Brighton Rock: Analysis of Major Characters
"Brighton Rock" is a novel by Graham Greene that explores the complexities of morality and the human condition through its major characters, particularly Pinkie Brown and Rose. Pinkie, a frail seventeen-year-old gang leader with a troubling Catholic background, grapples with his sense of eternal damnation while harboring a desperate hope for salvation. His actions, driven by a desire for power and fear of exposure, lead him to commit murder and manipulate those around him, including the innocent waitress Rose, whom he marries to prevent her from testifying against him. Conversely, Rose is portrayed as a vulnerable yet devoted character, willing to embrace a life of damnation alongside Pinkie, even as she fears the consequences of their actions.
Fred Hale, the target of Pinkie's vengeance, is marked by a deep pride in his work and an underlying sense of humility, ultimately succumbing to a heart attack as he faces his impending fate. Another key figure, Spicer, serves as Pinkie's nervous accomplice, whose experience in gang life contrasts sharply with his anxiety and eventual fate at Pinkie's hands. Finally, Ida Arnold emerges as a grounded, life-loving amateur detective, determined to uncover the truth behind Hale's murder, embodying a contrasting perspective to Pinkie's nihilism. Together, these characters create a rich tapestry that underscores themes of sin, redemption, and the struggle for justice in a morally ambiguous world.
Brighton Rock: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Graham Greene
First published: 1938
Genre: Novel
Locale: Brighton, England
Plot: Psychological realism
Time: The 1930's
Pinkie Brown, called The Boy, a frail, seventeen-year-old gang leader. Pinkie's Catholic background haunts him with a growing sense of his eternal damnation; still, he wildly hopes that there is a chance for repentance and salvation. Initially, he sets out with his gang to kill Fred Hale, the man who betrayed Pinkie's mentor to a rival gangster. A sixteen-year-old waitress named Rose sees Spicer, one of Pinkie's men, shortly before Hale's murder. To have her conceal what she knows of the crime, Pinkie pretends an attraction to her, even though he is disgusted by thoughts of sex or physical closeness with Rose or anyone. When he learns from Rose that a woman is inquiring into Hale's death, he acts to solidify his position: He kills Spicer, who was thinking about going to the police, and he arranges a marriage with Rose so that she cannot be forced to testify against him. Increasingly desperate, he takes Rose into the country and tries to talk her into shooting herself by pretending to agree to a suicide pact. A fellow gang member arrives with a policeman, and Rose throws away the gun. Pinkie assumes that he has been betrayed. He smashes a bottle of vitriol, his face steaming as the acid blows on him, and throws himself over a cliff to his death.
Fred Hale, the man who betrayed Pinkie's mentor, Kite, to a rival gang leader, Colleoni. Hale has a deep inner humility but an intense pride in his profession. His job at the moment is to pose as a newspaper's Kolley Kibber, a character who leaves cards along a route printed in the newspaper and who pays out cash prizes to people who find the cards and recognize him. Hale is certain that he will be killed during a holiday at Brighton by Pinkie's gang, which is out to avenge Kite's death, but he proudly continues his work nevertheless. As he feared, he is attacked by the gang while he waits for a companion. He dies of a heart attack.
Spicer, a member of Pinkie's gang. Spicer has twenty-five years of experience in the gangs, having begun before Pinkie was even born. He is easily made nervous and opposes trying to kill Hale from the start. He limps because of a corn on his left foot, and the pustules around his mouth are a sign of his nervousness. His job is not to kill Hale but to take Hale's Kolley Kibber cards and leave them along the route to suggest that Hale continued his assigned work. While planting a card at a restaurant, Spicer is spotted by Rose, a new waitress, who later recalls that Spicer's appearance did not match the photograph of Hale printed in the newspaper. Spicer's restlessness makes him expendable, and Pinkie later kills him.
Ida Arnold, who becomes an amateur detective and probes into the murder of Fred Hale. Ida, a fortyish, coarse lover of life, is first seen singing in the public bar, where she meets Hale. Unlike Pinkie, Ida has no sense that there is more to life than the here and now. She operates entirely on a temporal and societal plane, with a better understanding of right and wrong than of good and evil. Because Hale seemed likable—she was his companion at the time of his death—and because a certain mystery surrounds his death, she investigates to see that justice is served.
Rose, a sixteen-year-old waitress. Rose shares Pinkie's fear of eternal damnation, and she offers him an unselfish, redemptive love. She is also aware that their civil marriage constitutes mortal sin. Her love for Pinkie eventually reaches the point where Ida Arnold cannot reason with her and make Rose see that Pinkie intends to kill her. She is perfectly willing to be damned, as long as she can share her fate with Pinkie. She hesitates in killing herself out of a normal fear of death when Pinkie gives her the gun for their suicide pact. This delay allows others to arrive. Rose is spared, and Pinkie falls to his death from a cliff. At the end of the novel, her final illusion about Pinkie is about to be shattered as she walks home to play, for the first time, a phonograph record he made for her, on which he has spoken not of his love, as she thinks, but of his hatred.