The End of the Affair by Graham Greene Mind Map UGC NET English Literature

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The End of the Affair: Character Mind Map & Summary

Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair: the key characters, Sarah’s vow, Bendrix’s jealousy, a quick summary and the exam facts.

✍️ Graham Greene📅 1951🏙️ London, 1939–1946📖 Catholic Novel📜 5 Books

The Character Mind Map

Tap any name to open the details.

The TriangleThe Witnesses

The Narrator

Maurice Bendrix

A bitter, jealous novelist who had an affair with Sarah Miles during the war. When she suddenly ends it in 1944, he believes she has another lover. Two years later he hires a detective, reads her diary, and learns that her “rival” was God. He ends the book hating, and half believing in, God.

O God, You’ve done enough, You’ve robbed me of enough, I’m too tired and old to learn to love, leave me alone for ever.Ending: alone, struggling with faith

💔 The Triangle

Love & faith

Sarah MilesBendrix’s lover

Role: When a V-1 bomb hits and she thinks Bendrix is dead, she vows to God to give him up if he lives. She keeps her vow and slowly finds faith.

Dies of pneumonia

Henry MilesSarah’s husband, a civil servant

Role: Dull and kind; after Sarah’s death he and Bendrix live together.

🔍 The Witnesses

Signs & miracles

Richard SmytheA rationalist preacher

Role: Sarah visits him to argue against God. His disfiguring birthmark later disappears.

Mr ParkisA private detective

Role: Follows Sarah for Bendrix. His sick son recovers after being given Sarah’s childhood book.

Memory Hook: Love, Hate, Faith

Bendrix calls it “a record of hate far more than of love”.

The bombSarah’s vow when Bendrix seems dead➜ Vow

The diaryBendrix discovers his rival is God➜ Truth

The miraclesCures after Sarah’s death➜ Faith

Key Points

What exams usually ask about.

1Opening“A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.”

2The vowSarah prays: “I’ll give him up for ever, only let him be alive”

3Secret baptismSarah learns her mother had her baptised a Catholic as a child

4BiographyBased on Greene’s own affair with Catherine Walston

5FilmsFilmed in 1955 and in 1999 (Neil Jordan)

Quick Summary

The plot in five lines.

Stage 11946

Bendrix meets Henry on Clapham Common and hires Parkis to follow Sarah.

Stage 2The Affair

Bendrix remembers the wartime affair and his jealousy, up to the bomb in 1944.

Stage 3Sarah’s Diary

The diary tells of her vow, her visits to Smythe and her struggle with God.

Stage 4Death

Bendrix tries to win her back; she falls ill and dies.

Stage 5Miracles

Strange cures happen; Bendrix lives with Henry and prays to be left alone.

Must-Know Exam Facts

Quick points for UGC NET, SET and PGT.

Publication

Published in 1951.

Narration

First-person narration by Bendrix, plus Sarah’s diary and letters.

Catholic Novel

The last of Greene’s four great Catholic novels.

Setting

Clapham, London, during and after the Blitz.

Key Themes

Love and jealousy, faith and doubt, sacrifice and grace.

Printed Booklet

100+ Key Works of English Literature

All the character mind maps in one printed book.

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