The Third Man:

Humanism overrides friendship

By R.S. Karunaratne

Senaratne Weerasinghe is one of the most prolific translators of novels, short stories, screenplays and children’s stories. Recently he translated and published Graham Greene’s The Third Man as Theveni Minisa, Robert Bloch’s The Couch as Sayanasana, Earle Stanley Gardner’s A Case of Foot Loose Doll as Ves Muhunu and James Hadley Chase’s Just Another Sucker as Sonduru Godurubima.

In an interview with Montage Senaratne Weerasinghe explains why he decided to translate Graham Greene’s The Third Man.

Excerpts:

Question: Fiction is the most widely read literary genre due to the realistic sense it offers. However, some readers find it difficult to understand fiction in its correct perspective. Why does this happen?

Answer: It happens due to the reader’s lack of literary analysis competence. Literary analysis is an intricate process because it necessitates a good understanding of fiction.

Q: Can you explain briefly what is meant by literary analysis?

A: Literary analysis is the process of breaking up a literary work into smaller units so that each of the elements such as nature, function and meaning could be deeply discerned and the correlation among the elements could be easily defined.

Novella

Q: Why did you decide to translate Graham Greene’s The Third Man which is only a novella?

A: The first reason is that Graham Greene is one of the leading novelists of the 20th century. He was a writer who satisfied readers and literary critics.

He was also a master craftsman on a par with Charles Dickens.Secondly, the novella does not merely tell a story but also expresses a universal theme. In The Third Man, the inquest on the death of a major character exposes the truth about the death while revealing the theme of friendship.

Q: Can you analyse The Third Man briefly?

A: The Third Man is a detective story narrated by Colonel Calloway. The story is about Harry Lime. When his friend Martins comes to see him, Lime’s body is being buried. The police suspect Lime to be a blackmarket racketeer.

However, Martins tries to vindicate his friend’s name. His investigation reveals that Lime is still alive. The one buried at Lime’s funeral was another man. Lime invites Martins to join his business. However, Martins declines the offer and shoots Lime to death. The novelette ends with Lime’s ‘second’ death.

Theme

Q: What’s the theme of The Third Man?

A: The theme is that true friendship necessitates love, confidence and loyalty.

Q: How is the theme presented?

A: Graham Greene projects Martins as a man who believes that friendship means love. Martin grieves over the death of Lime. His grief is genuine. Graham Greene presents the genuineness through Calloway’s comment: “ As we drove away I noticed Martins never looked behind - it’s nearly always the fake mourners and the fake lovers who take the last look, who wait waving on the platforms, instead of clearing quickly out, not looking back. It is perhaps that they love themselves in the sight of others, even of the dead.”

Q: Besides love, does Greene highlight any other aspect of friendship?

A: Yes, that is confidence. Martins trusts Lime so much that he is not prepared to believe that his friend was involved in any racket. Martins, in fact, tries to take revenge on Calloway.

Loyalty

Q: Is there any other aspect of friendship presented in the novella?

A: Another important aspect of friendship presented in the novella is loyalty. Martins’ loyalty towards Lime motivates him to defend his friend.

Q: What happens then?

A: After realising Lime’s involvement in a racket, Martins becomes disillusioned. He thinks that there is no point in defending his friend. Then Martins thinks that he should do something to stop Lime from committing the racket.

Q: Why this sudden change?

A: Martins thinks humanism is more important than friendship. Then Martins kills Lime.

Q: What’s the difference between a novel and a novella?

A: A novel is like a full-sized painting. But a novella is like a sketch. The Third Man is a brilliant sketch of post-war Austria. It’s also a crime thriller.