A Biblical Archetypal Study Of Graham Greene's Major Works

Graham Greene(1904-1991) is one of the famous British writers who are of longevity and fertility in the twentieth century. Graham Greene writes novels, poems, autobiographies, plays, short stories and articles. His writing is a vivid description of the people in all walks of life. Graham Greene is called"catholic writer"after the publication of his four famous religious novels concerned the catholic issues. They are Brighton Rock, the Power and the Glory, the End of the Affair and the Heart of the Matter. Nearly all stories take place on the same stage which is called"Greeneland". The so-called"Greeneland", made of a variety of characters, experiences and religious persuasions, is a complicated spiritual world which is exactly"the Fallen Garden of Eden". The"falling—punishment—penance—redemption"pattern of the protagonists in the main religious novels is the reflection of the spiritual struggle and pursuit of perfection of the real people who live in the twentieth century with a"Hidden God".There are many criticisms both at home and abroad about Greene's works. Most of them write about the relationship between Graham Greene and his works, the evil nature of human being, the seedy side of society and realism in Greene's works. However, few critics analyze Greene's works in view of biblical Archetype or connect his works with the Bible. The author of this thesis, adopting Northrop Frye's archetypal criticism, attempts to have a detailed examination of the Biblical archetypes wrapped in the four main religious novels from the perspective of images, structure and plot. After close reading of the four typical religious novels, the author of this article finds that the main purpose of Greene's writing is to recover the religious sense and humanity in the modern novel writing and to express his"ultimate concern"for the modern people.The thesis is structured into five parts.The first part is the introduction starting with the necessity and significance of the study about Graham Greene's four main religious novels. This part also talks about the actual situation of"Greene's research"both at home and abroad and the originality of this thesis. The main religious works Of Graham Greene have been discussed hotly since they are published. The author analyzes them on the base of biblical archetype. Archetypes frequently appear in literary writings. They are literary leading elements like events, characters, images, narrative structure and conflicts of plot. Biblical archetypes analyzes works by means of biblical images, structure and conflicts and so on. It is a special and useful way to analyze the religious works of Graham Greene.In Chapter One, the author of the thesis analyzes the archetypal images in Greene's main religious works by using the theory of biblical archetype. There are three parts in this chapter. The first part deals with the archetype of Fallen Garden----the Greeneland which refers to the complicated spiritual world of various characters, experiences and religious persuasions. This is also a world in which is lack of God and full of sins. The second part describes the archetype of the Christ in Passion. In one of Greene's famous religious novel The Power and the Glory, there is a victim Whisky Priest who loses the best opportunity to escape from the religious persecution for fulfilling his religious obligation. During the process of exile, the whisky priest realizes his fatal sins and gives up his efforts to escape and finally accepts his bloody sacrifice of redemption like Christ. The third part is concerned with the archetype of Demon. In this part, the author of the thesis makes a close analysis of the hero in Brighton Rock----Pinkie. Pinkie is born to be a demon. He does the evil things intentionally. His activities show that he is a demon in person.In Chapter Two, great efforts have been made to analyze the U-Shaped narrative structure and inverted U-Shaped narrative structure of the main religious novels of Greene's works in view of the biblical archetype. There are three parts in this chapter. The first part is about typical description of U-shaped narrative structure and inverted U-shaped narrative structure in the bible. The second part deals with the U-shaped development in heroine Sarah in the book of The End of the Affair. The third part is concerned with the inverted U-shaped narrative structure in Scobie, hero in the novel of The Heart of the Matter.Chapter Three delves into the illustrating of the epitome of the plots, battles between good and evil, sin and penitence, and even weakness and grace. There are also three parts in this chapter. The three parts have a close relation which illustrates the typical pattern of"hell—purgatory—heaven"of Greene's religious works. The first part takes Brighton Rock as example to discuss the fatal battle between good and evil, represented by Rose and Pinkie. Brighton Rock is well-known as a book about hell. The second part discusses the inner conflict of Scobie led by his sin of adultery or extramarital love. The burden of his sins and sense of guilt is so heavy that Scobie commits suicide and falls into the purgatory to fulfill his penitence. The third part takes two heroes, Sarah in The End of the Affair and Whisky Priest in The Power and the Glory, as examples to analyze the conflict between human weakness and the power of divine grace.In the last part conclusion is made that the main purpose of Graham Greene'religious works is to help the modern people overcome the clichéof"God is dead"and to discover the"the Hidden God", to obtain the"ultimate redemption". That is to say, Greene's works are helpful for the modern people in listening to the delicate voice of conscience in the speedy and noisy life. They can encourage the modern people choose to do Good instead of doing evil, and help them exhume the merits of humanity and avoid the weaknesses. Graham Greene does his best to change the seedy and gloomy"Greeneland"into a hopeful"Greenland". Greene's works show his concerns about the ultimate salvation of the modern people.