The Heart of the Matter

Greene opens The Heart of the Matter from the point of view of Wilson, who is later revealed to be the novel’s antagonist. Greene challenges readers to dissect the novel’s characters and themes slowly and methodically. Even after Book 1, Part 1, it is not entirely clear that Scobie is the protagonist due to the novel’s murkiness and shifts in perspective. This ambiguity mirrors another colonial novel, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, whose style is equally ambiguous and psychoanalytical. The interior insights of the novel’s key characters offer a window into the psychological conflicts that drive their actions and self-projections. Moreover, the emphasis on character psychology underscores how the novel deals with religion. The theological tension between internal belief and religious law and doctrine is important for understanding Greene’s iconoclastic Catholic views.

The backdrop, meanwhile, is World War II and colonial modernity. Harris tells Wilson that their West African colony is the “original Tower of Babel” (6). The Tower of Babel refers to the biblical explanation for the existence of different linguistic groups. This is one of many overt biblical references that cast The Heart of the Matter as a religious novel. The sense of paranoia that permeates the novel takes various forms, one of which is represented by the ethnic diversity of colonial Britain. During World War II, the Axis Powers attempted to turn British and French colonial subjects against their oppressors. This is important context for understanding how paranoia in The Heart of the Matter leads to self-destruction, doubt, and falsehood. Moreover, the reference to the Tower of Babel underscores the moral danger of human overreach exemplified by colonialism and God’s power to confound humanity’s communication efforts. Many of the characters struggle to express themself clearly and are stunted by a lack of self-awareness and emotional literacy.

All three of the major characters introduced in Book 1, Part 1, including Scobie, Louise, and Wilson, are beset by crippling insecurities, self-doubt, and loneliness. Scobie appears to be the most emotionally secure in the beginning, but his self-contradictions are foreshadowed early on. The Commissioner tells Scobie he has a proclivity for “picking up enemies... Like Aristides the Just” (9). He later calls him a “terrible fellow” and “Scobie the Just.” Aristides was a polarizing ancient Athenian statesman who was subject to ostracization. The political conspiracies that comprise Aristides’s legacy foreshadow the espionage subplots of the novel while reinforcing the theme of truth and lies. Importantly, Scobie’s actions after the raid of the Esperança mark the beginning of his trail of lies. This scene also illustrates Scobie’s disdain for life which he describes as “immeasurably long” (43).

Scobie’s dogged determination to please his wife is ostensibly inspiring, but he admits that his love for her is nonexistent. He sees Louise primarily as a responsibility and the object of his pity. Although Scobie’s sense of pity arguably stems from his Catholic beliefs, it forms the core of his despair and eventual downfall. Despite this, readers are uncertain of Scobie’s Catholic commitments. Addressing him by his nickname, Louise says, “Ticki, I sometimes think you just became Catholic to marry me” (16). There is an implicit but ever-present tension between Protestant and Catholic views of God represented by the dichotomy between personal faith and institutional doctrine.

Louise, meanwhile, is socially isolated, a devout Catholic, and a lover of literature. She shares a love of poetry with Wilson, but Wilson hides his affinity for poetry from his peers. Wilson’s efforts to disguise his true self underscores two important aspects of his character: his duplicity and his insecurity. From the opening scene of The Heart of the Matter, readers question Wilson’s intentions. He is prying and of dubious character. Louise, by contrast, is not as manipulative or petulant. She is more emotionally intelligent than others and knows Scobie is not at peace. In a revealing exchange and internal monologue between Louise and Scobie at the end of Part 1, Greene’s associates Scobie’s peace with death and his quest to deliver Louise happiness with the “unforgivable sin” (50). The possibility of Scobie’s suicide is foreshadowed in this passage.