The Innocent by Graham Greene

[Justine .]

Hi everyone !
I had to read and study the short-story The Innocent written by Graham Greene... but there's something I don't really understand.. and I want to be sure to understand every expression to work on it.
What does the sentence "it was simply a forged passport of respectability" means ? What does it imply exactly ? I think it might be important...
I hope you'll be able to help me !

[Emil Miller]

Hi everyone !
I had to read and study the short-story The Innocent written by Graham Greene... but there's something I don't really understand.. and I want to be sure to understand every expression to work on it.
What does the sentence "it was simply a forged passport of respectability" means ? What does it imply exactly ? I think it might be important...
I hope you'll be able to help me !

I have read much of Greene but I don't recall this particular story. However, I have been able to access the first page by Google and it seems that a man is going to spend a night with a girl in a country hotel. In those days it wasn't considered acceptable for unmarried people to sleep together and so they took a bag as though they were genuine travellers. The phrase appears to refer to it being a passport of respectability because it would help them get a room without raising suspicion. Though without reading the rest of the story I cannot confirm this to be the case.

Incidentally, I love your name.

[thecreature]

Incidentally, I love your name.

A de Sade fan? :D

Anyway, I'd have to respectfully disagree with your interpretation of the phrase, Brian.

I myself am merely drawing upon the first page, having never read the full thing (though I sort of want to now that I've begun...) and I'd say that the phrase is a reference to the narrator's sort of cynical perspective on chivalry. In the first paragraph of the story, the bag is first referenced as "the small bag which hardly pretended to contain our things for the night" (meaning it didn't carry very much, implying that it was light). So for him to offer to carry a bag which wasn't even heavy (and he again remarks that it's light in the OP's quote), was a "forged passport" for gaining this girl's respect (meaning it was an easy way to seem like he was doing her a favor despite not really doing much, almost as if he was cheating...ie using a fake passport).

Having not read the whole thing, I couldn't tell you how important this phrase is in relation to the rest of the story, but it's certainly an interesting little bit that gives you more of an idea of who the narrator is.

[Emil Miller]

A de Sade fan? :D .

No, a Lawrence Durrell fan actually.

I agree that you could be right in your interpretation of Greene's story but
the name Lola ( which I also like ) has slightly risque connotations; although perhaps not of a de Sade kind.