Character Analysis: A Deeper Look At Rose In Brighton Rock

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Loving a Lunatic: A Deeper Look at Rose Love is known for making people do crazy things, but the character Rose in the novel Brighton Rock takes that phrase to a completely different level. Despite numerous incidents that make it clear that Pinkie is not the ideal husband Rose still marries him. What could make Rose marry such a deranged young man? Rose recently lost her job and had nowhere else to turn to. From the brief interaction with Rose’s parents, it is clear that she has never experienced love. Despite the obvious differences between Rose and Pinkie they also share some remarkable similarities such as their religion and parental situation. At the beginning of the novel Rose is sweet young waitress at Snow’s but by the end of the novel she is unemployed and broken hearted all as a result of meeting Pinkie. Her naiviety leads her to believe that Pinkie is her only chance at love and so she puts everything on the line for him. She breaks the rules at work in order to protect him. She lies when people ask her about questions about the man who put the card under the table cloth. When the women who has been investigating the murder of Hale, Ida Arnold, shows up at the restaurant Rose is rude to her and gets fired (Greene 150). By …show more content…

They ignore her and treat her like a burden rather than their daughter. This can be seen in the scene where Pinkie asks for their permission to marry Rose. Rose’s father ignores the situation until Pinkie offers to pay them for Rose’s hand in marriage. Once money has been mentioned Pinkie and Rose’s father start haggling over the price of Rose (Greene 155). The offers however, aren’t high enough for her father’s liking and it seems as though he did not end up selling his daughter to Pinkie. However, later on Pinkie reveals that a business deal did take place when he says, “They took the money all right” (Greene 190). The treatment of Rose by her parents exemplified how little she knew about

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