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.