Loyal to Whom? Friends, Spies, Revenge, and Our Man in Havana

Abstract The essay deals with the law and revenge issue, questioning the fundamental assumption according to which the law, by its own nature, should act as a substitute for vengeance. Provided that both law and revenge have their common grounds on the different, and at times conflicting, feelings of resentment and loyalty, the paper maintains that law can prevent revenge only if it is trusted by the victims, being itself a part to a bond of loyalty. Graham Greene’s 1958 “entertainment” Our Man in Havana is chosen as a reference scenario. The paper analyses the characters’ attitudes towards the law, their resentments, and their bonds of loyalty, and investigates the emotional scenario behind the two revenges mentioned in the novel. Finally, the essay maintains that each person’s degree of trust in the law, and therefore their willingness to renounce revenge, depends on that person’s own choices and inner feelings about themselves and the community.