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22 June Assignment ‘Ministry of Fear’ written by renowned novelist Graham Greene is a story that revolves around two emotions; love and fear. The narrative has been written in the form of an espionage chase in the backdrop of the period where Hitler reined war on the world. The main protagonist of the story who gets caught in the muddle due to an honest mistake is a young man by the name of Arthur Rowe who killed his wife in order to ease her of the pain she was going through. He says, “I had to kill my wife to put her out of misery.
” (Greene, Graham) However, due to a bombing, he suffers amnesia and comes into contact with Anna Hilfe, the sister of the spy group’s leader. This paper thus helps to provide an insight depicting the relationship that began brewing between Arthur and Anna during the time that the two spent together, trying to reconcile differences as well as understand that their hate for each other could actually be transformed into pure love. Anna is a young Austrian woman and her brother is a Nazi spy, however, even then, she takes Rowe’s side and helps him uncover the Nazi agents that he is about to have an encounter with.
Throughout the course of the story, she tries her best to warn him and keep him out of trouble, only because she realises that she has fallen in love with the Englishman. The author writes, “It is impossible to go through life without trust: That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself.” (Greene, Graham) This is very apt of the book itself because of the kind of relation that developed between Anna and Arthur despite the two belonging to different sides. Greene has tried to portray, through Anna and Arthur, how love can take various forms in the worst of situations.
The main reason for the existence of their relationship is to try and safeguard each other from the circumstance they have been thrust into. He has tried to show how this emotion is enough to surpass even the worst of fears and help people overcome and achieve what they want in life with a sense of satisfaction. The novel thus takes an abrupt shift as it begins to focus on the bond that begins to develop between the characters. In the process of trying to uncover himself and his past, and getting through with his amnesia, Arthur discovers his love for Anna.
In conclusion, this gripping novel has tried its best to show that despite the most adverse of situations, two people can fall in love with each other as easily as they may hate each other. Thus, the role of the relationship between Anna and Arthur was a very complicated one; even though they belonged to different sides and had different priorities in the Nazi conflict, they developed and understanding between each other and tried their best to save one another. The book has tried to depict how even though Arthur and Anna were both stuck trying to let go of the fear that had enveloped them because of the Nazis and the hidden tapes that the two were in possession of, they realised that they could calm each other and be there for each other in order to try and mellow things down and find a way out of the bedlam.
Works Cited Greene, Graham. The Ministry of Fear. London: W. Heinemann &, 1973. Print.
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