Graham Greene’s novel The End of the Affair examines two types of love: human love and divine love.  In an increasingly secular world, the narrator, Maurice, holds strong beliefs that human love is the only type of love there is.  However, his lover Sarah comes to believe that divine love does exist, and is actually the more powerful of the two.

After the death of Sarah, Maurice has two dreams that are very significant in this debate about love.  Both of these dreams reveal his feelings and fears about the concept of divine love.  After Sarah’s death, Maurice is forced to think about God and what divine love really is, if it even exists at all.  During the day, Maurice condemns Sarah’s ideas about divine love.  However, at night his dreams reveal what he is too afraid to consider in absolute consciousness.

 Maurice’s first dream occurs the night he learns of Sarah’s death:

 “I was walking up Oxford Street and I was worried because I had to buy a present and all the shops were full of cheap jewelry, glittering under the concealed lighting.  Now and then I thought I saw something beautiful and I would approach the glass, but when I saw the jewel close it would be as factitious as all the others- perhaps a hideous green bird with scarlet eyes meant to give the effect of rubies.  Time was short and I hurried from shop to shop.  Then out of one of the shops came Sarah and I knew she would help me…. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘Something always turns up. Don’t worry,’ and suddenly I didn’t worry.  Oxford Street extended its boundaries into a great grey misty field, my feet were bare, and I was walking in the dew alone, and stumbling in a shallow rut I woke” (p 140).

 As Maurice searches for a present, he is really searching for a way to remember Sarah and to define what their love is like now.  All the different shops represent different possibilities, yet he finds none sufficient.  His sense of urgency and the mentions of time imply that he is afraid because his human love has not lasted and he fears that he will forget her.  He wants to find something to believe in before it is too late.  Sarah’s reassuring words show how strong she believes in her ideas- the eminence of divine love.  The consequence of Sarah’s love is that the two people cannot see each other, but she reassures Maurice, implying that he will see signs of her presence in his life.  He will find some way to remember her, and find things that remind him of her.

 The “grey, misty field” that he walks in illustrates his confusion.  He cannot see things clearly, and the things he does see are dull.  He does not truly buy into Sarah’s philosophy on divine love.  He is walking alone and he is stumbling; two things he is afraid of.  He is afraid of being without Sarah because he hates his life without her in it, and he is afraid of stumbling if love should ever cross his path again.  His bare feet could mean that he feels susceptible to new ideas and fears the possibility that he could be hurt by something.  Perhaps this is a premonition to his fear that divine love could be stronger than the corrupt human love he has been such a supporter of.
 
Maurice’s second dream occurs after Mrs. Bertram tells him that Sarah was baptized as a Catholic:

 “I dreamed I was at a fair with a gun in my hand. I was shooting at bottles that looked as though they were made of glass but my bullets bounded off them as though they were coated with steel.  I fired and fired, and not a bottle could I crack” (p 165).

 Again, this dream addresses Maurice’s battle with divine love.  The bottles represent divine love.  Maurice has always thought that divine love was not love at all, and always easily spoke out against it.  However, he seems to develop the feeling that divine love is stronger than it may originally seem.  Maurice assumes that he will be able to shoot the bottles and break them, yet he is unsuccessful in every shot.  He is trying hard to fight against Catholicism, God, and the idea of divine love.  The fact that he has a weapon with him is also a sign of his anger at his present circumstances.  This dream provides confirmation of Maurice’s subconscious fear that divine love may be stronger than his own love.

 As Maurice is dealing with the loss of Sarah, he also has to deal with the prospect that divine love could truly exist.  Since their human love has ended, Sarah’s ideas about divine love come into his head.  She told him that two people could love each other without seeing each other, and now Maurice finds himself thrust into that very situation.  Maurice’s dreams show that he is having a very hard time dealing with this predicament and idea of divine love.  His second dream does hint that he is beginning to understand that God’s love is a very powerful thing, but he still shows no signs of actually believing in the Catholic faith. Ultimately, Maurice’s dreams portray his reluctance to believe in divine love.  In the end he addresses God, which proves that he believes that God does exist.  Yet Maurice will never love God, for he hates the type of love that God displays since it took Sarah away from him and left him a sad, angry man.

The End of The Affair is a novel of love.  Two types of love exemplify themselves through the novel, human love and divine love.  These two loves are the basic themes of the novel-they bring the work together in a variety of ways.  One important yet slightly overlooked way in which divine love and human love embrace the novel is the manner in which these two loves interconnect.  Maurice and Sarah both try to understand this concept throughout the novel, and one way in which it is exemplified is through dreams.  There are five dreams in the novel, all of which portray the sharing of human and divine love.

 The first dream occurs when Sarah is still alive.  She dreams of a staircase on which she is ascending, and at the top stands Maurice.  She is, “still happy because when I reached the top of the staircase we were going to make love.”(p.123).  But suddenly, the voice and the image at the top of the staircase is no longer Maurice’s, but someone or something else, and she awakens wishing for “ordinary corrupt human love”(p.124).  There are two ways in which this scene represents the joining of divine and human love.  The staircase, with Maurice at the top symbolizes a possible ascension to heaven, with God in heaven waiting for Sarah to join Him.  However, in the dream it is Maurice who is at the top, signifying that there love is not necessarily just a human love, but a divine one as well.  Also, as she awakens, she wishes for human love. This too signifies that even Sarah herself knew that in her dream, the love was divine as well as human, something from another realm.

 The second and all consecutive dreams occur after Sarah’s death, and in their own way signify the connection of human and divine love.  The second dream comes to Maurice, and in it he is looking for a piece of jewelry.  He cannot seem to find a genuine piece, however, and feels very worried: “Then out of one of the shops came Sarah, and I knew that she would help me. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘Something always turns up.  Don’t worry.”(p.140).  Again, there are two ways in which this can be seen both as divine and human love.  Sarah and Maurice were human lovers, and it is Sarah who comes to Maurice.  However, Sarah has passes away, and when he awakens he still hears the phrase, “don’t worry”.  Sarah is now a supernatural person, a soul, and a divinity.  Also, God often speaks to humans in a still small voice, much like the voice Maurice hears upon awakening.  Perhaps, just as Maurice symbolized God in Sarah’s dream, Sarah symbolizes God in his dream.

 The third dream belongs to Henry, and just as he is of little significance in the general theme of human and divine love, so too is his dream.  Henry dreams that, “ We were drinking together (meaning Sarah, Maurice, and Henry).  We were happy.  When I woke I thought she wasn’t dead.”(p.167).  The human love that Henry has for Sarah portrays itself, though hidden, here.   He sees them all together, and they are happy, meaning there is an absence of hate.  However, unlike Maurice’s and Sarah’s dream, when he awakens he thinks she is alive, a much more human response than divine one.  When Sarah and Maurice awaken, they are both filled with feelings, but not a thought that the other person is alive, or that the situation is changed, and therein lies the divinity of their love.  Henry feels sorrow, and thinks she is alive, and hence is in the midst of human mourning.

 In the fourth dream Maurice again dreams of Sarah, only this time he only dreams of them as lovers, and he makes no mention of them having any type of conversation.  The only significant portion that he does mention is that “We were happy and without regret.”(p.171).  He dreams of her in a human way-sexually, yet afterwards he dreamt that they were happy and without regret, something that never truly happened in their human relationship.  Perhaps Sarah was communicating with him about how one day they will be happy and without regret, and in another realm, in another love-a divine love.  Sarah already realizes the fact; she is dead and seems to be comforting those that she loves.  Maurice, however, cannot clearly see that their love is both human and divine, and he therefore cannot make any connection between the two in his second dream, other than the fact that they were strangely happy and without regret.

 Parkis’ little boy holds the fifth and final dream of the novel, and in it Sarah promises him a present.  The boy awakens and a short time later is suddenly healed of his illness.  Sarah, though dead, possesses the power to heal, a divine gift and she the divine holder of the gift.  Though she holds no certain human love towards the little boy, he did indeed care about her, and more so than this, perhaps Sarah realized that Maurice would hear of it, and know that she does still exist and did not disappear as a vapor as she had once thought she would.  Again, she performs a divine task-a miracle, promising it to the little boy in a dream.  The immense human love she had held in her heart extended past the grave into a divine love to those she left behind.
 
In her own dream she associates her love of Maurice with divine love, in Maurice’s dream she comes to him in a divine way, in Henry’s dream he feels she is alive, and in the little boy’s dream she promises a miracle.  Throughout the dreams, in some more than others, Sarah’s human love is exemplified and furthered through a type of divine love, and in this way it is the blend of human love and divine love that brings the novel together as a work about love.

In the novel, The End of the Affair by Graham Greene the main character Maurice claims to not believe in God, but when his lover Sarah dies, he recognizes God's existence.  He may not like Him and he may even hate Him, but he does come to recognize God by the end of the novel.

Halfway through the novel, Maurice chases after Sarah and catches up to her in a church.  After they talk, he reflects upon her existence.  He thinks that he could "Imagine a God blessing her: or a God loving her.  (131)" This alludes to the idea that Maurice believes in a God, but he does not yet recognize that he does rather it seems like a subconscious belief to the reader.
 
Towards the end of the novel, Maurice states "I hate You, God, I hate You as though You existed.  (191)" One theme of the novel can be seen in this quote.  The theme, which is portrayed through this quote is: Does something have to exist in order to hate it?  Maurice claims that God does not exist, but He has to exist in Maurice's mind in order for him to say that he hates Him.

Throughout the novel, Maurice ignores the signs of God, but by the end of the novel, he gives into the fight.  Maurice has suffered from a great deal of emotional stress after Sarah's death so he does not the energy to continue ignore God's signs of existence.  The sign that God gives to Maurice to try to convince him of His existence is through Maurice's friend Smythe.

Smythe had a mark on his face however one day it disappears.  This event shocks Maurice and catches him at a vulnerable point in his life after Sarah's death.  The miracle that the mark on Smythe's face disappears causes Maurice to think that God may exist.  Sarah for so long was Maurice's confidant and now that he has no one to turn to, he turns to God with the final quote/prayer of the novel. "O God, You've done enough, You've robbed me of enough, I'm too tired and old to learn to love, leave me alone for ever. (192)" Maurice gives in and accepts the existence of God.

Throughout the novel, Maurice is at different levels of recognizing God.  He has a subconscious recognition, denial recognition, and final acceptance of God.  The different levels of recognition were stepping stones, which led up to Maurice's acceptance of God's existence.  Ending the novel with Maurice praying to God is an excellent way for Graham Greene to convey to the reader that Maurice finally believes in the existence of God.

In The End of the Affair, Graham Greene uses the predicament of an adulterous affair, as a backdrop, to show the reader that love never dies. The two main characters show that love never dies in two completely different ways. On one hand, Sarah shows her love is never-ending in a divine way, while Bendrix shows in love in a more humanly-physical way. Either way love looks in the novel, the reader can rest assure the love these people feel will never die because the bond is too strong to break.

To better explain why Sarah love will never end, the reader only has to look at her actions when the house is bombed. After the bomb hits the house, Sarah tries to find and help Maurice but after she touches his hand, she says, " I could have sworn it was a dead hand"(Greene, 94). Sarah believes that Maurice is dead and she realizes that he will never have that chance to live or love again. This makes Sarah break down and pray to God for help. In her hysteric prayer, Sarah says, "I'll give him up for ever, only let him be alive with a chance"(Greene, 95). Although Sarah loves Maurice very physically, she willfully gives it up, in order to see him alive and happy again. This act is the ultimate sacrifice for Sarah but she is a firm believer in divine love. Sarah love for Maurice is now like her love for God, never-ending. For Sarah, this act is justified because, "Love doesn't end. Just because we don't see each other"(Greene, 69). Sarah will always love Maurice, just not in the way that he wants and desires.

Maurice's love for Sarah is physical and humanly. Like most people, Maurice's love is physical and relies heavily on sexual contact with the person he loves. It is Maurice's belief that he must have control over his lover's body because he has, "The desire to possess"(Greene,107). When Sarah left him after the bombing, Maurice thinks the love has gone away. Maurice thinks this because he no longer has anyone to physically hold and be with at night. When Sarah tries to explain that the love will never die because it is divine, Maurice says, "That's not our kind of love"(Greene, 69). What Maurice should have said was "That's not MY kind of love" because it did not fit his idea of love. After Sarah dies, Maurice still feels a strong love for Sarah. Maurice shows this in his actions with other women. In one instance, Maurice said, "I feel the guilt before I had committed the crime"(Greene, 159). The guilt that Maurice feels leads the reader to believe that his love for Sarah is still very strong. The love that Maurice feels is so strong that he is willing to give up finding love ever again. This is a strong and intense feeling for anyone to possess but Maurice does not care. It is Maurice's thoughts that "God, You've done enough. You've robbed me enough, I'm too tired and old to learn to love, leave me alone for ever"(Greene, 192).

In conclusion, the love that Sarah and Maurice feel for each other may be different, but it is still love. The differences in these two loves might make the reader ask the question, "Is one love better than the other?" In my opinion, the answer is "No". It does not matter what kind of love you feel, it only matters if it makes you feel loved. A person can have a physical or mental relationship but what matters to them is how it makes them feel. If they are happy then that is all the love they need. The love never dies because the person remains with you in your heart forever. No one can ever take love away because it is constant; never-ending.

In The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, Greene illustrates a theme of divine love and its opposition to human love. The human love in question is between Sarah and Bendrix. The catch is that Sarah is already married to Henry. This becomes a problem when Bendrix is seriously injured and Sarah believes him to be dead and so prays to God that if he, Bendrix, is saved their relationship will be over. One question is whether or not Bendrix was actually dead. The first impulse of the reader is to state that Bendrix is not dead, only unconscious. Through a careful examination of the passage it becomes apparent that it is more likely that Bendrix was indeed dead.

The passage begins by stating, "As I ran down the stairs I heard the next robot coming over, and then the sudden waiting silence when the engine cut out...I never heard the explosion, and I woke after five seconds or five minutes in a changed world" (71). Bendrix wakes up and has no memory of anything. He was "...completely free form anxiety, jealousy, insecurity, hate..." (71). This is the first sign that Bendrix was truly dead. The four emotions he lists are negative, or are usually considered such. It doesn't seem like an accident that all four emotions are also ones admonished by Christianity and the Bible. This is the first real hint that a miracle has occurred.

The next example occurs when he regains his memory. Greene writes "I realized first that I was lying on my back and that what balanced over me, shutting out the light, was the front door: some other debris had caught it and suspended it a few inches above my body, though the odd thing was that later I found myself bruised from the shoulders to the knees as if by its shadow" (71). This is the second and one of the stronger proofs that it was indeed a miracle because of course you can not be bruised by a shadow. This passage implies that he was indeed hit by the door and that the miracle is the only reason he is still alive.

Lastly in this passage Greene writes "After that, of course, I remembered Sarah and Henry and the dread of love ending" (71). Depending on how this passage is read it can seem like Bendrix is just remembering a fear that he has been thinking about or it could mean that he sensed or had some sort of intuitive inspiration of Sarah's promise to God. It would be a very big coincidence if he just happened to worry about that particular fear after being knocked to the ground and hit by a door. It seems more in line with the rest of the passage that he had a premonition of what had been promised. He sensed the implications of the miracle. He learned the price for his life.

These passages suggest that an actual miracle took place. This ties into the theme of divine love vs. human love. The two come into conflict at this key point in the novel. The human love between Sarah and Bendrix is ended by both Sarah's human love for Bendrix, the reason she prays to God, and by God's divine love, the reason that Bendrix is alive. The divine love exacts a high cost. The two lovers can not be together again which suggests that divine love takes precedence over human love.

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