his place to give him yet one more chance to live.

However, in their conversation it is revealed that Pyle does not feel guilty for causing so much

42 pain and that his idealism does not leave him even in the face of extreme situations that are caused by his behavior:

'And I'm not likely to change either- except with death,' he added merrily.

'Not even with this morning? Mightn't that change a man's views?'

'They were only war casualties,' he said. 'It was a pity, but you can't always hit

your target. Anyway they died in the right cause.'

'Would you have said the same if it had been your old nurse with her blueberry

pie?'

He ignored my facile point. 'In a way you could say they died for democracy,' he

said (Greene, American 179).

The deaths and suffering that he caused there are seen as only casualties for him. Pyle is blind to the pain that he causes and this blindness makes him morally corrupted character. This is confirmed by Fowler when he says: "He was incapable of imagining pain or danger for himself as he was incapable of conceiving the pain he might cause others" (Greene, American

62). His innocence blinds him and he is incapable of understanding the evil behavior of other people. He fights for his ideals and he is "incapable of conceiving the pain he might cause others". Pyle sees only his ideals and thinks that even though some people might suffer because of his pursuit for York Harding's ideas it is worth it because at least this people suffer for some ideals.

One sees that although Fowler feels compassion for Pyle's innocence and youth, he continually becomes fed up by his ignorance of people's pain. Fowler says that "he was impregnably armoured by his good intentions and his ignorance" (Greene, American 163).

Furthermore, in the conversation with Heng in which Fowler decides to betray Pyle he says:

"He comes blundering in and people have to die for his mistakes" (Greene, American 174).

There is no forgiveness for Pyle when Fowler realizes that he saves only the people that he

43 cares about and does not care about the pain of the others. Until the bomb blast in the square during the shopping hour it is possible for Fowler to find excuses for Pyle's behavior in his innocence and ideals acquired from his education but from this moment on he realizes that

Pyle's idealism causes only pain whenever Pyle decides to meddle into the conflict. Derek

Traversi writes about this in his essay called "Graham Greene: The Earlier Novels":

The author makes his dramatic effect by simplifying the moral issues with which he is

dealing. At the same time as he insists on the ease with which the distinction between

good and evil can be grasped by applying simple religious tests his whole novel seems

devoted to proving that, in point of fact, his characters are not fully responsible, not in

a position to understand what they are doing (Traversi 28).

Here Traversi is talking about Pyle who evidently does not understand that his actions cause greater suffering to ordinary people of Vietnam than is inevitable in the extreme conditions of the war. On the other hand, it is evident that even though Pyle might not be fully responsible, he is evil because his ignorance does not justify his actions. Moreover, Fowler reminds him of the evil nature of his acts many times in the novel but Pyle refuses to listen.

Fowler talks also about the situations in which Pyle's idealistic world clashes with the reality. He says that:

I was to see many times that look of pain and disappointment touch his eyes and

mouth when reality didn't match the romantic ideas he cherished, or when

someone he loved or admired dropped below the impossible standard he had set.

Once, I remember, I caught York Harding out in a gross error of fact, and I had to

comfort him: 'It's human to make mistakes.' He had laughed nervously and said,

'You must think me a fool, but- well I almost thought him infallible' (Greene,

American 74).

His devotion to the ideas that he follows is limitless and he goes so far in his devotion to think

44 that people who taught him to believe in this ideas cannot be wrong. Although Fowler condemns especially the people who taught Pyle to believe blindly the ideals that he cherishes which is visible in Fowler's words mentioned before, Pyle's refusal to believe that his teachers might be mistaken in their theory makes him the accomplice of the evil. The thing that he refuses to see the amount of pain that he is causing makes him equally guilty as the originators of the thoughts that form the base of his idealism.

To sum up, in The Quiet American the morality of the two main characters, Fowler and Pyle is judged from the point of how much pain they cause to another human beings.

Although Fowler betrays his friend and causes his death, one cannot see him as a bad character because he shows compassion for the ordinary people in Vietnam and tries to cause as little pain as is possible by trying to stay uninvolved in anything throughout the course of the novel. His decision to involve himself comes only after he realizes that there is nothing he can do or say to stop Pyle from taking his dangerous course of action and his compassion for the people of Vietnam does not allow him to act in any other way. On the other hand there is

Pyle who is involved from the beginning of the novel. Even though his intentions are good and he acts in the way that he believes is beneficial for the ordinary people, his blind idealism results in the pain of other human beings and thus he cannot be seen as morally good character. Although Fowler tries to make Pyle see the consequences of his actions, Pyle refuses to see the pain that he causes and thus has to be eliminated at the end of the novel.

45 5. The Comedians

In connection to moral values and the view presented by Greene, that the characters' morality should be judged from the point of how much pain they cause to other human beings, there are more characters to explore in The Comedians. There is the main character, Mr

Brown who tries to stay neutral during the course of the novel until he finally becomes involved in the end of the novel. Another character central to this analysis is the presidential candidate, Mr Smith, who comes to Haiti to search for the opportunity to build vegetarian centre because he believes that this is the way in which he can help the country with the violence that is happening there. And lastly, the character of Martha, the wife of Venezuelan ambassador who is committing adultery with Mr Brown

The Comedians is one of Greene's later novels in which the switch to a more political themes is visible. Greene travelled also to the countries where oppressive political regimes use fear as one of the tools how to control their citizens. Such was the case of Haiti under

Duvalier. Sherry says about this: "The Haitians' fear of Duvalier sprang from the pits of their stomachs. People thought he was the earthly representative of Baron Samedi, who was death itself, the most powerful, most dreaded of the gods in the voodoo pantheon" (Sherry, Life of

Greene vol.3 315). The secret police Tontons Macoute, mentioned in the introduction was one of the tools used by Duvalier to invoke fear in the people of Haiti. This secret police was also used to kill his opponents. The connotations to their horrifying position is given in their name which is "Creole for 'Uncle Grab Bag' (a legendary bogeyman who stuffed little children into a sack)" (Sherry, Life of Greene vol. 3 316). Tontons Macoute are dressed all in black and they wear dark glasses so that the victim cannot see their eyes and there is no sign of an emotion that can be visible for the victim. This makes them even more horrifying to meet and they become powerful force used by the state regime.

46 The setting of fear-ridden, decrepit Haiti with a lot of suffering on the side of

innocent people, mainly the poor of the Haiti forms the background for the plot of The

Comedians. The switch of his later novels to the more political themes is visible also in this

novel and the issue of morality is closely connected to the involvement of the characters in the

improvement of the ordinary people of Haiti. The characters in this novel are often forced to

act because of the pain they see all around them and thus the morality of the characters is judged by their capability to act in order to relieve innocent human beings from the suffering

caused by the state authorities.

That the characters 'will to act is judged from the point of morality is expressed at

the end of the novel in priest's sermon. He says:

The Church is in the world, it is part of the suffering in the world, and though Crist

condemned the disciple who struck off the ear of the high priest's servant, our

hearts go out in sympathy to all who are moved to violence by the suffering

of others. The Church condemns violence but it condemns indifference more

harshly. Violence can be the expression of love, indifference never. One is

an imperfection of charity, the other the perfection of egoism (Greene, Comedians

283).

This sermon also mentions human suffering and says that rather than watch other people

suffer one should act to help to relieve this people's suffering. The sin of violence can

possibly be excused but to ignore the suffering of other people can never be excused. In the

face of human suffering one should act. This is exemplified through characters in the novel.

The first implication of the course of the novel in relation to moral values is given in the

title. In the conversation between Mr Brown and ambassador Pineda, Martha's husband, they

talk about their life and the word "comedians" appears for the first time. Pineda says the

following about this notion: "We mustn't complain too much of being comedians- it's an

47 honourable profession. If only we could be good ones the world might gain at least a sense of style. We have failed- that's all. We are bad comedians, we aren't bad men" (Greene,

Comedians 134). To understand what Pineda is trying to imply here, it is important to understand what he means by the word "comedians". Sherry writes about this in relation to

Mr. Jones who is the biggest comedian of all:

Jones, 'with the little black moustache and the dark Pekinese eyes', is and admitted

'comedian' in the French sense of the word, meaning someone who plays a role in

life. Greene felt we often play parts in life as actors on the stage, but for him there

was also a special aspect to the nature of a comedian. They are those 'who do not

die', says Brown. Given the plot it has to be said that while Jones is for most of the

novel a 'comedian', he abandons this role and becomes willing to make the supreme

sacrifice (Sherry, Life of Greene vol.3 359).

Major Jones is the finest example of comedian in the novel. He creates stories about his brave acts in the foreign countries to finally reveal that all of his boasting is only creation of his

"part in life as an actor on the stage". However, one feels compassion for Major Jones as he finally decides to become involved in the struggle to improve the lives of ordinary people living in Haiti. And even he, the biggest comedian of all the characters in the novel throws away his mask in front of Brown at the end of the novel. After years of deciphering other people to make a living he takes a stance and becomes involved in the rebel's cause.

Furthermore, the notion of "comedian" is also discussed by Ján Culík in his book

Graham Greene: Básnik Trapnosti which deals with Greene's life and his work. Culík says following about the title of the novel:

The next novel is the human comedy that the man plays on the stage of the world

for God. The name The Comedians is derived from the older, wider meaning

of the word in which the comedian does not mean clown but simply the actor

48 who plays in the comedy, i.e. in the theatre, either the comic or the tragic role.

In Greene's approach it is about the characters who accept the role which derives

from the given circumstances or they want to cover their true self with their

pretended role. In any case it is a lie, sometimes a conscius one, other times

the unconscious one (Culik 297 translated by myself).

Mr Brown is comedian because he often changes his role in life to make his place in the world where he can lead peaceful life. He feels comfortable in any role that life brings in front of him. In Haiti, he makes a good place for himself as an owner of the hotel before Duvalier's regime of horror scares all the tourists away. He observes the life of ordinary people in Haiti mainly by his employee, Joseph, who is crippled by Tontons Macoute. Through him, he learns about the beliefs and struggles of ordinary people and he becomes fonder about this country although he makes one believe that he has no home: "No priest had come to substitute a father to me, and no region of the earth had taken the place of home" (Greene, Comedians

223). However, the reader finds out that Brown speaks about Haiti with fondness and that he has created a sense of home about this place. Brown's sense of love towards suffering Haiti is described here: "I could feel no link at all with the hundred or so square kilometres around the gardens and boulevards of Monte Carlo, a city of transients. I felt a greater tie here, in the shabby land of terror, chosen for me by chance" (Greene, Comedians 223). Furthermore, he describes his attachment to his hotel and the sense of home that the ownership of his hotel creates for him.

At first, Brown does not want to be involved in anything and he decides to lead a path of an observer who watches the happenings around him but does not interfere. He is vary of the suffering of the innocent around him but he does not make any move to help. This is in deep contrast to the life of his mother who possesses the medal of the Resistance. His decision to stay neutral can be traced back to his ideals which he expresses in the novel. In the

49 conversation with the cashier about the ambassadors Brown says: "You believe that evil is necessary? Then you're a Manichean like myself (Greene, Comedians 82). Mary Boyce deals with Manicheanism in Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, a book which provides insight into practices and core beliefs of this religion. She traces

Manicheanism to Iran, where prophet Mani was born. (Boyce 111). About his teaching she says:

Mani had imbibed some of its fundamental tenets through Judeo-Christian and

Gnostic traditions. Thus he believed in God and the Devil, Heaven and Hell,

the Three Times, the individual judgment at death, the final defeat of evil, the Last

Judgment, and life everlasting for the blessed in the presence of the hosts of heaven.

With regard to this world, however, his teachings were profoundly pessimistic;

for he saw it as almost wholly evil, and held that the best course for the individual

was to renounce it as fully as possible and to lead a gentle, ascetic life, dying

celibate, so that his own soul might go to heaven, and he would have had no part

in perpetuating the misery of human's existence on earth (Boyce 111).

Here, Manicheanism is connected to the notion visible in Greene's novels in which the notion of moral values is connected to the amount of pain one's actions causes to another human beings. Manicheanism teaches that the person should live a very simple life, so as to not hurt other people. The people who are not responsible for causing any pain to other human beings are the ones to whose souls might be capable of going to heaven.

Thus traces of Brown's refusal to be involved can be traced to his Manichean ideals gained through his upbringing. Brown is raised in Jesuit College of the Visitation where his mother leaves him. Brown says about his education here: "I was a prize pupil, and it was half expected that I would prove in time to have a vocation" (Greene, Comedians 59).

Furthermore, he says about himself during this years that "as other boys fought with the

50 demon of masturbation, I fought with faith" (Greene, Comedians 59). However, he continually loses his faith and finally he manages to get access to the casino where he wins lots of money and loses his virginity. In the end, he is expelled from the college. From this moment on, he walks through the life, acting his role as the comedian who tries to avoid causing pain to other people and tries to make his living somehow until, finally, he ends up as an owner of the hotel in Haiti. The world around him turns to the continual sight of human suffering and desperation and so he chooses to not involve himself so that he would not be involved in hurting other people. He tries to stay inactive and without involvement, but in the end he too becomes involved.

Furthermore, Brown apologizes his refusal to be involved in the actions that could lead to the relieving of suffering of the people of Haiti by his lack of applicability towards any religion and towards any country. After getting involved in Philipott's funeral together with the Smiths, he says: "I should never gone to this funeral, I should never have come to this country. I was a stranger. My mother had taken a black lover, she had been involved, but somewhere years ago I had forgotten how to be involved in anything. Somehow somewhere I had lost completely the capacity to be concerned" (Greene, Comedians 182). He is trying to apologize his lack of action which could relieve the people of human suffering by his lack of reasons to be committed because he claims that he has got no home. However, as I mentioned above, the reader can see that he is continually feeling more attached to Haiti and his lack of commitment cannot be excused by his lack of applicability towards any group.

However, at the end of the novel he does act which results in him losing Martha and also his only sense of home, his hotel. He decides to risk his life in to get Major Jones to the rebels in the mountains. He is supposed to drive him to the cemetery outside Port-au-

Prince which is the meeting place between Jones and the rebels. Cates Baldridge deals with this in his book Graham Greene's Fictions: The Virtues of Extremity: "But of course Brown

51 does in fact risk his life, though he would have us believe he does it out of sexual jealousy rather than his love for the mangled Joseph, for suffering Haiti, for the 'tarts' against the

'toffs' generally" (Baldridge 153). The notion of "tarts against the toffs" is notion described by Major Jones to Mr Brown on their way to the cemetery: "The toffs have a settled job or a good income. They have a stake somewhere like you have in your hotel. The tarts- well, we pick a living here and there- in saloon bars. We keep our ears open and our eyes skinned"

(Greene, Comedians 18). Major Jones is obviously a tart and he speaks about himself as one.

Mr. Brown is also described as one of the tarts by Major Jones. They are the ones who look for every opportunity to make their living. The notion that they "pick a living here and there• in saloon bars" suggests that their jobs might sometimes not be legal.

The tarts often avoid direct involvement in any cause, either religious or political and they stay behind and make their living somehow. However, when human suffering all around them they decide to act. What speaks in favour of Baldridge's case that Brown becomes involved because of his love for Haiti, rather than for his jealousy, is the amount of things that he gives in stake with his involvement. As mentioned by Baldridge, most importantly he endangers his life and risks getting killed by Tontons Macoute. However, he also loses the place that provided a sense of home for him, his hotel. He also loses his lover

Martha, although when Brown remembers their affair from a time distance admits that in their love they both struggled because of his jealousy.

After Brown is forced to flee to Dominican Republic while Major Jones dies fighting for the rebel's cause, he is affirmed that his decision has been morally correct. The affirmation comes in the priest's sermon when he says: "The Church condemns violence but it condemns indifference more harshly" (Greene, Comedians 283). Furthermore, he gets the confirmation also in the letter from Dr.Magiot that he finds on his bed after he learns about

Dr.Magiot's death. Magiot writes: "Catholics and Communists have committed great crimes,

52 but at least they have not stood aside, like an established society, and been indifferent"

(Greene, Comedians 286). And later in the letter, Magiot advices Mr. Brown: "If you

abandoned one faith, do not abandon all faith. There is always an alternative to the faith we

lose. Or is it the same faith under another mask?" (Greene, Comedians 286). There is no justification for being inactive and indifferent to human pain. Dr. Magiot reminds Brown that

losing one's faith is no excuse for one's indifference because there is always some faith that

the person can have to not lose his humanity. Indifference when facing the pain of other

people can never be justified and by turning a blind eye towards the crimes committed on

others one is committing one of the biggest sins.

This affirmations make Brown think about his life in the bigger perspective and to

revaluate his previous philosophy and morality. He says:

How strangely one must appear to other people. I have left involvement behind me,

I was certain, in the College of the Visitation: I had dropped it like the roulette-token

in the offertory. I had felt myself not merely incapable of love- many are incapable

of that, but even of guilt. There were no heights and no abysses in my world-1 saw

myself on a great plain, walking and walking on the interminable flats. Once I might

have taken a different direction, but it was too late now. When I was a boy

the fathers of the Visitation had told me that one test of a belief was this: that a man

was ready to die for it (Greene, Comedians 286).

And thus Brown by looking back on his life realizes that the justifications for his indifference

that he has created in his mind threw him into numbness towards the pain of others because he

was no longer capable of feeling love and compassion towards other human beings. He admits

that he has not felt guilt for his indifference because he turns a blind eye towards the suffering

that is all around him. By involving himself he is capable of seeing something more than

"interminable flats" for by taking action in relieving the pain of others one is capable of

53 feeling the strong feelings towards something again.

In contrast to him stands Martha, who refuses to be called comedian and is involved in action in favour of relieving the others of pain, most importantly her son whom she loves unconditionally. Her answer to Brown and Pineda is: "I'm no comedian" (Greene,

Comedians 134). She refuses to play any part and chooses to act and to tell truth. After proclaiming this, Brown happens to be alone with Martha and they have the following conversation:

'Perhaps we won't have to be comedians any more.'

'You said you were no comedian.'

T exaggerated, didn't I? But all that talk irritated me. It made every one of us seem

cheap and useless and self-pitying. Perhaps we are, but we needn't revel in it.

At least I do things, don't I, even if they are bad things? I didn't pretend not to

want you. I didn't pretend I loved you that first evenings' (Greene, Comedians 135).

She does not play any role in love and never admits anything that is not true. She is no comedian because she "does things" and she does not revel in bad feelings. She is, in the first place mother who cares for her sick child, relieving her child from pain and caring for him with unconditional love. In connection to moral values, she is a good person even though she sins, her sin being chiefly the one of adultery, because she avoids hurting other people.

That Martha is no comedian is admitted later by Brown when he says:

Many months later when the affair was over, I realized and appreciated her directness.

She played no part. She answered exactly what I asked. She never claimed to like

a thing that she disliked or to love something to which she was indifferent. If I had

failed to understand her, it was because I failed to ask her the right question, that was

all. It was true that she was no comedian. She had kept the virtue of innocence and

I know why I loved her. In the end the only quality but beauty which attracts me in

54 a woman is that vague thing, 'goodness' (Greene, Comedians 138).

One sees that Martha is honest and true to everybody and that one of her chief characteristics

is the honesty. She never says that she loves Brown because the only person she truly loves is

her son Angel. Brown says about this: "it was not Martha's love for me which held me, if she

did love, it was her blind unselfish attachment to her child. With goodness one can feel

secure, why wasn't I satisfied with goodness, why did I always ask her the wrong questions?"

{Comedians 139). "Goodness" is the chief characteristics that Brown sees in Martha and it is

the one that, with the certain distance Brown sees as the most prevalent. The notion of

goodness is mainly linked to Martha's love for her child Angel which Brown admires. He

never knows anything like this because his mother leaves him when he is still very young.

Moreover, that Martha is a good person is visible in her position to her adultery. She

says:

Perhaps the sexual life is the great test. If we can survive it with charity to those we love

and with affection to those we have betrayed, we needn't worry so much about the good

and the bad in us. But jealousy, distrust, cruelty, revenge, recrimination... then we fail.

The wrong is in that failure even if we are the victims and not the executioners. Virtue is

no excuse (Greene, Comedians 139).

The sins that Martha mentions here are all connected to other people's pain. Mr. Brown is jealous which results in his fights with Martha and his attacks on her. On the other hand, she

stays compassionate towards her husband even though she commits adultery with Mr. Brown.

The reader does not learn if her husband knows about her adultery, however there are some

implications that he does. When Brown comes to visit and Pineda unexpectedly arrives home

sooner, Brown says about him: "It was as though he were apologizing to me and proffering

me humbly his passport - Nationality: human being. Special peculiarities: cuckold" (Greene,

Comedians 220). This implies that Brown thinks that Pineda knows about their affair.

55 Furthermore, Brown's view in here shows that he also feels compassion for Martha's husband. On the other hand, he jealous and by this hurts Martha with whom he fights and puts her into uncomfortable situations because of his jealousy.

Sherry says about this: "Martha is a better person than Brown, chiefly because she does not suffer from jealousy, and she is rigorously honest" (Sherry, Life of Greene vol.3

380). Martha avoids hurting other people. However, when it is important she acts rather than do nothing which can sometimes lead to more pain. When it is necessary to break the relationship for Brown to understand that his jealousy is only hurting himself and because she is angry at him because of persuading Jones to join rebel forces because she thinks that Brown does it chiefly out of jealousy, she decides to act and to end the relationship that is only causing suffering to the both sides. It reminds one of the Bendrix's thoughts about the end of his relationship in The End of the Affair, where he thinks: "It was as though our love were a small creature caught in a trap and bleeding to death: I had to shut my eyes and wring its neck" (Greene, End of Affair 35). When Martha is pushed into the situation where she needs to relieve dying animal of its pain, meaning ending the affair with Brown so as to relieve both of them from the pain that it brings because of Brown's jealousy, she does exactly that. She is profoundly good character in this novel because of her desire to act rather than to look at the pain that her inactivity is causing to other people and her unconditional love for her child, affection even for the people that she has betrayed and her honesty with people with which she tries to avoid hurting people puts her on the side of good people even though she is committing cardinal sin.

The presidential candidate, Mr Smith travels to Haiti with an aim to build a vegetarian centre because he believes that by removing meat from their menu, people become less violent. About vegetarianism he says: "Vegetarianism isn't only a question of diet, Mr

Brown. It touches life at many points. If we really eliminated acidity from the human body we

56 would eliminate passion" (Greene, Comedians 21). Mr Smith is an idealist who believes that vegetarianism can solve all problems with violence and human suffering. He is a pacifist and his innocence is similar to Pyle's innocence in The Quiet American. However, Mr Smith's naivety and innocence is not dangerous to other human beings and he is not blind to the pain around him. He is not blind to the human casualties, and in his own, comic way he tries to do his best to help the world.

Cates Baldridge deals with the analysis of The Comedians in Graham Greene's

Fictions: The Virtues of Extremity and about Mr. Smith he says:

Just as Greene's view of the relationship between love and pity changes over

the years, so too does his notion of the connection between innocence and political

action. And just as he singled out and (unsuccessfully) attempted to discredit pity in

The Ministry of Fear and The Heart of the Matter, so in The Quiet American does he

set his sights on innocence, only to reassess his criticism in The Comedians. To some

extent, his shifting attitude toward the naifs who stumble through his novels can be

seen as a marker of his increasing insistence on the centrality of political commitment

to the adequately moral life (Baldridge 159).

That Greene views political commitment central to the adequately moral life is confirmed in priest's words at the end of the novel. The morality of his characters is concerned with connection to their will to act to help other people when they are suffering and Mr Smith is good example of this. Mr Brown becomes fonder of him throughout the novel because he sees that Mr Smith's naivety connected to his idealism is not destructive as in the case of Pyle because Mr Smith is watchful to his environment and together with Mrs Smith they act whenever they see other human beings suffering.

Although Mr Smith is also idealist, similarly as Pyle in The Quiet American, but he is not following his ideals blindly and when he sees that his actions are about to hurt other

57 human being, he chooses to back out. His constant avoidance of direct conflict with other people is described by Brown mainly when he describes his first impressions of Smith when they are aboard Medea. Brown says about Mr Smith: "He was acutely uneasy if I spoke ill of anyone- even of a stranger or of an enemy. He would back away from the conversation like a horse from water" (Greene, Comedians 21). Mr Smith avoids hurting other people so much that he feels uneasiness even when he is in the company of somebody who ill speaks of somebody. The presidential candidate avoids any action that can lead to hurting other people.

In following his ideals he does not allow any casualties to happen and with the realization of his ideals he always looks on the impact of his decision on the other people.

Furthermore, Mr Smith never fails to act when it is needed so he can help other people. When Tontons Macoute are trying to take away Phillipot's coffin during the funeral, he and his wife try to stop them. Another instance is that he does not hesitate with help for

Jones who gets into trouble because he tries to sell inexistent guns to Haitian government.

When he realizes that there is nothing that can be done for the people of Haiti he acts by going on to his last desperate try to help struggling Haiti before he leaves:

Mr Smith asked me to stop the car in the centre of the square, and I thought he

intended to take a photograph. Instead he got out, carrying his wife's handbag,

and the beggars approached from all directions- there was a low babble of

half-articulated phrases, and I saw a policeman run down the steps of the Post

Office. Mr Smith opened the handbag and began to scatter notes- gourdes and

dollars indiscriminately (Greene, Comedians 193).

His gradually realizes that there is nothing in his powers that he can do to save Haiti and so he adapts to this last desperate try to help the needy. In comparison to Pyle in The Quiet

American, Mr Smith here has the ability to readjust his ideals and to learn from his surroundings about its needs. He does not go into realizing his ideals when he sees that it can

58 influence the life of other people in any unfavourable way.

This is confirmed when he is forced to readjust his ideals about coloured people.

He thinks that coloured people cannot be bad. However, in Haiti he realizes that evil is not attached to the colour of the skin and that people of all colours are capable of causing great pain. Sherry says about this: "There is a contrast between the Smiths 'very real integrity and their failure to believe in the possibility that a black government could be corrupt. This was also true of the Gottliebs. However, the Smiths gradually made the necessary step to realising that, as we've seen, in Haiti, evil flourished" (Sherry, Life of Greene vol.3 353). Gottliebs is the name of the couple who, according to Sherry, provided inspiration for the Smiths in

Greene's imagination. By realising that providing money to the government in Haiti would resolve in them buying more guns to cause pain to their citizens and thus he decides to leave his ideals behind and to fly to Dominican Republic immediately after he is present at the meeting with government representative and sees that he is corrupted and causes pain to his own people.

Moreover, Sherry writes about the Smiths and their presence in the horrifying conditions of Duvalier's Haiti: "Greene's novel captures the sense of brooding terror in Port- au-Prince, reflected in these strangers' reactions. The Smiths come to feel that nothing can be done in Haiti (after going there with such chivalric hopes of doing good for blacks), bringing us closer to their despair. They are out of their depth in the face of Satan's apprentice"

(Sherry, Life of Greene vol.3 338). After being present at the funeral during which the coffin of the representative of government is taken away by Tontons Macoute and seeing brutal treatment of Brown when Tontons Macoute come to investigate him, and later conversation with the corrupt government representative makes Mr. Smith to realize that even coloured people can be corrupted and that there is nothing in his powers to help Haiti. As Brown puts it, "However much he loved the blacks, it was in a white world he lived; he knew no other"

59 (Comedians 118). He is too innocent to try to help Haiti in any other way and thus rather by committing violence while trying to blindly follow his ideals, he decides to leave the dark world of Duvalier's reign of terror behind.

To sum up, in The Comedians the theme of the person's involvement in relieving other people from pain is described as central to achieving the morally good life. It is not important whether it concerns the citizens of the entire country- as is the case of Mr Brown, or whether it concerns mainly the individuals- as is visible in the case of Martha and the presidential candidate, Mr Smith. Staying indifferent to the suffering and staying inactive is viewed as one of the biggest sins, even more morally corrupt than violence because indifference can never account for love. Innocence is portrayed more gently by Greene than in

The Quiet American when Mr. Smith is allowed to learn from his environment and readjust his ideals when he realizes that the consequences of his actions would involve the suffering of the innocent people and thus he decides to leave the country and his ideals behind.

60 6. Conclusion

The aim of this thesis was to show that in Greene's view the discussion about the morality of the characters is closely connected to the notion of how much pain their behaviour causes to other human beings. This was exemplified in three of Greene's novels- The Ministry of Fear, The Quiet American and The Comedians. From these novels, the first one belongs to the genre of entertainments as defined by Greene and other two belong to the genre of the more serious novels to show that the theme of human suffering is present in both the genres.

The first chapter concentrated on Greene's life and the links between the important parts of his biography, mainly the espionage, Greene's Catholicism and the distinction between the entertainments and his serious novels. As I argue in this chapter, Greene's life provided enormous inspiration for the world of his novels. Greene travelled to the dangerous countries where the extreme conditions shape the daily experience of the people who lived there. His experience is transferred to the world of his novels- The Ministry of Fear takes place during the Second World War in London during the blitz, the setting of The Quiet

American is Vietnam during Indochina war and The Comedians is set in Haiti during the terrible dictatorship of Francois Duvalier. Furthermore, all novels contain some experience with espionage, which also forms important part of Greene's experience as a former spy. But most importantly, all three novels contain Greene's specific view of Catholicism which is different from the religious dogmas of the Catholic Church.

The most important aspect of Greene's Catholicism that is transferred to the world of his novels is his position towards the sin which is different from the classical division of the Catholic Church which divides sins into mortal sins and venial sins. As I showed in the first chapter, Greene disagrees with this division and holds the position that to divide the sins

61 in categories is not sufficient and each sin should be judged individually. This position is transferred to his novels where the morality of the characters is also judged individually by their stance towards the human suffering.

In The Ministry of Fear, the main distinctions is between Arthur Rowe, the murderer of his wife who kills mainly because of love and pity and Hilfe who kills because he wants to gain higher position. In their case, the distinction is between Rowe, the character who is not able to bear looking at the human suffering and thus he takes an action to relieve his wife from the suffering caused by her sickness. Although he commits the mortal sin, one sees that he is not morally corrupted because all that he does is connected to his virtue gained in his childhood which causes him to act when he sees other people's suffering even if it might mean his personal damnation.

Hilfe, on the other hand is oblivious to the pain of other human beings and acts with only his ideals in mind. This novel belongs to the genre of entertainment, according to

Greene's division. However, it is equally concerned with the human suffering and pain as the following serious novels and contains the same urge to act in favour of the suffering people. It also contains the opinion that it is better to commit sin and be damned in order to help the people one cares for than to watch their suffering.

In The Quiet American, the similar distinction is visible in the case of Fowler and

Pyle. While Fowler refuses to be engaged in any action at first, because he is afraid to cause any more suffering that his actions has already caused in his past, he decides to act after he sees the destructive power of Pyle's engagement and the suffering of innocent human beings caused by Pyle's oblivious innocence. Even though he is engaged in the sin of betraying his friend, he finds it inevitable in order to save more people from suffering and thus he is morally good character in this novel.

Pyle, on the other hand, is similarly to Hilfe oblivious to the pain that his actions

62 cause to other human beings and what he sees is only his idealism. Although he might appear innocent at first, his ignorance towards the pain that he causes makes him morally corrupt character. He gets many chances to stop his disastrous behaviour when Fowler tries to explain the consequences of his behaviour to Rowe. However, he refuses to change anything from his behaviour and thus cannot be saved. His innocence leads him towards the damnation and he is eliminated at the end of the novel because he cannot be let to continue in his actions and cause more suffering to other human beings.

In The Comedians the discussion centres on the characters of Mr Brown, Mr Smith and Martha. In this novel, Mr Brown similarly to Fowler refuses to be involved in the actions that can lead to relief of pain of the people of the suffering Haiti to whom he feels compassion. Martha serves the role of the moral compass to Mr Brown and reminds Brown of the necessity to act if one is to remain morally good. She is the least corrupted character of all the characters in the novels analysed here. Although she is the sinner who commits adultery with Mr Brown, she is very compassionate and even in her sinning manages to avoid hurting other people. She is in the first place mother to Angel whom she loves with the unconditional and limitless love and this is the quality that Mr Brown likes in her and which makes her morally good.

Moreover, as moral compass to Mr Brown, she manages to be successful and her words inspire Brown to act in order to help the people of Haiti. It is her goodness that resonates in Brown's memory long after he is forced to escape from Haiti because of his actions when he manages to get Major Jones to the rebels. Although he makes the reader believe that he wants to get Major Jones away from Martha because of jealousy, his compassion for the suffering citizens gives him away and the reader sees that the main reason for his actions is that he wants to act because he does not want to watch human suffering any more.

63 Finally, Mr Smith is the innocent who comes to Haiti because of his idealism, the case similar to Pyle in The Quiet American. However, the stance of Mr Smith is different from Pyle's ignorant idealism because Mr Smith understands the consequences of his actions and when he sees that his acts might result in the pain of other human beings, he decides to leave Haiti rather than to follow his ideals and cause the pain. Through him Greene changes his stance towards innocence because he allows Mr Smith to see the pain and feel compassion towards the individual persons. This makes him the morally good character in comparison to

Pyle's blind ignorance which does not allow him to change and thus makes him morally corrupted.

In conclusion, the amount of pain that the characters cause to other human beings and their position towards human suffering stand for the important factor in the decision whether the characters are morally good or morally corrupt. Greene's stance towards the division of the sins calls for the individual decision of the morality of characters. The themes in the entertainments and serious novels are similar because in both genres the discussion about the moral values is connected to the suffering that the characters cause by their behaviour.

Morally corrupted characters are responsible of causing pain and suffering to many innocent human beings even though might not be fully conscious about the gravity of their sins. On the other hand, morally good characters often avoid involvement in any action in fear that their actions might cause more pain that is necessary and they are moved to action only by seeing other people suffer.

64 7. Works Cited

"Graham Greene: The Man Within." Graham Greene: A Collection of Critical Essays.

Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973. 8-16. Print.

Baldridge, Cates. Graham Greene's Fictions: The Virtues of Extremity. Columbia and

London: U of Missouri Press, 2000. Print.

Boyce, Mary. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. London, Routledge, 2001.

Chace, William M. "Spies and God's Spies: Greene's Espionage Fiction." Graham Greene: A

Revaluation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1990. 156-80. Print.

Chardin, Pierre Teilhard De. The Phenomenon of Man. New York, Harper Perennial Modern

Thought, 2008. Print.

Culík, Ján. Graham Greene,básnik trapnosti: literárně filozofické zkoumání díla jednoho z

posledních existencialistů. Brno: Nakladatelství Tomáše Janečka, 1994. Print.

Evans, Robert O. Graham Greene Some Critical Considerations. Lexington: The University

Press of Kentucky, 2015. Print.

Greene, Graham. A Sort of Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971. Print.

—.Collected Essays. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1969.Print.

—. The Comedians. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1976.Print.

—.The End of the Affair. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1962. Print.

—. The Ministry of Fear: an entertainment. Harmondsworth,Middlesex:

Penguin, 1963. Print.

—. The Quiet American. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1965. Print.

—. Ways of Escape. Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1980. Print.

Jordan, Jeff. Pascal's Wager: Pragmatic Arguments and Belief in God. Oxford: Clarendon

Press, 2006. Print.

65 Piette, Adam. The Literary Cold War, 1945 to Vietnam. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University

Press, 2009.Print.

Pryce-Jones, David. Graham Greene.Glasgow: Oliver and Boyd, 1963. Print.

Raven, Simon, and Martin Shuttleworth. "Graham Greene, The Art of Fiction No. 3." Paris

Review Autumn 1953: n. pag. Print.

Sherry, Norman. The life of Graham Greene.: Volume one: 1904-1939. London, Penguin

Books, 1990. Print.

Sherry, Norman. The life of Graham Greene.: Volume two: 1939-1955. London, Jonathan

Cape, 1994. Print.

Sherry, Norman. The life of Graham Greene.: Volume three: 1955-1991. London, Jonathan

Cape, 2004. Print.

Traversi, Derek. "Graham Greene: The Earlier Novels." Graham Greene: A Collection of

Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973. 17-29. Print.

Zabel, Morton Dauwen. "The Best and the Worst." Graham Greene: A Collection of Critical

Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973. 30-48. Print.

66 8. Resume (English)

This thesis focuses on the analysis of the treatment of moral values in the espionage novels by Graham Greene. In this analysis, three works are analysed - The Ministry of Fear,

The Quiet American and The Comedians to show that the debate about the moral values in

Greene's novels is closely connected to the issue of human suffering.

The second chapter provides insight into author's life with the emphasis on his experience with espionage and his Catholic faith. The following chapters deal with the analysis of the novels.. In the analysis of the novels author's division of his novels to the genres of "entertainment" and more "serious novels" is taken into account to show that

Greene deals with the similar themes in both genres and the division between them is only marginal. From the novels analysed here, one belongs to the genre of "entertainments and two belong into genre of more serious novels.

The novels are analyzed through the characters who are put into difficult environment to show that the deciding factor in the question about the characters' morality is whether they are causing pain to other human beings. The ability to act when one is faced with the human suffering is also taken into account in the decision whether the characters are morally good or morally corrupted.

67 9. Resumé (Czech)

Tato bakalářská práce se zabývá analýzou morálních hodnot ve špionážních románech od

Grahama Greena. V této analýze j sou použity tři romány - Ministerstvo strachu, Tichý

Američan a Komedianti, přičemž cílem je dokázat, že diskuze o morálních hodnotách je

v Greenových románech úzce spjata s lidským utrpením.

Druhá kapitola uvádí informace z autorova života. V této kapitole je důraz kladen na jeho zkušenosti se špionáží a taktéž se podrobně věnuje jeho katolické víře. Následující

kapitoly se věnují samotné analýze románů, kde se bere do úvahy autorovo rozdělení jeho

románů do dvou žánru- žánr „zábavných románů" a více „seriózní romány". Cílem je dokázat,

že autor se věnuje podobným tématům v obou žánrech a rozdíl mezi nimi je pouze okrajový.

Z jednotlivých románu rozebíraných v této práci je jeden z nich zábavný román a dva jsou

seriózní romány.

Romány jsou analyzovány prostřednictvím postav, které jsou zasazeny do složitého

prostředí s cílem dokázat, že rozhodujícím faktorem je, jestli svým konáním způsobují bolest jiným lidským bytostem. Taktéž se bere do úvahy schopnost konat v situacích, kdy jsou

postavy konfrontovány s lidskou bolestí.

68