Questions while watching The End of the Affair
The film is based on a novel by Graham Greene, a famous English Catholic writer in the 1950s. One of
Greene’s favorite themes was how God works through human weakness and sin in order to draw us closer
to Him. (Greene himself committed some audacious sins, so it is clear why this idea would be important
to him.) The character Maurice Bendrix in The End of the Affair was modelled on Greene.
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The story moves forward and backward during a five-year span of time, from the beginning to
the end of WWII (1939-1945). Henry and Sarah Miles are an English couple who have been
married ten years. Henry is a decent man who is fond of his wife, but mostly because she gives
him a sense of security and stability. He lacks passion for her, never tells her that he loves her,
and their lives together are boring and conventional. Looking for love, Sarah begins an affair
with her husband’s best friend, Maurice Bendrix, who is a novelist and atheist.
A German bomb falls on the house where Maurice and Sarah met for a tryst. Thinking Maurice
is dead, Sarah makes a desperate promise to God that if He lets Maurice live, she will never see
him again. Maurice awakens, and Sarah immediately walks out of the house, without telling
Maurice what she had promised to God. She refuses to see Maurice anymore, and goes back to
her normal life with Henry. For the next two years Maurice is confused and hurt, wondering
why she left him. But Maurice stays away from both Henry and her for two years.
When the film begins, those two years have passed, and Maurice and Henry accidentally meet.
Henry (unaware that his wife had been unfaithful with Maurice) tells Maurice that his wife has
been acting strangely during the past two years, and contemplates hiring a detective to follow
her. Maurice jumps at the idea, even offering to hire the detective himself, because he too wants
to discover why Sarah left him. So Maurice hires Mr. Parkis and Mr. Parkis’ young son Lance
to trail Sarah. They discover that Sarah has long visits with Fr. Smythe in the priest’s home,
and Maurice assumes that she is having an affair with the priest. But soon Maurice discovers,
after reading Sarah’s diary, that the truth is different.
Meanwhile, Sarah decides she is too weak to keep her promise to God. She leaves Henry for
Maurice, with the intent to get a divorce so that she can marry Maurice. It is at this point, when
it seems that Sarah has sinned most greatly (not only by not keeping her promise to God to
leave Maurice, but even worse, by leaving her husband to marry Maurice) that the true power of
God working in Sarah becomes clear.
Scenes to Note and Questions to Consider
1. When Maurice and Sarah first meeting at a cocktail-party, Maurice tells her about the difficulties of writing novels. “Goodness has so little fictional value,” he says, “Happiness is even
harder to write than goodness.” How does this foreshadow themes in the film? (You might see
connections here with the black-and-white world of Pleasantville.)
2. When Mr. Parkis visits Maurice to inform him of his discoveries, Mr. Parkis realizes that
Maurice is the man with whom Sarah is having an affair. Maurice then tells Mr. Parkis that
Sarah is also being unfaithful to him (Maurice). Mr. Parkis comments, “So, both you and the
husband have been have been supplanted in the lady’s affections by. . . another?” What is the
irony of this comment? Who is the “another” in question?
3. Several times Maurice says to Sarah (when he’s afraid that she will go back to her husband),
“To be is to be perceived”. What he meant was, “When you, Sarah, go back to your husband
and can no longer see me [perceive me] face to face, I will cease to exist for you.” She assures
him that she will always love him even if she cannot see him. How does this idea parallel the
question of belief in God in the film? How does Sarah gently challenge Maurice’s atheism?
4. Sarah tells Fr. Smythe that she is nothing but a whore and a liar, and that’s why she’s leaving
her husband for Maurice. The priest replies, “You won’t, because you’re good, better than any
person I know”. Sarah becomes upset by that. She says, “I’m not good, and you don’t know
me, Father.” Who is right here? Was the priest simply trying to make her feel better with a
superficial compliment? Or was Sarah unable (or unwilling) to recognize her own goodness? Is
it possible that people sometimes try to justify their bad behavior by telling themselves that that
they are bad people anyway?
5. Right at the moment when Sarah is writing a letter to her husband Henry, informing him that
she is leaving him for Maurice, Henry appears at her side, and tells her for the first time in a
long time that he loves her. How does Sarah interpret that coincidence?
6. When everyone discovers that Sarah is dying, Henry allows Maurice to move in with them
so that Maurice can be with Sarah in her final days. What does this say about the kind of man
Henry is, and his love for Sarah? Has he changed at all over the course of the film?
7. Shortly before Sarah’s death, Fr. Smythe comes to visit. Maurice is visibly angry with the
priest, even though he knows by this time that Sarah and the priest never had an affair. Why is
Maurice still angry with the priest? What does the priest represent for Maurice?
8. After Sarah’s death, what does Maurice discover about the boy Lance Parkis which causes
him to recognize Sarah’s holiness, and by implication, the power of God at work in her?
9. At the end of the film, Maurice writes, “Dear God, forget about me. Look after Sarah and
Henry. But leave me alone forever.” Despite this negative tone toward God, what has changed
about Maurice’s relationship with God? Did God “take advantage of” the sinful affair between
Maurice and Sarah in order to draw Maurice to Himself? If so, what is the evidence of that?
10. Similarly, how does Sarah’s relationship with God change during the course of the film?
MOST IMPORTANTLY: What was Sarah saying or doing or experiencing during the whole
long course of her struggles to be faithful to her promise to God, that made her much holier than
she realized. . . despite the fact that she was sinning with Maurice?