Surprisingly, at the end of the novel, the lieutenant summons Padre Jose so the priest may confess all his sins and be forgiven. The lieutenant could easily refuse to summon Padre Jose, but he does so because he knows it is important for the whisky-priest’s beliefs. The lieutenant is constantly asking the priest if there is ‘anything I can do for you?’ This shows the lieutenant is a kind and humane man, who sympathizes with the priest.
‘Is there anything at all I can do for you?’
‘If you would give me permission to confess.’
As I have pointed out, in this novel, the lieutenant can be seen as a warm-hearted man. This is shown throughout the novel, especially towards the end of the novel when the priest is giving the last rites to the dying ‘Yankee.’ The lieutenant walks in to the room, and could easily shoot the priest, and accomplish what he has been trying to do for the last five years. Instead, the lieutenant patiently waits for the priest to finish giving the American the last rights, and allows the priest a fair trial. The lieutenant doesn’t want to be seen as a villain. There is evidence of this when the priest thanks the lieutenant for giving him time to bless the American and ‘hear his confession.’
‘Thank you for letting me stay alone with him.’
‘I am not a barbarian.’
The lieutenant feels a ‘natural hatred’ towards the church, and pursues the priest ruthlessly. Despite the lieutenant's ‘hatred’, he has ‘nothing against’ the priest, ‘as a man.’ The lieutenant does not hate the priest because of who he is; the lieutenant hates the priest because of ‘his ideas.’ The lieutenant feels that religion does no good for the people of Mexico:
‘You are so cunning, you people. But tell me this – what have you ever done in Mexico for us?’
The lieutenant is a principled, disciplined man with a strong sense of justice. He is committed to political ideals that he thinks will help the poor and create equality and tolerance in the state. The lieutenant is completely devoted to his job. The lieutenant places all his faith in to building a new revolutionary society, towards which the first step is the elimination of all priests. The lieutenant wants to build a ‘vacant universe’, from which he would ‘eliminate’ ‘all that was poor, superstitious and corrupt.’
The lieutenant is so devoted to his beliefs, that he has no personal life. He lives an austere and ascetic life:
‘Himself, he felt no need of women.’
You can clearly see how committed the lieutenant is. He will stop at nothing to apprehend and execute the priest, who, he believes, is the last remaining clergyman in the state. The lieutenant desires a new reformed world. He is devoted to eliminating ‘all that is poor, superstitious and corrupt.’ The lieutenant doesn’t care if a few innocent people die; as he believes that the lives of a few innocent people are worth less than the life of one criminal doing a great harm to society (e.g. priests).
‘A lot of them would die of course.’
‘Wouldn’t it be worth it? To be rid of those people forever.’
By the end of the novel, the lieutenant has accomplished his mission, but he feels a strange sense of emptiness and despondency. Without a target, his life has no meaning or sense of purpose and Greene suggests that lingering doubts fill the lieutenant's mind troubling him about whether he has done the right thing by killing the priest:
‘The pictures of the priest and the gunman were still pinned up on the wall: he tore them down – they would ever be wanted again, Then he sat at his desk and put his head upon his hands and dell asleep with utter weariness.’
The other main character of this novel, ‘the whisky priest’, is a small, shabby, putrid, dirty and alcoholic man. The priest is a paradox. Being a holy man, he is obliged to server the poor and the defenseless at to put others before himself. On the other hand, ‘whisky’ implies something altogether unholy. Drunkenness was one of his great sins, and he openly admits it:
‘He was a bad priest, and he knew it. They had a work for his kind – a whisky priest.’
Another fascinating aspect of the priest’s personality is his willingness to pray for others and his forgiving nature. In that aspect, the priest fulfills his duties as a holy father. A good example of this is when he says to the half-caste that betrayed him, “I’ll pray for you.” In the end, he even prayed for the lieutenant, the man who brought him to his death. He repeatedly forgives and prays for those whose paths he crosses.
‘The priest waved his hand; he bore no grudge to the half-caste, because he expected nothing else of anything human.’
The priest throughout this novel endangers his life for the sake of the people; his sense of duty and responsibility overshadows his weakness. In the first chapter, the priest is set to catch the ‘General Obregon’, but instead he is called away by a small child, whose ‘dying mother’ needs a priest. The priest could easily refuse his services to the child and catch the boat on time, but he feels as though ‘he is meant to miss the boat.’ The priest believes that he is ‘fated’ to never escape, and that he must continue with his priestly duties as he goes along:
‘He had tried to escape, but he was like the King of a West African tribe, the slave of his people, who may not even lie down in case the winds should fail.’
The most important single act comes near the end of the novel, when he decides to accompany the half-caste back across the border, to the state in which he is being hunted, in order to hear the confession of a dying man. The priest knows that it is a trap, but feels as though he cannot ‘deny confession to a dying man.’
Despite the priest’s strong devotion to God, he also displays extremely low self-esteem. When talking with the lieutenant he states, “But I’m not a saint. I’m not even a brave man.” The priest is persistent in his belief that he has sinned too greatly against God to be anything more than a drunk.
The priest feels tremendous guilt for the sins that he has committed and professes extreme despair at his own actions. The extraordinary hardships he has endured on the run from the government for eight years have transformed him into a much more resilient and mentally strong individual, although he still carries around with him strong feelings of guilt and worthlessness. He is extremely self-critical and often feels that he is ‘unworthy’.
‘O God, forgive me – I am a proud, lustful, greedy man. I have loved authority too much. These people deserve a martyr to care for them – not a man like me.’
The priest has a certain attitude to suffering, which many people may be against. The priest believes that ‘pain is a part of joy’ and that Catholics should ‘pray’ that they ‘suffer more’. The priest preaches to the people that ‘suffering is part of heaven’ and they should ‘never get tired’ of it.
‘Pray that you will suffer more and more. Never get tired of suffering. The police watching you, the soldiers gathering taxes, the beating you always get from the jefe because you are too poor to pay, smallpox and fever…. This is all part of heaven.’
Unlike some other characters in the play, the priest has a strong sense of humor, and is constantly giggling. This could be due to the amount of alcohol that he drinks, or simply that he has a sense of humor:
‘Then suddenly he giggled like a child: this was human dignity disputing with a bitch over a bone.’
Despite the fact that the priest and the lieutenant come from separate worlds, they do share many features. One feature that they share is the act of running away and pursuing. The priest is running away from the lieutenant, yet he is also running from his sins, from his drinking, and from himself. However, he is also pursuing his religion, trying to gain it back. The lieutenant is running from religion and from his childhood, from which he had many bad experiences. He is pursuing his dream of ‘vacant universe’, from which he would ‘eliminate all that was poor, superstitious and corrupt.’
The two characters also share a deep devotion to their jobs. They both put a lot of effort into their jobs, not just for themselves. The priest does it for the people and to keep the religion alive. The lieutenant does it for the governor and to get better childhoods for the children. Both men believe that they are doing what is best.
The resemblances of the lieutenant and the priest are paralleled in they both desire happiness for mankind. They are both kind men and they have a similar integrity in their dedication to their duty. A difference between the two protagonists is that they live lifestyles that you would expect of their adversary. You would expect the priest to be living an austere and celibate lifestyle, when really; this is the lifestyle that the lieutenant chooses to live.
The priest is a timid man. He is scared of being caught and dying, and is also very scared of being alone. He uses brandy to ease all of his fears and take the pain away. The priest’s adversary, the lieutenant, doesn’t ever seem to be afraid. He always holds his head up high. He has a strong sense of dedication and determination to make the world a better place for the children of the present and the future.
Overall, it appears that the priest and the lieutenant had very different views and opinions, yet both of them shared a passion for religion. The lieutenant was against religion, and the priest was for religion. It is because of religion, that these two protagonists were brought together. On the whole, both men have different allegiances. The lieutenant’s allegiance is to the state, whereas the priest’s allegiance is to the church.