Brighton Rock
Brighton Rock, novel of sin and redemption by Graham Greene, published in 1938 and filmed in 1947 and 2010.
The two main characters in Greene’s gripping reflection on the nature of evil are the amateur detective Ida and the murderous Pinkie, a teenager and Roman Catholic who chooses hell over Heaven. Responsible for two murders, including that of a journalist called Hale, 17-year-old Pinkie is forced to marry the hapless Rose, a shy server in a tea room, to prevent her from giving evidence that would undercut his alibi, since a wife cannot be made to testify against her husband in English law; Pinkie intends this as a temporary expedient, “only as a last resort to close her mouth and give him time.” A good Catholic, Rose seems to represent Pinkie’s lost innocence. Although Ida, the tea room owner, who is committed to finding Hale’s murderer, is ostensibly the heroine of the novel, her heroism belongs to the blank morality of the detective novel, where the measure of goodness is in the ability to solve the mystery. By contrast, through his contemplation of his own damnation, Pinkie’s evil achieves a sense of moral seriousness that Ida’s agnosticism can never obtain. Rose is Pinkie’s counterpart here, sharing his Catholic faith and prepared to corrupt herself in order to protect a man whom she believes loves her. For Pinkie, the part he plays in Rose’s corruption will ensure his damnation much more clearly than his role in the murders that punctuate the novel, a fact that serves to deepen his obsession with sin.
Although its title foreshadows the setting of Pinkie’s earthly fate, it takes its name from a locally made hard candy that Ida extols and that can be interpreted as a symbol of original sin. Brighton Rock began life as a detective novel, and the mark of that genre remains in Ida’s pursuit of Pinkie. However, the structure of the detective novel merely contains the moral framework seen here. The contrast between Pinkie’s theological morality and its insubstantial counterparts is reinforced using various narrative techniques. Principally, the language through which Pinkie’s contemplation of hell is expressed contrasts vividly with the comparatively frivolous considerations of Ida and the other characters. What finally distinguishes Pinkie’s tragic mode from the generic patterns of the detective story is a critique of a commercialized society in which, with the exception of Pinkie, almost every character is associated with the limited imaginative potential of mass culture.
