A great deal of information is withheld throughout the progression of the plot, so that when the events happen, the details and motives are almost totally unexpected. Many diversion tactics and red herrings are used in the novel to build up false tension and unrest the audience, so that when a real clue or event happens, the audience will be less prepared for it and will experience the shock more fully. Similarly large chunks of descriptive language, describing setting are included, and used to bombard the audience in the hope of distracting the audience from the, all important, subtle hints set by the author to decrease the level of expectancy, among the audience, of the dramatic actions and events that are soon to follow. This bombardment of information also allows the audience to participate more in the plot by deciding which pieces of information are most relevant to the plot and to make decisions of which details or facts need to be remembered to help understand future events.
Greene uses the element of surprise and shock to his benefit, by withholding truths about Hale’s true lifestyle, so as to increase the audience’s confusion when they try to contemplate reasons for other’s wishes to kill him. It is also ironic that Hale’s job is to be dressed up as someone he is not, because it appears that Hale is living more that one life and in one of those lives he is known as ‘Fred’. It is clear, on many occasions with his lifestyles, not least this one as he goes to great lengths to deny and forget this past life. Hale appears to be, or has been a shady character once and appears to be very unhappy and lonely as a result. This is described as his, ‘badge of loneliness’. There are multiple clues throughout the plot that suggest that he is envious and longs to be like the others around him. They also suggest that Hale feels confused and trapped, as if he feels, he can’t be the person he longs to be. Greene, however, decides to portray Hale’s innocence and shows the audience his real name and feelings, so that the audience may associate with Hale and believe that they know him better than any other of the characters that appear in the novel. Greene also includes distinctive, recognition facts about Hale, such as, ‘Inky fingers’; ‘Bitten nails’, with which he uses repetition to help the audience to associate with Hale. In addition to this Greene helps Hale’s situation stand out a great deal more than that of the people around him by the deep description of the calm, pleasant, surreal settings and bliss experienced by the holiday makers contrasts Hale’s personal situation. This, also, highlights the cruel irony of Hale standing out in his uniform when he simply wishes to blend in and there is also the irony of him trying to hide from the people who wish to kill him.
Greene is very conservative with his characters so as to avoid any unwanted confusion amongst his audience. He chooses minimal characters and is very clear and decisive when describing them. Greene only focuses in on three characters, within the studied passage, which encourages the audience to focus more clearly on these characters, rather than paying attention to the crowds in the background who are given little importance. This also helps the audience to get a better understanding of the fact that all these characters stand out amongst the crowd because none of them really belong there. Only the main characters or those who are highly relevant to the plot are named. In the studied passage it is only ‘Lily’, the bar entertainer, other than Hale, who is given a name. This is highly relevant as she will later take over as the main character after Hale’s foreseen death. However, the audience cannot know this at the time of her introduction and, therefore must deduce, from her naming that she will play some importance. This is another example of the audience being forced to make decisions regarding the relevance and purpose of information escaping from the plot.
The text is well structured to enable the gradual release of information so as to last the anticipation out and to not spoil the element of surprise or shock that the plot is leading up to. Greene is in complete control of the plot and only releases facts and details when he sees fit, at irregular and unpredicted intervals. He pads out and separates these revealing facts and details with the use of large chunks of descriptive and metaphorical accounts and observations. Once he has slipped an important fact or detail, he abruptly changes the subject of description, so to build up the level of anticipation and to control the level of tension so that he can increase it when he is ready to include another detail or to slip in a red herring, in the hope of falsely alarming the audience so that they will be caught unprepared when the real event occurs. When Greene is mentioning important details he sticks to a short, dramatic sentence structure. This helps to stun the audience and build up a great deal of tension, to which Greene controls with great effect by switching to a longer, calmer sentence structure that relaxes the audience until Greene is ready for the tension to re-emerge at a slightly higher level.
To conclude, I believe Grahame Greene controls the audience’s emotions very well through his novel, ‘Brighton Rock’. His cool use of brief, detailed, obscure facts and dramatic, metaphorical descriptions, along with his minimalist use of characters, help the audience to identify to the plot, with ease even though very little important information is given out at one time. This has a very good combined effect as its gain is the audience eagerly anticipating the revealing of mysteries within the plot as the human mind, naturally cannot, easily, cope with an unsolved mystery.
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