그레이엄 그린 주요소설의 공간적 구조

Abstract

In The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene allowed minor characters the whole space of part I and IV in the novel composed of four parts. Such a focussing on minor characters may well draw critical attention. Karl Patten was attentive to common characteristics the protagonist and each minor character share and named the spatial structure of the novel a “radial pattern.” In the spatial structure of The Power and the Glory, however, similarity between two kinds of characters is not so much important as difference between them. The minor characters in Greene’s two major novels play an important role as foils. When we stand the whisky priest of The Power and the Glory beside minor characters, it is revealed that he has an extraordinary sense of understanding and responsibility, loves his enemy, and touches his enemy to the heart. Comparing Scobie of The Heart of the Matter with people around him, we find he has a correct sense of reality, sympathy for others’ suffering, a strong sense of responsibility, and self-sacrificing love. If we fail to notice the spatial structure of The Heart of the Matter, we are easily tempted to criticize Scobie’s morality according to the dogma of the Church. Critics who interpreted Greene’s Catholic novels with a mind to theological consideration disregarded their structure and protagonists’ human agony. Having an interest in the elaborate spatial structure of The Power and the Glory and The Heart of the Matter serves as a guide to the reader for literary reading.