Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
Yes, you beat me to this comment about Greene's working out in his own issues. But I'd disagree that he was selling religious experience short, so much as he was deliberately attempting to undermine it, playing Devil's Advocate. Ultimately, I think Greene was a man who believed, but struggled with it throughout his life. Unlike Sarah, who just took a leap - as Maurice rather wished he could:
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Playing Devil’s Advocate to deliberately undermine religious experience is an interesting perspective - I need to try it on for a while. But deliberate or just misguided, to me Greene sells religious experience woefully short by reducing it, like all the relationships in the book, to just a series of transactions. All sacrifice, no enrichment, no joy. Just tick the right boxes and you’re saved, but from what and to what?
In the same way, he equates sex with love - as though that’s all love is. Maurice didn’t love Sarah; he wanted to possess her. No tenderness, no attentiveness. He didn’t even notice that she was ill. To me, there was very little heartfelt depth in the book. And perhaps you’re right - that’s exactly what Greene wanted to portray. If so what was the point of the book - lives of quiet desperation?