Graham Greene's labyrinthine entertainments" - Characters and characterisation in A Gun for Sale, Stamboul Train, and The Confidential Agent

Abstract

This thesis will explore three literary works, labelled entertainments" by their author Graham Greene. By engaging in an in-depth reading of the characters and how they are characterised, I will investigate the complexity of the narratives1. I will focus the works A Gun for Sale (1936), Stamboul Train (1932) and A Confidential Agent (1939). I have chosen these three narratives because they were written and published in the 1930s, and due to the similar themes they address. I will analyse the three narratives in order to show that, primarily due to the unexpected facets of the characters and how they are characterised, the narratives are surprisingly complex.