Q: The Tenth Man is not merely a suspense novel; it is an expression of a profound faith in human goodness. Elaborate.
With the outburst of knowledge and discoveries in every field of life and particularly the deep insights into the psychology helped the issues of an individual to be dealt into literature and art in the twentieth century. The human mind is a multi-layered object and not easy to penetrate into, so as to maintain the same complexity in the novel (or any form of literature); it is inevitable to use some of the techniques which may contribute to both the functions of reflection of human psyche into the text and to maintain the reader’s interest into the text until the end reveals the truth of the story.
The Tenth Man is a good example of such a story by Graham Greene. The story is keeping the element of suspense and mystery to an exaltation that the shifts from climax to anti climax are very vivid and clear through this piece of literature. The whole text is interwoven into the themes it deals with and the techniques used to make it delightful. Jean-Louis Chavel is the protagonist of the story who purchases another prisoner’s life in exchange to all his wealth for set himself free of the choice that he had made.
Chavel’s choice leads him towards a life in which he’s no “more a man of position” rather he, after his imprisonment, has to find a surrogate family to survive in the world where “papers were more valuable than money” (Greene126) and he had none of them. He sets for the place he had owned once as in the words of Carosse: “any hunted animal makes for the earth it knows”. (Greene112) He was living with his bonds of ‘affiliation’, though not happily, but still serving Madame Mangeot and Thersese Mangeot along with serving his own needs to belong to a place that had once been his. Graham Greene upsets the heartbeats of the character and the reader at the same time when Therese says to Chavel: “I sometimes think you know this house far better than I do”. (Greene[AM1] 106)
The meeting with Roche while he was doing his market with the lady hints lightly upon the truth hidden by the protagonist when Roche says: “he is a bit like Chavel himself. It’s the voice”. (pg#103) The things tensed up more with the entry of the fake Chavel. Then in the last section of the novel when Madame Mangeot was dying and the priest had to come down to the house for the funeral, the tension heightened to its peak. Chavel thought it would be the same old priest who had been visiting him in his good times but eventually, when the truth was squeezed out of the young priest, it was comforting for Chavel to find that Father Russe was dead. And no one had to doubt him for a single moment.
Besides such tight situations through which the hero has been going, the story is also about the portrayal of human goodness. Moreover the novel illustrates the notion of Dasein which means “being there”. According to this concept, Heidegger explained that the decisions taken in the past can be altered (for benefit) in present. Putting it simply, it can be said that it is totally spatial. One's actions are truly his responsibility so; it is only in one’s own hands to undo the previous action by taking a good decision in present. “Dasein is essentially de-severance—that is, it is spatial”.
The goodness is manifested in many persons like Chavel and Janvier. Janvier had to make his choice when Chavel offered all his wealth to bargain for his survival and he made it despite of the comments of the fellow prisoners that “no one is going to give his life for money he’ll never enjoy”. (pg#52) He puts everything he has got to his “mother and sister in equal shares”. (pg#56) His choice was hard to make but the compelling force for such an action was the lives left after him as he was destined to die because of tuberculosis.
Janvier sacrificed his life for the bonds of filiation. Chavel’s choice was also hard for him -- to step down deliberately from a position to no position. “Philosophers say that past, present and future exist simultaneously”. (pg#58) The life after prison was a chance for Chavel to renew his life in one way or the other. He went for his home, made himself purposeful and tried to assess Therese’s point of view about the faceless person up till now. He wandered in his home and dreaded for the truth to be revealed by anyone in any situation because that was the only desire left to Therese.
It is a bit problematic for Chavel to meet his ancestor’s gaze even in the photo and he looks away from the “supercilious accusing eyes”. (pg#107) He wants to redeem his soul and let Therese see that forgiveness may save her soul as well. He, (by taking under consideration the coexistence of past, present and future) tries to compensate for the mistake he had done in the past which overshadowed his future. He had caused someone’s death.
When Chavel sees his mirror image with Carosse, he suddenly becomes aware of the similarities between him and Carosse and he wonders “why couldn’t all those who have killed a man sleep as soundly as a child”. (pg#127) Unlike Carosse, the thought upsets of murdering someone. His inner goodness overpowers him at last when he sees that Carosse is making everything worse for Thersese by over saturating her with lies and his own shaped stories. Now Chavel was no more than a “large, lazy, neutered cat” (pg#137) whose sole purpose was redemption. His thoughts about Therese changes as well and “he no longer felt the desire at all: only an immeasurable tenderness”. (pg#152)
Chavel seizes his opportunity (according to Heidegger's concepts of spatial choice, the Dasein) and admits that he is the real Jean-Louis Chavel and that he was afraid of the hatred he might have entertained with and now that “he had taken a lot of trouble to delay a recurring occasion” (pg#156) and he spits whatever the poison of lie was boiling in him and that it is his rightful right to desire a “neat end”. (pg#157) No matter how the complications in their life rise, they still end on a very good note that essence never changes, it is constant.
WORKS CITED
- THE TENTH MAN by Graham Greene
- Heidegger’s Concept of the Spatiality of Dasein by Peter Ha (
- Dasein, Death, and Future by G.S. Herbert (
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