'The End of The Affair', by Graham Greene, is about the novelist as God and God as the novelist, who gives his characters freewill.

             The End of The Affair', by Graham Greene, is about
             the novelist as God, and God as the novelist
             Critic David Lodge once said that in Greene's fiction, 'Catholicism is not a body of belief, but a system of concepts which Greene can arrange and dramatise in order to illustrate the weakness of human nature'. In 'The End of The Affair', where this idea is tested to its limits, Greene illustrates the struggle of the adulteress and her lover trying to come to terms with the fact that they may not ultimately be in control of their lives. Describing his novel as the fight between Man and his creator, Greene used Bendrix to illustrate a man 'who was driven and overwhelmed by the accumulation of natural coincidences, until he broke and began to accept the incredible – the possibility of a God'. Hereby presenting the subject of freewill, Greene depicted his characters already in total control of their lives, but, due to the 'natural coincidences' he describes, they soon began to realise how little of their prohibitive existence they had actually bargained for, and how inconsequenti!
             I feel that the novelist mentioned in the title of this essay is not Graham Greene, but Maurice Bendrix, one of Greene's chief characters. This can be seen from the opening paragraphs, as Greene uses the first person narrative, as the voice of Maurice Bendrix. The statement, 'this is a record of hate far more than of love', not only indicates that Maurice is perhaps writing his own novel, but also serves to set the tone for the novel, and convey a principle theme – when in love, two subjects which may seem contradictory, or are deemed opposite, can actually merge, and become one.
             Indeed, it is this central theme which blurs the distinction between God and the novelist, seen most predominantly through the example of Sarah Miles. As Sarah's faith grows after her bargain with...

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'The End of The Affair', by Graham Greene, is about the novelist as God and God as the novelist, who gives his characters freewill. . (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 09:05, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/68157.html