Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Power and the Glory, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Complexity of Religious Figures
Ideology and Reactionary Ideas
The Nature of Sin
Government vs. Religion
Duty, Sacrifice, and Persecution
Summary
Analysis
In a hotel room, Mrs. Fellows is sick and lying in bed. Mr. Fellows is looking after her. Though they talk around the issue, it is clear that Coral has recently died. Mr. and Mrs. Fellows discuss the possibility of returning home. While Mrs. Fellows wants to return to the plantation, Mr. Fellows cannot bring himself to go back. The couple argues, resulting in tears from Mrs. Fellows. At the sight of his wife’s sadness, Mr. Fellows gives in and says they can return home. Additionally, they discuss the recent news in town: the authorities have finally captured the whisky priest and are planning to execute him.
The cause of Coral’s death remains ambiguous, though there are two suspected causes. First, the lieutenant may have executed her, as the police chief mentioned that multiple people had been killed in the search for the whisky priest. Alternatively, she may have fallen ill. While working on the banana plantation earlier in the novel, Coral felt a sudden pain in her stomach. It is possible that the source of the pain ultimately led to her death.
Themes
Meanwhile, Mr. Tench is also in the capital city, working on the police chief’s teeth. Mr. Tench is a questionable dentist with poor eyesight and shaky hands. However, he is the police chief’s only option. As he works, he tells the police chief that his wife recently sent him a letter requesting a divorce. However, in the letter, she also told Mr. Tench that she forgives him for abandoning her, which brings him some peace.
This final chapter offers resolutions (such tragic, others more optimistic) for some of the characters the whisky priest encountered on his journey. Tench’s character arch is optimistic because it is fundamentally about the novel’s most important value: redemption. It is something that other key characters never feel that they achieve.
Themes
Outside, Mr. Tench hears a commotion and wonders aloud what is going on. The police chief tells him not to worry—it is just a priest about to be executed. Mr. Tench looks outside and recognizes the whisky priest, who is staring down a firing squad. Because he knows the man, Mr. Tench feels a desperate need to help him. However, he realizes there is nothing he can do. As the whisky priest opens his mouth to say something, the firing squad unloads on him. Mr. Tench watches as the priest falls to ground and experiences an intense feeling of loneliness.
Notably, Greene does not give the whisky priest a dramatic or noble death. Rather, Greene depicts the whisky priest’s death indirectly and thus anti-climactically. As he watches the priest’s death, Tench feels an intense feeling of loneliness because the last figure of religious authority in the region has perished. The loneliness he feels is a sort of spiritual emptiness.
Themes
Elsewhere, Luis’s mother finishes reading the story of Juan the martyr to her children. It ends with Juan’s melodramatic execution, though really his death almost exactly mirrors the whisky priest’s. However, before he is shot, Juan raises his crucifix in the air and issues a public prayer. Luis interrupts to ask why the firing squad would allow such a display from Juan. Luis’s mother responds that it was part of God’s plan and does not elaborate.
Juan’s death is an idealized and unrealistic climax that the whisky priest cannot match because it is so out of touch with the real world. As usual, Luis senses the falseness of the story, though this time it seems to intrigue him. However, his mother does not offer a meaningful response to his genuine question.
Themes
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Luis asks his mother if the whisky priest was a courageous man like Juan. Luis’s mother says that he was. In response, Luis feels angry because he thinks the lieutenant has lied to him. A moment later, a police officer passes Luis’s house, and Luis spits in his direction. That night, Luis hears a knock on his door. He opens it and finds a priest waiting outside, who wants to speak with his mother. Luis kisses the priest’s hand before the priest can even finish giving his name.
Throughout the novel, children are important figures because their beliefs and values indicate the direction of Mexico’s future. Luis’s return to religious belief—symbolized by the kiss he gives to the priest’s ring—suggests that there is still hope for Mexico’s religious future, at least from the Catholic perspective. As such, although Greene’s book is often dark and can read as cynical, it ends on a hopeful vision for the future.
Themes
