From Ian Thomson's Introduction

January 22, 2016 6:19 AM

Ian Thomson says in the introduction of The Third Man by Greene that Lime,with his alley rat amorality, is a familiar Greene character. What does this "alley rat amorality" mean? And he also writes that Greene's literary interest was not just in shabby crooks and other compromised characters;he wanted to dissect their morally ambivalent worlds. Will you explain what "compromised characters" are? Thank you!
posted by mizukko to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

What does this "alley rat amorality" mean?

I would read alley rat as slang for a street criminal and crook.
Amorality originally meant Not within the sphere of moral sense; not to be characterized as either good or bad; non-moral (OED), but is largely used to describe someone unconcerned whether an action is right or wrong.

My understanding is that Thomson is describing the character of Lime as unconcerned whether his actions are good or bad, like a street criminal.

Cassel's dictionary of slang:

alley rat n. (US) 1 [1910s-50s] a particularly unpleasant, villanous and impoverished person. 2 [1930s] a pimp, esp. one involved in cheating a prostitute's clients. [SE alley, the unsavoury area of a town + RAT n.2 (1)]

posted by zamboni at 6:42 AM on January 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

Will you explain what "compromised characters" are?

Here, compromised is used to mean damaged in reputation (OED) . Shabby crooks and alley rats have poor reputations.
posted by zamboni at 6:52 AM on January 22, 2016

Best answer: Also morally compromised internally - characters who act out of pure self interest in a situation, without reference to a clear set of values.
posted by crocomancer at 7:10 AM on January 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I take "compromised characters" to be a clever figure of speech hinging on the moral sense of "character" as well as the literary or dramatic sense. The (dramatic) characters' (moral) character is compromised by their actions or their lack of concern for the morality thereof.

Worth mentioning that, in Greene's novels and stories, his characters tend to fall on two sides of this sort of compromise: he often pits a person who believes nothing or has lost the ability to believe in something, and is in that way compromised as a moral actor, against a person who believes one thing so strongly that they are willing to compromise other moral ideals and in so doing become equally repugnant or even more repugnant, or even incomprehensible to the first character. It is a while since I watched The Third Man, and I do not recall whether Joseph Cotton's character falls exactly into the latter trope, but Wells' Harry Lime certainly falls into the former.
posted by gauche at 7:19 AM on January 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

As far as I recall, "morally compromised" tends to describe one forced to serve two masters (or more abstractly, principles). A police officer with a brother who's a crook for example --- someone who will uphold the law but not betray his family. Spies tend to be inherently morally compromised --- betraying their friends and lovers to serve their country. One can also be morally compromised through one's own selfishness, or willingness to pursue one's self-interest. A character who wants to do good but is unwilling to put themselves in danger. A character who is morally compromised can be quite useful in a drama, because you aren't sure which way they'll jump, which principle or obligation will win out when put to the test.
posted by Diablevert at 8:11 AM on January 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

Alley rat and sewer rat can also mean someone who thrives in a situation where all social and moral norms have broken down or are irrelevant.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:44 AM on January 22, 2016

"alley rat amorality" = doing anything to survive, no matter the morals. Morals are a luxury for folks with standing in civilized society. Alley rats cannot afford the luxury of respecting so called "morality".
posted by mosk at 4:19 PM on January 22, 2016