LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Character Analysis of Andrews in Graham Greene's
The Man Within

Sresha Yadav, Ph.D. Scholar and Smita Jha, Ph.D.

Abstract

Why does an individual find himself in a strange predicament and commit crime? Why do the uniqueness and singularity prompt an individual to behave in a different way?

For a very long time, Criminologists have been trying to assess and analyze the character of an individual, and have offered some sort of explanations on the basis of different theories pertaining to crime and guilt.

The present paper seeks to identify and analyze the character of Francis Andrews in Graham Greene's The Man Within, in the light of psychoanalytical trait theories and strain theories of criminology, while answering some specific questions about Andrews' childhood, his relationship with his parents and his betrayal of his fellow shipmen in this novel.

The major theme of the novel revolves round the betrayal and Andrews' disturbing relationship with his father, and how this ultimately moulds up his personality as a double-dealing hero, depicted by the author on account of his actions and inactions.

Introduction

"Crime is a category which is the result of a process involving different individuals, different institutions, and different settings".(Howitt;2002,37)An individual can't escape the environment in which he lives, the settings, the complex social processes, and from different individuals like him who are also part of the same environment. He can't afford to live alone; he is part of the system. His behaviour and his actions are the result of the social interactions.

As C.R. Bartol's (2002) book entitled Criminal Behavior - A Psychosocial Approach delineates the theme of human reaction to the present situation is a subject matter of his own interpretations and perceptions, which are strongly affected by his experiences and thought processes. In this present extract these key words 'experience' and 'thought' will help us to understand the perceptions, interpretations, and decision making capability in the prevailing situations of Francis Andrews' life in Greene's The Man Within.

Exploring Man's Divided Selves

Greene's first published novel The Man Within (1929) explores the theme of man's divided selves. Greene portrays the character of Francis Andrews as 'the Judas figure' who had betrayed his fellow shipmen and Captain Carlyon. The story of the novel revolves round Andrews who is a victim of unhappy childhood and has always been chased by haunting memories of his brutish and cruel father. He remembers his father as, "a damned old hypocritical bully" (Greene; 2001, 13). He calls his father "a bully who killed his wife and ruined his son" (Greene; 2001, 16). During his conversation with Elizabeth, who sheltered him while he is escaping from his fellow smugglers and Carlyon, after writing secretly to the custom officer about the arrival of the cargo ship, he declares:

My father was a smuggler. … A common bullying smuggler, but damnably clever. He saved money on it and sent me to school .What was the use of having me taught Greek, if I was to spend my life like this?......I will tell you why he sent me to school,….it was so that he could brag about it. He was proud of his success. He was never caught and they never had any evidence against him. His crew worshipped him.(Greene;2001,71).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Colloquial versus Standard in Singaporean Language Policies | Listening, an Art? | Bilingual Persons with Mild Dementia - Spectrum of Cognitive Linguistic Functions | How does Washback Work on the EFL Syllabus and Curriculum? - A Case Study at the HSC Level in Bangladesh | Impact of Participative Management on Employee Job Satisfaction and Performance in Pakistan | Homeless in One's Own Home - An Analysis of Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things and Lakshmi Kannan's Going Home | Formative Influences on Sir Salman Rushdie | Role of Science Education Projects for the Qualitative Improvement of Science Teachers at the Secondary Level in Pakistan | Perception of Phoneme Contrast in Children with Hearing Impairment in Telugu | Motivation: Extrinsic and Intrinsic | Speech and Language Characteristics of Monozygotic Twins - A Case Study | Language Shift among the Tribal Languages of India - A Case Study in Bihar | Interrogative Structures and Their Responses as Speech Initiators and Fluency Booster for Second Language Learners | English as a Second Language - Learning Strategies and Teachability | Identifying an Unknown Language Bahai in and around Kanpur Area | Character Analysis of Andrews in Graham Greene's The Man Within | Shangshak Tangkhul and Pushing Tangkhul Numerals - A Comparative Presentation | A Review of A Course in Academic Writing by Professor Renu Gupta | Web-Based Training in Gaining Proficiency in English Language |A PRINT VERSION OF ALL THE PAPERS OF DECEMBER, 2010 ISSUE IN BOOK FORMAT. | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com