FREE ESSAY ON POWER AND THE GLORY - AN UN-HOLY PRIEST

POWER AND THE GLORY - AN UN-HOLY PRIEST

Power and the Glory - An Un-Holy Priest
There is uncertainty as to why Green chose to have the priest in his novel, The Power and
the Glory, be such an appalling person. Normally, one thinks of a priest to be the
holiest being among all people on this earth. This belief is not proven to be true,
however, in this novel. 
In Christianity, you learn that priesthood is one of the closest things to purity and
Godliness that exists on this earth. They don't engage in sexual relationships, and they
certainly don't do anything that is against the law. In The Power and the Glory, however,
the priest, lovingly known as the "whisky priest", does the opposite of these
regulations. Firstly, he is an alcoholic. In this time, alcohol was an illegal substance,
yet the priest still takes part in drinking it. It seems that almost every situation in
which the priest is involved throughout the book, he drinks. In the very beginning, when
he first meets Mr. Tench and gets alcohol, all the way through the end when he is
arrested and killed for being caught with Brandy.
The next subject matter that gives me confusion about the priest is his relationship with
Maria. He had sex with her, and she had his child. This is something that among priests
is absolutely unheard of, and it bewilders me that the whiskey priest would be involved
in such things.
The reason the priest was being searched for is because religion was outlawed. Anyone who
was found practicing religion was to be put to death. One would think that all the
priests would declare their belief in God, and would be willing to die for him. The
whisky priest ran from confrontation about his being a priest, and instead, died for
alcohol.
Throughout the book, I tried to think of the priest as a good man, because most are. The
contradiction of his behavior and his beliefs, however, seems like Greene was trying to
make his readers think otherwise. An exact reason is not known as to why Greene chose to
make this character the way he is, one can only guess.
My presumption about the alcoholism is that the priest was so afraid of being caught
because of his religion, that alcohol was a way out for him. It made him feel at ease and
carefree. Although some might think that the priest should know better than to get
involved with alcohol, perhaps he was so overwhelmed with emotion, that drinking seemed
to be the only thing he could do to keep from going insane.
As far as the priests' relationship with Maria goes, I think that may have just been a
one time fluke. He is a man, and men have hormones that sometimes take control of them
and make them unable to think rationally.
All of the shocking things that the whiskey priest did caused much confusion to me and
most likely to the other readers as well. The most coherent explanation I can come up
with to these questions about the priests behavior, is that we are all human. When God
sent us to this planet, he knew that we were not faultless. Everyone makes mistakes and
everyone sins, even priests. After all, they are human too.