1 1 INTRODUCTION the Three Novels by Graham Greene

1 INTRODUCTION The three novels by Graham Greene (1904-1991) analysed inthe thesis are The Ministry of Fear, The Heart of the Matter and Our Man in Havana . Although I am aware of the importance of the political,religious,social,humorous andabsurdaspects of these novels,I decidedtoexamine them from another point of view.It seems that inthese three novels the relationship of the mainmale heroto his wife,lover,daughter or female friendandlater lover is extremely strong,devotedand of overall importance to the development of the plot.It is a relationship fullofresponsibilityontheman´sside. I chose three novels with different settings: London, Cuba and West Africa. The male characters in these novels are alsoverydifferent andthere are a varietyof relationships tothe female characters –a friendandlater a lover, a father, anda husbandand lover. Even though thesettings andrelationshipsdiffer,thenotionofresponsibilityis present ineachrelationship. Inthis thesis,firstlythe wayhow Greene became a writer andhow he wrote the three novels will be looked at. Secondly, in each of the chosen novels the protagonist and the kind of responsibility depicted for his female counterpart will be examined. The main question is what the responsibility is based on. Graham Greene, a deep Christian, concerned with his belief or doubt inGod,is,as well as his male characters,concernedwithwell-beingof ‘his’ women.Questions arise,what are the womencharacters like? Are theyworthsuchconcern? Are they beautiful andloving,deservingthe affection and sacrifice? On the other hand,do theyjust take the love andaffectionshowntothem for granted? Is it,at all,love that the male heroes give the womenor is he just extreme weakness anddisabilitytooppose them? Thirdly, throughout the thesis,Greene’s life –his autobiographies,biographies,his dream diaryand pre-faces tohis books will be examinedtodetermine if there is anyresemblance betweenthe author’sownlifeandtheattitudeof malecharactersto‘their women’inhisworks. 1 Abbreviationsusedinthetext: WMO=A WorldofMyOwn SL=ASortofLife WE= WaysofEscape OMH=OurManinHavana MF=TheMinistryofFear HM=TheHeartofthe Matter BR=BrightonRock 2 2 LITERARY CAREER OF GRAHAM GREENE (TOLD BY HIMSELF) Graham Greene likedreadinginhis childhoodandearlyyouthandonhis manyescapes from boarding school, he carried books to read. Due to truancy and problems caused by his unwillingness to share sport games with classmates, he was sent to a psychologist. His problems resultedfrom the conflict betweenthe twoworlds he hadbeenflunginto - one of them home andthe other school whichdidnot give him enoughprivacyandwhere his father was a headmaster.Duringhis stayat the psychoanalyst inLondon,whichhe describedas the happiest time of his childhood,he hadtokeep a dream diary–this maybe consideredas the first steppingstonetowriting.Laterinhis life,he alsokept dream diaries a selectionof which was publishedafter his deathin 1992andwas titled A World of My Own . Dreams seem to have played animportant role inhis writing.As Yvonne Cloetta mentions inthe forewordto this book, he useddreams whenhe suffereda blockin his creativity. He usedto rereadthe five hundred words he had writtenbefore he went to bed and sometimes the subconscious helpedhim findcontinuationof a storyor a novel or it gave him material for a new piece of writing.(WMO,2001,8,Czechedition,mytranslation) When Greene returned to school, now with a feeling of superiority because, unlike his schoolmates,he was knowledgeable about FreudandJung,he wrote a poem that appearedin a school magazine andthenhe sent it toaneveningpaper.Theypublishedit andit was the firsttimeheexperiencedthesenseof anauthor’ssuccess: Now, I told myself, I was really a professional writer, and never again did the idea hold such excitement, pride and confidence; always later, even with the publication of my first novel, the excitement was overshadowed by the knowledge of failure, by awareness of the flawed intention [] The sense of glory touched me for the first and last time. (SL, 1999, 80) Alreadyat this youngage,he knew that success was a short-livedthing. Rather than success, failure was what interestedhim.Unsuccessful characters that he depictedwere astonishingly convincingandone wouldalmost sympathise withthe loser,as e.g. later in A Gun for Sale (1936),the character of Raven.Ravenwas a hiredassassinwitha deformedface,betrayedby being paid with false money for his job. He wanted to take revenge and kill the man who orderedthe murder,onhis escape he takes a dancer Anna as a hostage withthe intentionof killingher.But then,as she is openandstarts to winhis affection,his determinationweakens. Attheend,Ravenisshot butthereaderfeelssympathytowardshim. 3 While at Oxford, Greene was writing poetry and completed a novel that had not found a publisher.After graduationfrom Balliol College, he spent some time inNottingham where he workedfor the Nottingham Journal unpaidbecause he could not findanapprenticeship in any newspaper in London. The fact that he had a volume of verse published and was asked to review a novel occasionallywas the advantage of this employment.However,he hadtolook for more profitable employment because he wantedtomarry.He foundit as a subeditor for TheTimes: I was happy on The Times, and I could have remained happy there for a lifetime, if I had not in the end succeeded in publishing a novel, but not the one I was about to finish when I left Nottingham. (SL, 1999, 124) The time spent at The Times was anexcellent practice for his future professionof awriter and it influenced his style that became clear and free of useless words. It seems as if his life and writing career hadstartedproperlyat The Times.The years of truancyat school were gone andfor some time he forgot about the boredom, whichhadbeenhuntinghim throughout his life.Hewashappythere. And while the young writer is spending these amusing and unexacting hours, he is learning lessons valuable to his own craft. He is removing the clichés of reporters; he is compressing a story to the minimum length possible without ruining its effect. A writer with a sprawling style is unlikely to emerge from such an apprenticeship. It is the opposite training to the penny-a-liner. (SL, 1999, 129) In1926,Greene sent his secondnovel toHeinemann´s publishingoffice.He didnot receive an answer from them and so he decided to write a third novel and if this had not been successful, he would have stopped writing. In two years, the break came when another publisher acceptedhis novel The Man Within (published1929),whichsold8,000copies.It was his first publishednovel.Eventhoughhis boss arguedwithhim tothinkproperlyabout leaving the secure andpromisingjob inthe paper,Greene insistedonleavingThe Times so that he had time for writing.Nevertheless, the warninghis boss gave him provedtobe true later: In the years to come I was bitterly to regret my decision. I left the Times the author of a successful first novel. I thought I was a writer already and that the world was at my feet, but life wasn’t like that. It was only a false start. (SL, 1999, 142) 4 Even though work on the next novel was very difficult, dissatisfying and frustrating, he learnedeven more skills that were important for his writing. He learnedhow towrite about a sceneofaction,howtomakeitlivelyandexciting,yetsimple: Now I can see quite clearly where I went wrong. Excitement is simple: excitement is a situation, a single event. It mustn’t be wrapped up in thoughts, similes, metaphors. A simile is a form of reflection, but excitement is of the moment when there is no time to reflect. Action can only be expressed by a subject, a verb and an object, perhaps a rhythm – little else. Even an adjective slows the pace or tranquillizes the nerve. (SL, 1999, 145) Greene found himself in a difficult situation. He was married and, according to his autobiography,happyin his private life but badlyindebt andwithlittle hope of producinga goodnovel. The moneyhe got for reviewingnovels inthe Spectator was not sufficient.He did not trust himself anymore and at the same time was pressed by contracts for further novels with two publishers. As the years of contracts were passing and no novel worth publishing was on its way, he became extremely worried. Between The Man Within and Stamboul Train Greene wrote two dissatisfactory novels The Name of Action (1930) and Rumour at Nightfall (1932) which he later disowned and forbade their republishing. The sense of failure andnightmares were present whensuddenlythe success of Stamboul Train came in1932.As fast as the goodnews arrived,there was alsobadnews.A character from the novel resembleda contemporaryauthor toomuchandthis author threatenedwithlibel actionif the bookwas published.Greene hadtomake alterations andcover a part of the cost for the already printed and bound books. Greene, again, acknowledged the short life of success. For a writer, I argued, success is always temporary, success is only a delayed failure. And it is incomplete. A writer’s ambition is not satisfied like the business man’s by a comfortable income, though he sometimes boasts of it like a nouveau riche . (SL, 1999, 156) [] Knowing the unreality of his (an author’s) success he shouts to keep his courage up. There are faults in his work which he alone detects; even his unfavourable critics miss them, dwelling on obvious points which can be repaired, but like a skilled intuitive builder he can sniff out the dry rot in the beams. How seldom has he the courage to dismantle the whole house and start again. (SL, 1999, 156) The above quotations were

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