Discuss Greene's use of religion and religious imagery in 'Brighton Rock'.
Daniel Henderson 15/01/02
Discuss Greene’s use of religion and religious imagery in ‘Brighton Rock’.
‘Heaven was a word; Hell was something he could trust.’1
Religion is a significant aspect of Graham Greene’s ‘Brighton Rock’2. It gives the reader a chance to explore the religious beliefs and workings that take place in the mind of each of the characters. It also gives an immediate expectation of the personalities and behaviour of the characters. Religion is not only a matter of the character’s beliefs, but is also an important factor in the dilemmas and situations they have to face. Whether through Hale’s funeral and Ida’s unconventional belief system, or Pinkie and Rose’s Catholicism and under-age marriage, religion provides a backdrop against which the events of the book are set. Perhaps more uncomfortable however, is the suggestion of an inversion of the Seven Sacraments through which Pinkie passes – perhaps on his way to ‘…something he could trust’3.
Hale’s funeral appears to be one of the first important religious scenes. Its main purpose seems to be examining Ida’s controversial beliefs and views, as well as creating grey areas surrounding what is right and wrong. Both before and after the funeral service Ida relates, ‘I like a funeral’4. This gives an immediate shock value, and taken out of context it gives a very negative image of Ida. It goes on however, to explain that she liked a funeral as most people ‘…like a ghost story’5 . Even though Greene actually states that Ida is not religious, the reader gets the impression that Ida has a religion of her very own – a religion that believes ‘…only in ghosts, ouija boards’6 and ‘…little inept voices speaking plaintively of flowers’7. Greene brings forth Ida’s problems with religion, possibly reflecting his own. Ida believes that ‘…papists treat death with fippancy’8 and that life was not so important to them as death, and what comes after death. Ida therefore, stands as an evident alternative to Pinkie and Rose’s Catholicism. If they suffer from the concerns with an afterlife that Ida describes, she herself seems to stand as a symbol of life being lived – ‘Life was sunlight on brass bedposts, Ruby port, the leap of the heart’9. This is not to say however, that she should be seen in an entirely positive light. Her conviction that ‘I know what’s right’10, seems in many ways to be as dogmatic and unmerciful as that of the ‘papists’11 themselves. In that sense, she is as Clarence describes her: ‘You’re a terrible woman…You act for the best’12.
