The Heart of the Matter

The Heart of the Matter is a novel by Graham Greene, published in 1948. It deals with Catholicism and moral change in the protoganist, Scobie. Greene wrote the novel drawing on a background he got to know operating as a British intelligence officer in Freetown, Sierra Leone. (Although the location is not specifically mentioned throughout the novel, it can easily be deduced.)

Related Topics:
Novel - Graham Greene - 1948 - Catholicism - Freetown - Sierra Leone

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Scobie is a policeman at an British colonial town on the West Coast of Africa during the Second World War. He is married to Louise, a Catholic. Their relationships is deeply controversial and ambiguous in all respects. For her sake he had himself converted to Catholicism, but is now rather superficial in the practice of his faith, though firmly believing in the teachings of Catholicism.

Related Topics:
British - Colonial - West Coast - Africa - Second World War - Converted - Catholicism - Faith

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In an effort to free both of them from this unsatisfactory situation, Louise goes to South Africa, leaving Scobie behind. Shortly afterwards, the policeman meets a young Englishwoman called Helen, a survivor from a shipwreck, and starts a passionate affair with her, all the time being aware that he is committing a grave sin - adultery. When Louise unexpectedly returns, Scobie struggles to keep her ignorant of his love affair. But he is unable to renounce Helen, even in the confessional, so the priest tells him to think it over again and postpones absolution. Still, in order to please his wife, Scobie goes to mass with her and thus receives communion in state of "mortal sin" - one of the gravest sins for a Catholic to commit.

Related Topics:
South Africa - Sin - Adultery - Confessional - Absolution - Mass - Communion - Mortal sin

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Now desperate, he decides to free everyone from himself - even God - so he commits suicide, being aware that this would end in damnation according to the teaching of the Church. But his efforts prove useless in the end - Louise had been not as naive as he had believed, the affair with Helen and the suicide are found out, and his wife is left behind wondering about the mercy and forgiveness of God.

Related Topics:
God - Suicide - Damnation - Mercy - Forgiveness

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