Forces of good and evil collide in Brighton Rock

By this point - beginning the final section (#7) of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock (1938) - it's painfully obvious that Pinkie, aka The Boy, is a complete sociopath who's been drawn into a bloody battle for mob control of the Brighton race track that can end only in is death. He's reminiscent of Macbeth, drawn in blood so far that returning were as tedious as go oe'er, or, in GG's world view, he is satanic, cursed, and unable to seek mercy even at the point of death. The last obstacle before him seems to be Rose, the 16-year-old (to be fair, he's only 17) whom he marries in order to ensure her silence about some of his murderous crimes (he pins a lot on the idea that a woman can't be compelled to testify against her husband; of course, she can testify of her own free will). He marries her even though he loathes women in general and her in particular. She is a poor naif who seems unable to recognize, or perhaps to acknowledge, that to him she's as disposable as a piece of tissue. The scene of her waking on the morning after her marriage and finding the house deserted, the kitchen, in the basement, cold and dirty - hasn't been used in months - and w/ no idea how to begin a domestic life in this environ. The plot seems to hinge now on two points: first, she takes some money that she finds stashed away in a soap dish, and I expect that when Pinkie discovers this petty "theft" he will come at Rose furiously - all he needs is an excuse. From her angle, the key point will be the recording that Pinkie made at a booth on the pier in which he tells her to get lost, he never cared about her, she's a nuisance, and worse. I suspect when she finally listens to this recording - which she expected to be a sentimental statement of love (he made this recording, at her urging, right after their wedding) she will turn against him and provide info to Ida, the woman who's trying to unravel Pinkie's schemes and killings (yes, highly unlikely in reality though perhaps not in allegory), and she may be "saved."



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