engleski

The Determinism of the Main Characters in Greene's "A Gun for Sale" and Hauptmann's "Vor Sonnenaufgang"

This paper aims to present comparative analysis of the main characters in Graham Greene's novel "A Gun for Sale" (1936) and Gerhart Hauptmann's play "Vor Sonnenaufgang" (1889) in the light of the philosophy of determinism. Although at first sight it may seem that these two writers belonging to different historical and literary periods may have nothing in common through close reading and interpretation of the proposed texts we will try to demonstrate similarities between Raven, the main male character of Greene's novel and Helen, the main female character in Hauptmann's play. Both characters are conditioned and controlled by environment, heredity, chance or instinct. G. Hauptmann as one of the most important representatives of Naturalism in 19 century German literature portrays his heroine as an unfortunate young woman who inspite of her struggle cannot change her faith. G. Greene's novel although a genre thriller is an opportunity for the writer to examine the depths of human soul. Religious themes dominant in his later works are not yet present in this early novel, at least not in an explicit manner, but as a convert to Roman Catholicism Greene is fascinated by the dark side of a human nature. Two different characters - Helen, beautiful, innocent and pure, the victim of her family sunk into debauchery and alcoholism and Raven, a hare-lipped and resenfully disfigured both physically and psychologically are determined by external and internal forces which control their behaviour and decide their destiny. While determinism in G. Hauptmann's work is the result of external factors, i.e. historical and social context, with Greene it is the writer's tormented personality and a sense of isolation in direct conflict with the social forces around him.

determinism, heredity, environment, naturalism, human nature

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