DAU Library

학위논문 동서

Graham Greene의 Catholic小說의 主題:人間愛와 救援=Themes of Graham Greene`s Catholic novels

Greene Graham

부산: 東亞大學校 大學院 1989

109 p; 26 cm

학위논문(박사)-- 東亞大學校 大學院: 英語英文學科, 1989년 1월

영문초록 : This thesis aims at the study of some themes implied in Graham Greene's so-called serious novels : Brighton Rock(1938), The Power and the Glory(1940), The Heart of the Matter(1948), and A Burnt-Out Case(1961), G, Greene, a Catholic himself, wrote on Catholic subjects for one period and major characters in these novels of his are more or less related to Catholicism. Among his heroes, however, there are those who have gone astray out of the traditional Catholic doctrine, and Greene also is considered to have claimed in these novels that human salvation can be expected hereon earth rather than in heaven. This means that he is a writer who thinks much of the world and its humanistic tradition though he is a Catholic novelist. Brighton Rock, his first Catholic novel, deals with Pinkie with a Catholic upbringing who indulges in murdering as an incarnation of evil. He is a cruel creature of a dark society who could do anything for his cause and recalls sometimes his alienated boyhood. He is a person unable to maintain a smooth humane relationship with others. His is the weird and ugly world full of violence, which influences him to form his character. It is quite natural that the love of Rose whom the writer called goodness couldn't lead the evil of Pinkie to a normal and healthy human being, and it is also natural that Ida's justice whthout any hint of love couldn't transform him into another man, After all, in Brighton Rock, the writer seems to leave the problem of Pinkie's salvation untold and the reader cannot refer to it, either. Greene witnessed prevailing also in Mexico the evils which he had experienced in his school and domestic life in his childhood. The Power and the Glory with a Mexican setting is a world of primitive violence by contrast with the terrific one of Brighton Rock. Whiskey Priest, the hero of the former, has quite a different character from Pinkie's. He drinks and commits adultery, and simply exists without a plan for escape, though pursued. In this novel the priest in a region where the priests are persecuted fights his way attaching more importance to human love than his religious duties. Scobie, the hero of The Heart of the Matter, is an ordinary man who has a reputation for honesty. Although he is scrupulous in his dealings, he does not have a clear discrimination between the Catholic creeds and the pagan. He borrows some money from Yusef, a suspected Syrian smuggler and commits adultery out of pity for Helen Rolt, a young widow rescued from a torpedoed British ship. He is not so brave and cruel as to divorce his wife, being in agony among the Catholic doctrine, humanity towards the two females and his official duties. Eventually he acts on his own principles, rising in revolt against the church. Though his suicide, the greatest sin in the Catholic creeds, can be viewed from different angles it is apparently a means of escape from the women and means a standard of revolt against God. However, the fundamental cause of his anguish and sins can be said to have sprung from his real humanity. Querry, the hero in A Burnt-Out Case, a successful and internationally famous architect, is a kind of invalid skeptical about himself. He comes to a primitive society of Congo, where he observes both the apalling conditions of the leper hospital and various physical ailments which the lepers suffer from, and he is greatly moved by Dr. Colin's sacrificial efforts for the patients. Finally he comes to learn that the grace of God can be attained not by the authority of the church, not by goodness or justice, but by a deep love for other people. To conclude, G. Greens who had indicated by implication the problem of human salvation in Brighton Rock showed that goodness does a greater role for it than justice both in The Power and the Glory and The Heart of the Matter. And the writer, who claimed that the grace of God can be attained only by human love beyond the dimension of goodness or justice in, A Burnt- Out Case, indicates that the significance of human life in this troublesome world consists in the realization of human love and accordingly the salvation of human beings is possible beyond a religious dimension.

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