Discuss the theme of martyrdom in The Power and the Glory. / *Comment
on the title of The Power and the Glory. / Is Whisky Priest a martyr and a Saint? / Do
you think The Power and the Glory is a story about a spiritual journey?
The title of Greene’s novel The
Power and the Glory is taken from the Lord’s Prayer: “Thine is the
kingdom, the Power and the Glory”. Both power and glory belong to god. The
title may, however, be interpreted in two ways:
(A) True
power and true glory are divine in origin and are attributes of God head. But
the priest manages to achieve both these to a certain extent in his own perfect
way and without knowing it.
(B) Power
may be yielded by a government through its lieutenants of police, but glory
belongs to priests who, even when sinning, are capable of rising to supreme heights
of self-sacrifice.
The theme and title are inter-related
in every work of art and Greene’s The Power and the Glory is no
exception. The theme and the title have reciprocal relation in Greene’s The
Power and the Glory. The theme of Greene’s The Power and the Glory
is his constant query-damnation or salvation? Outwardly, the novel is the
conflict between the church and the state. But inwardly evil which is worked
out largely through the portrayal of the whisky priest is interwoven with this
conflict. Thus the novel also shows Greene’s preoccupation with the theme of
evil in this world. There is a certain element of evil or sinfulness in the
composition or nature of this whisky priest. As the priest dies in a state of
sin, the question arises whether he will be ultimately damned or forgiven by
God. However, Greene glorifies him at last and destines him to be a martyr and
even a possible saint.
Through the character sketch of
the whisky priest in The Power and the Glory, Greene has perhaps given a
new turn to the Christian novel in England. Instead of depicting his protagonist
as a good man who is in quest of virtue or the heavenly city of God, he depicts
his protagonist as a sinner who stumbles along the way to the heavenly city,
almost forsaking God and embarrassing the evil. Greene is concerned with how
this Christian marginal man can be saved, how the poor in sprit, the weak in
will, and the proud in soul can be saved. Greene seems to be of the view that,
in earthly failure, God sees potential salvation, that in apparent
worldly success God sees weakness, that in satanical pride God sees the
capacity for humility, that in indecision and denial God sees the possibility
of faith. According to Greene, only indifference can destroy god. Thus Greene has
turned the traditional view upside down through the character Portrayal of the
priest.
