The Love Of God In Graham Greene’s The End Of The Affair

The End of the Affair is a pathos-laden examination of a three-way collision between love of self, love of another, and love of God.  The End of the Affair doesn't involve a love triangle; it involves a love rectangle; the four lovers being Sarah Miles, her husband Henry, Maurice Bendrix, and God.  Thinking that Bendrix has been killed, Sarah, who is an agnostic, sinks to her knees and promises God that if Bendrix lives she will give him up. She is indeed involved with another lover for whom she has left Bendrix: God. She rationalizes that if God doesn't really exist then she is free to do as she pleases. In order to try to convince herself of God's non-existence, she begins studying with a notorious atheist intellectual. Unfortunately, atheist arguments against the existence of God only convince Sarah that God is real and that she must keep her promise. After finding out that his girlfriend left him for God, who then proceeded to take her away permanently, Bendrix, who has been an atheist, hates God. Bendrix realizes that he cannot hate God and remain an atheist since hate is just the other side of love. In order to hate God, Bendrix must first believe in Him. A big theme of The End of the Affair is the nature of faith.