The “vesper” more commonly known now as “Vodka, martini, shaken not stirred” (Diamonds are forever) is contrasted to Wormold’s “daiquiri” or “dimpled haig” in the Wonder bar, although, however much Bond drinks we never see the side affects like we do when Wormold returns from the European traders’ dinner,
“’I have come back.’ He said to Beatrice, ‘I am not under the table. I have come back victorious. The dog it was that died.’”
We can imagine Wormold coming home staggering and slurring this sentence without structure, overjoyed that he has outsmarted the assassination attempt on his life, which is humorous in itself as Hobbes explains “The passion of laughter is nothing else but sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly.” (Hobbes). In other words we laugh when we are in a position of superiority, as we are against an inebriated person just as we laugh at the drunken porter in Macbeth for example. The humour here is however heightened when we look at it in light of Wormold as a Bond parody, the idea of Bond behaving in this manner would be very entertaining especially considering Bond’s ‘Live and let die’ ‘Die another day’ reckless attitude towards life, he would be cool and calm about the whole ordeal and never uncontrollably drunk.
Not only physically, but also in many other details Greene contrasts Wormold to Bond to create humour. Bond’s famous love of beautiful, powerful cars and his great chase scenes are starkly contrasted to Wormold’s car that “lays before him like a tired Mule” (Our man in Havana) hardly worth comparing to Bond’s “4.5 litre Bentleys with a supercharger by Amherst Villiers”. (Moonraker) Bond was “known to have flirted with the idea of becoming a racing driver in (his) early career” (live and let die) which only makes Wormold’s confession that “only Milly would know what was wrong with his car whose innards were seriously wrong” (Our man in Havana) more embarrassing and amusing. Also Wormold’s flirting with gambling only goes as far as grudgingly helping Hasselbacher to find a lottery ticket he wishes for. This is a glaring contrast to Bond’s expert gambling skills demonstrated in both ‘Casino Royale’ and ‘Moonraker’ and his love of the games. In comparison to playing the lottery we see Bond throwing away hundreds of thousands at a high stakes card game against a SMERSH operative at the Bacarrat tables in ‘Casino Royale’.
Wormold’s associations with women are also deeply entertaining, and are made more so when put into contrast with the ultimate womaniser, James Bonds’. Wormold is wholly dedicated and governed by the main woman in his life, his daughter Milly. She is the entire reason for him becoming involved in the Secret Service, forcing him to allow her to buy a horse and join the country club using another woman’s hold over him: Claiming that she will loose her faith in the Catholic religious practices forces Wormold to keep the horse as he had made “ancient promises to his wife” to “raise a good Catholic”. (Our man in Havana) Wormold’s ex wife left him for another man in Miami and he admits to Milly that sometimes he “Misses her” (Our man in Havana) yet still she manages to control his actions. Watching Milly skilfully manipulate her father in this way is entirely comical as is his resigned “’Oh, Milly, Milly.’ There was nothing he could do but surrender” (Our man in Havana)
The other Lady who steps into Wormold’s life is his equivalent ‘Bond-girl’, Beatrice. Although she does fall quite in love with Wormold it is not due to his good looks, charm or smooth talk. The whole situation is heightened in humour by the role reversing played out within their relationship in comparison to the norm of the Bond novels. In contrast to Wormold she is wittier and handles situations better as demonstrated by the ‘Siphoning incident’ at the Tropicana, she is also better equipped within the spy field than he, and is educated in the espionage world, however, it is precisely this that causes Beatrice to fall in love with him. She declares “‘Oh, how I love you.’…. London is silly to me, and Henry Hawthorne. Do you think for once that I would have left Peter if he had made a fool out of U N E S C O?’” (Our man in Havana) after he admits to her he has been creating false reports. The Bond Girls James encounters each swoon at his heroism, charm and charisma, Beatrice however, admits that when she first met Wormold he “’was just a nice man with a lovely daughter’” (Our man in Havana) and it is not until he reveals to her how completely foolish, un-heroic, and immoral he has been that she falls in love with him. The role reversal is in itself a comic device employed as far back as Aristophane’s comedy, "The Poet and the Women", however, Greene attaches another level of humour by adding the Bond dimension. By allowing us to inter-exchange Bond and Wormold between the novels we see another scope for laughter, we can imagine Wormold’s reaction to meeting Honeychile Rider naked on Dr No’s beach, equally as hilarious as watching Bond deal with a seventeen year old daughter.
Wormold is finally forced into some action and kills Carter in revenge. This is a tragic and sad event that could potentially devastate the delicate balance of comedy and sincerity within the novel, and therefore also destroy the novel itself: However, this is avoided due to the comedy that is entwined within the framework of Wormold’s actions. Wormold enters the world of James Bond, and undertakes a mission that will earn him his double 0 title, however, he is still Jim Wormold the ‘real’ man and watching the ‘real’ man try to carry out the Bond plan is a great source of amusement. We watch as he smoothly tricks Segura into drunken unconsciousness, using his psychology and quick tongue, only to get very drunk himself and become almost unable to embark on his plan. He then successfully lures Carter out in order to kill him and ends up shooting him by accident after he had just been relieved he had “no vocation for violence” (Our man in Havana) and decided he could not so it. Wormold does not carry Bond’s Beretta and it is highly amusing to imagine Bond completely messing up a gun battle like Wormold. Without the Bond parody it would be difficult for Wormold to kill Carter without tipping the balance, to kill Carter in an unfair, and therefore un-Bond like way, for example, poisoning him would be too hard and cruel and we may loose the sympathy we had for Wormold as there could be no humour derived from this cold and calculated death.
Although Wormold implements a cold murder, we agree with his reasoning for it, he sets out to earn his double 0 title but again this is in direct contrast to Bond. Wormold is completely un-patriotic from the very start of the novel creating fake reports to his country to gain extra money for his daughter. Greene however, does not allow us to become embittered with Wormold, and in fact we instantly like the man for how kind and loving he is to his friends and family, seeing how much he will go through to help them. If the Wormold was not a likeable character and is instead a cold-blooded killing machine, killing for his country we could not enjoy the novel as a comedy.
Greene also uses Bond to get his political point across. Unlike Fleming who consistently plays up the superiority of the British race, or rather the English, Greene is unafraid of confronting the reality that the British are not perfect and that some images of British behaviour are undesirable:
“ 'Wormold,' a voice said, and turning he saw that it was Carter of Nucleaners, but it was also for Wormold at that moment the English midlands, English snobbery, English vulgarity, all the sense of kinship and security the word England implied to him.” (Our man in Havana)
Greene tries to write about ‘real’ people in a ‘real’ world, and Wormold is a classic example of just this. His loyalty lies not with his country for “There are many countries in our blood aren’t there?” but with “one person” (Our man in Havana) and we do not judge him harshly for deceiving his country for his daughter. In keeping with the movement of the time Greene demonstrates his own political ideas within the novel, after stating himself that his time in the British Secret Service was “most pointless and wasteful” (Greene) he was said to have betrayed his country as he became more and more associated with radical political figures of he time mainly Castro. Greene explained that he believed the mass politics of the West to be ridiculous he was much more concerned with individuals. Just as Wormold is, compared to the cold and smooth James Bond we see just how real Wormold is, and how ‘real’ people have ‘real’ reasons to kill. Using to comparison of Bond, Greene demonstrates his idea, that individuals are more important than the politics of the West, for the idea of Wormold killing Carter because he was a threat the England is horrific and unacceptable. Wormold in fact becomes a hero because of his small speech in which he decides to take revenge for Hasselbacher’s death:
“At least if I coul kill (Carter) I would kill for a clean reason. I would not kill to show that you can’t kill without being killed in your turn. I wouldn’t kill for my country. I wouldn’t kill for Capitalism or Communism or Social democracy or the Welfare State…I would kill Carter because he killed Hasselbacher. A family feud had been a better reason for murder than patriotism or the preference of one economic system over another” (Our man in Havana)
Here Greene is clearly depicting the reasons Bond kills for and demonstrates his view that killing an innocent person for an economic system, for patriotism, or for Her Majesty’s secret service is unethical.
Wormold is then less of a classic, or even a twentieth century Hero figure and more an Anti hero. An anti hero is described as a:
“Protagonist who lacks the traditional heroic qualities such as courage, physical prowess and fortitude. Anti Heroes typically distrust conventional values and are unable to commit themselves to any ideals. They generally feel helpless in a world over which they have no control. Ant heroes usually accept and often celebrate their positions as social outcasts.” (Bennett and Royle)
Clearly Wormold fits comfortably into this category. And Bond has been described by a generation as the Hero 007 British spy, however, I believe Greene has allowed us to review this representation by using Bond as a comparison for Wormold, and obliging us to interchange them into each others’ roles. Greene makes Wormold a ‘real’ character with ‘real’ concerns, such as family, friends, money and health however, his actions within the novel are often brave and heroic. He protects his family by going to the European trade lunch, and he kills Carter to allow Hasselbacher to rest in peace. If we were put into the same situations we would be scared and to overcome that fear is heroic. Bond in contrast is seen much more unfavourably in this light. He is a cold blooded killer, killing for reasons that are questionable especially as we see how vicarious the Secret Service’s position is, unknowing as to whether he is killing a Raul or not. Without a family and the amount of money he earns he has little concerns in life and therefore has little courage. Greene has allowed every individual to become a hero through comparing Wormold to Bond.
The Use of the comparison with James Bond and the Bond novels in ‘Our man in Havana’ is a device, which lifts the novel to a new level, not only as an entertainment but also as a political and moral novel. Greene allows us to see much more than would be possible without it and to take away from the book a completely different reading experience.
Bibliography
Bennett, Andrew and Royle, Nicholas: Introduction to Literature,Criticism and Theory second ed. Prentice hall publishers 1999 Europe.
Greene, Graham Our man in Havana Vintage 2001 Great Britain
Greene, Graham Biography
Aristophane The poet and the woman.
Fleming, Ian Casino Royale 1953 -
Fleming, Ian Live and Let Die 1954 -
Fleming, Ian Moonraker 1955 -
Fleming, Ian Diamonds Are Forever 1956 -
Fleming, Ian From Russia, With Love 1957 -
Fleming, Ian Dr No 1958 –
Film 1962 - Dr No
1963 - From Russia With Love
Hobbes, Thomas “The English works of Thomas Hobbes” 1840
Diermert, Brian Graham Greene’s thriller writing from the 1930’s
