Chapter Commentary Part 2 of Brighton Rock - Study Guide by Graham Greene

sense of pride regained that he goes to see who is ringing the front door bell. He finds Cubbitt. With his old pride, he turns him away, unhurt by Cubbitt's accusation, 'you're scared of a girl. Sylvie (Spicer's woman) told me' (184). His feelings of inadequacy may be sated but he still feels constrained. He wakes up and leaves the house for air. Walking along Montpellier Road he sees an old woman crouching in an alleyway:

'It was like the sight of damnation. Then he heard the whisper, "Blessed art thou among women," saw the grey fingers fumbling at the beads. This was not one of the damned: he watched with horrified fascination: this was one of the saved.'

Part Seven, the conclusion of the book is not complicated as far as plot is concerned. Rose tries to settle in with Pinkie, revelling in her new status. Just as Pinkie was fascinated by the sight of the old woman who is 'one of the saved', she also finds herself in a foreign world, one that she cannot fully comprehend. Her fascination, walking with childlike innocence in the 'country of mortal sin' is not tainted with horror but rather with a sort of worldly glory. It is not until Ida warns her that she ought to take 'precautions' that she contemplates the possibility of becoming pregnant by Pinkie:

'... That had never entered her mind; and the thought of what she might have let herself in for came like a sense of glory. A child... and that child would have a child... it was like raising an army of friends for Pinkie. If They damned him and her, they'd have to deal with them, too. There was no end to what the two of them had done last night on the bed: it was an eternal act.' (200)

The idea of a child strikes Pinkie in a completely different way. He does not think of raising an army of friends but rather the progression of life, 'It sort of comes that way', no escape from his father's fate.

Ida visits Rose and the same battle of Right and Wrong against Good and Evil is played out once again. Rose talks about "Confession, Repentance... There's things you don't know... " and Ida counters, "That's just religion... I know one thing you don't. I know the difference between Right and Wrong." (198-9). 'Rose didn't answer; the woman was quite right: the two words meant nothing to her. Their taste was extinguished by stronger foods - Good and Evil.' (199). Rose does not wilt. She is devoted to Pinkie. But she does not tell him, when he returns, that Ida has been to visit. He knows anyway for he sees her leaving the house and he becomes suspicious of Rose. He suspects that she might have talked. When she does confess, he knows instinctively that she is telling the truth but, despite Dallow's protests, he cannot help planning to kill her. He feels as if the murder of Hale has set him upon a path that he cannot help but follow.

Pinkie and Dallow know that Cubbitt has talked to Ida. They suspect that he might lead them to Prewitt, the only witness to the murder of Spicer. Pinkie visits Prewitt and gives him money to get on the next boat to Boulogne. He takes the opportunity both to 'unburden himself' to Pinkie, revealing the pent up misery of a man who married beneath himself, etc. and the opportunity to escape from the hell that he sees around him. During his speech, he refers to Faustus, who asks Mephistopheles where Hell is. Mephistopheles answers, "Why, this is Hell, nor are we out of it" (210). The words lodge in Pinkie's mind. He returns home, looks around him and thins to himself that if this is hell, then it is not so bad. But then he goes to his bedroom, no longer his bedroom but Rose's also. This is hell, a torment that he cannot endure. The driving motive for his attempted murder of Rose is that he cannot face a future like Prewitt's: 'It was life getting at you... ' (220)

Colleoni writes, offering him £300 to clear out of the protection racket and leave Brighton. It is the escape that Spicer was looking for; it is a break that appeals to Dallow. But it is no escape for Pinkie. He does not wish to leave Brighton. He thinks gloomily, "We change, don't we? It's as you say. We got to see the world... After all I took to drink, didn't I? I can take to other things.' (220) But that is precisely what he doesn't want to do and that is why he wants to get rid of Rose, the symbol of change and progress in his life. He sits celebrating Prewitt's departure with Rose, Dallow and Judy. Dallow is talking as Spicer once did, of setting up a pub together somewhere away from Brighton. His escape is planned and so,