55 pages • 1 hour read
The End Of The Affair
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BetaBook 4, Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 4, Chapter 1 Summary
Bendrix cannot read any more. The last entry he reads is dated a week before and it states: “I want Maurice. I want ordinary corrupt human love” (66). Bendrix decides that there is enough love “left for our two lives” (66) and calls Sarah on the telephone. The maid answers. Sarah is out. Bendrix waits five minutes and calls back, disguising his voice. First, he asks for Henry, claiming to be Sir William Mallock. When the maid says Henry is out, Bendrix asks for Sarah. Sarah comes to the phone.
Bendrix says he is coming to visit Sarah, but she says she is in bed with an illness. Even as Sarah begs Bendrix not to come, he insists. After a lengthy debate, Bendrix hangs up and begins to walk across the Common. The weather is bad. By the time he crosses the Common, Sarah is already exiting her house. Bendrix thinks, “with happiness, I have her now” (67).
But Sarah walks away in the opposite direction, as though she has not seen Bendrix. He follows. Sarah walks to the tube but has no purse with her to buy a ticket. Bendrix follows her further but loses sight of her in a crowd. After a moment’s desperate search, Bendrix remembers the nearby church and is sure that is where Sarah has gone. He finds her “sitting in one of the side aisles close to a pillar and a hideous statue of the virgin” (68).
Bendrix sits and watches Sarah, who doubles over in pain and begins to cough. He sits beside her and rests a hand on her knee, saying, “I'll never let you be” (68). Bendrix tells Sarah about Parkis and the stolen diary, not wanting there to be any lies between them. Bendrix launches into a plan about how they will run away together to a cottage in Dorset once Sarah is healthy. When he tells her that he is “tired and sick to death” of being without her, Sarah says “me too” (69).
In all Bendrix’s excitement, he doesn’t notice that Sarah has fallen asleep against his shoulder. He allows her to rest, whispering to her how much he loves her. Sarah wakes with a splutter, coughing again. She tells Bendrix to leave as she wants to “say good-bye here” (70). When Sarah promises to telephone Bendrix in the morning, he looks down to see her fingers crossed. Sarah begins to cry, begging Bendrix to leave. He kisses her on the cheek and leaves her in the church.
Book 4, Chapter 2 Summary
Bendrix begins to work harder, aware that he may have to provide for two people in the future. He doubles his typical word count in a day, buoyed by “the effect of hope” (71). He begins to research a book on General Gordon, and one day, is greeted by “a familiar voice […] from across the desk” (71). Parkis is sat opposite Bendrix. Bendrix offers Parkis a sandwich filled with “real ham” (71) and remarks that he still has the stolen ashtray. Parkis reveals that he is in the library on his day off, and Bendrix admits that even the sight of the detective makes him think longingly of Sarah.
Eight days passes before the telephone rings. Bendrix hopes to hear Sarah’s voice on the other end. But it is Henry, with “something very queer about his voice” (71). “Sarah’s dead” (71), Henry informs Bendrix. Bendrix offers his condolences, remarking on “how conventionally we behave at such moments” (72). Henry invites Bendrix to his house for a drink, as he does not want to be alone.
Book 4, Chapters 1-2 Analysis
Sarah’s death is the most important moment in the novel, not only because of the effect it has on the characters, but because of the way Greene involves Bendrix. When Bendrix decides that he wants to be with Sarah, he calls her and insists on her company. Even as she pleads with him not to come, he refuses to take no for an answer, telling her that “this is more important to both of us, Sarah, than a cold” (67). The inherent irony and foreboding in these words are clear, but Sarah refuses to acquiesce and leaves the house before he can arrive. Then, Bendrix chases Sarah through the rain. This worsens her condition and eventually kills her. In this respect, Bendrix should consider himself responsible for her death. The way Greene portrays Bendrix’s insistence on meeting with Sarah, he is carefully suggesting that Bendrix’s flip from hatred to adulation and his refusal to listen to Sarah causes her to walk in the rain and causes her to die.
As a result, the lengthy pause between Bendrix saying goodbye and the phone call he receives from Henry gives Bendrix time to reflect. He thinks of himself and Sarah, together. As he ruminates on their future, he makes “a great deal of effort to be sensible” (70), and it seems as though a change as come over Bendrix. For the first time in the novel, he has hope for a brighter future. However, this hope is cut short. For all his efforts to behave in a sensible manner, Bendrix will never be able to enjoy the life with Sarah that he has imagined. He will not need to take on extra writing work to pay for both of their lives. The effort he exerts in the museum reading room is, in the end, meaningless.
But when the moment comes and Henry tells Bendrix what has happened, Bendrix finds himself falling back on social conventions. He offers his condolences to Henry, who is aware of his wife’s affair, as though he were talking to a regular friend. Greene remarks on this, as Bendrix notes “how conventionally we behave at such moments” (72). Despite having his world shattered, Bendrix will find solace in the company of the man who he has spent years cuckolding. The friendship between Bendrix and Henry which develops after Sarah’s death is revealed in Henry’s closing words in Book 4: “I don’t fancy being alone” (72), and it is a feeling which, finally, Bendrix entirely understands. As much as he has mocked Henry and belittled him, in that moment, the two share an unspeakable bond, and no one else in the world is able to mourn Sarah in quite the same way. Despite their strange relationship, the two men seek solace in each other’s company, using one another to try and fill the void in their lives (and their futures) left by Sarah’s death.
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