The Grey Wolf

The second theme that Penny explores is contrasts that exist within Catholicism, contrasts outside of Catholicism, and contrasts between the church and the world outside the church. These dualities include good and evil, victim and killer, sacred and profane. Dualities likewise exist in identities and pairs of objects.

The monastery that Armand visits in the novel, as well as in a previous installment of the Gamache series that also contains dichotomies, is called “Saint Gilbert Between the Wolves [and is] a place of duality. Of profound silence and the voice of God. Of light and dark. Of good and evil. Of Heaven and Hell on earth that was coming” (200-01). The wolves are a duality of gray (good) and black (evil). Monks go without speaking and sing hymns. The monastery is frequently described in terms of the sunlight that its high windows admit. The work of the monks includes contemplation of virtues and vice. However, monasteries become sites of murders, juxtaposing their holy mission with human sin.

Monks themselves are dualities in terms of names and positions. Many monks take different names when they enter the monastery. For instance, Philippe’s birth name is Yves. He has an ecclesiastical family at Saint Gilbert Between the Wolves and a biological family in Blanc-Sablon. Additionally, Philippe is the abbot: He both holds a high position and has an identity outside that position. The duality between position and person is broken when the acting abbot, Simon, appoints a different person in the position of the keeper of the keys than Philippe did. Just as people outlive their names, positions outlast the people that fill them.

Several members of the clergy bring the symbols of their Catholic faith into the secular location of a karaoke bar. Two monks, Robert and Sebastien, as well as a nun, Irene, got in trouble for “singing karaoke in a bar in their robes” (280). They’re expected to sing hymns, pray, make chartreuse, garden, and be silent in their robes. Chartreuse itself contains the duality of being mistaken for a poison and being considered an elixir. The monks and nun choose to wear holy vestments in a place that is considered sinful because of the vice of alcohol. The religious officials above them condemn this duality between what their clothing represents and their actions.

Armand draws contrasts between members of the clergy and politicians. He initially believes that Philippe and Jeanne are “[t]wo halves of a whole. Heaven and Hell” (125). Because of her previous actions that harmed his son, Armand thinks that Jeanne is hellish, the spawn of Satan. He also thinks that Philippe is incapable of acting immorally. This opinion is questioned by Isabelle, who doesn’t have the history with Philippe that Armand does. Furthermore, Armand has to reclassify Jeanne after she saves his life. She was on Philippe’s side, trying to prevent the attack, and the duality between her and the monk is familial: Jeanne is Philippe’s niece. She exemplifies how people who have behaved in a devilish way can redeem themselves.

Dualities outside the church include Charles and his killer: “Murdered and murderer, side by side” (145). When the contract killer and Charles are dead, their corpses are laid out together. Despite the different paths that their lives took, they both end up in the same place—the morgue and then the earth. Dualities, like life, can be temporary. The Grey Wolf ends on the cliffhanger of Charles’s dual notebooks. The case about the water-treatment plants, documented in one notebook, is solved, but secrets from his notebook about lakes remain.