International Journal of Research ISSN NO:2236-6124

THE THEME OF MORAL CRISIS IN GRAHAM GREENE’S THE HEART OF THE MATTER

S. MALA , ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, P.G. DEPT. OF ENGLISH, S.T.E.T. WOMEN’S COLLEGE, MANNARGUDI, ABSTRACT Graham Greene as a Catholic writer, his writing style, characterisation and his works, chiefly focused on the theme of moral crisis for the character named, Henry Scobie. He illustrates this theme by describing Scobie, the main character of Scobie as “a weak man with good intentions doomed by his big sense of pity”, it is a moral fable. This novel illustrates the concept that the real heart of the matter is the innate sinfulness of man and his need of divine mercy. Scobie’s relationship with God defines him and leads him to choose suicide in order to avoid life in which he flouts the principles of the church. However, Father Rank suggests that God understands that Scobie’s suicide was ultimately a result of his overwhelming faith. Greene makes the controversial assertion that the Church’s definition of faith is limited and that God may bend some of his “rules” for his children. While Louise is the character that actually follows the church’s rituals, Scobie cannot even bear to keep living with realization that he has disappointed God. It consists of a short encounter between Louise and the confessional priest. Louise tries to square Scobie’s suicide with his Catholicism, to which the priest advises that no one can know what’s in a person’s heart or about God’s mercy.

THE THEME OF MORAL CRISIS IN GRAHAM GREENE’S THE HEART OF THE MATTER INTRODUCTION Graham Greene was an English writer, playwright and literary critic. His works provide the unsure moral and political issues of the modern world. Greene was noted for his ability to combine serious literary approval with extensive popularity. Even though Greene opposed stoutly for being described as a Roman Catholic novelist rather than as a novelist who happened to be catholic, catholic religious themes are centered in much of his writing, especially the four major Catholic novels: Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter and The End of the Affair. Greene is a great creator of character. His characters are alive and convincing. In The Heart of the Matter, Scobie is the main character. In this novel Greene gives an elaborate and intensive portrayal of Scobie, Greene has taken great pains in exploring the inner depths of the mind of Scobie. Scobie has been made to live before our eyes. It is the stream-of- consciousness technique that has been used by Greene to reveal the character of the protagonist. There are many long and short passages in the novel which present the psychological analysis of the characters. These passages deal with Scobie, Louise, Helen and Wilson.

THE THEME OF MORAL CRISIS IN GRAHAM GREENE' S THE HEART OF THE MATTER The Heart of the Matter is one of the best novels of Graham Greene. The moral crisis for the character named, Henry Scobie. Greene, a British intelligence officer in Freetown, Sierra Leone, drew on his experience there. Although Freetown is not mentioned in the novel, Greene confirms the location in his memoir, Ways of Escape.

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Greene’s novels are contemporary in character so far their subject – matter is concerned. Only in recovering the religious element, the awareness of the drama of the struggle in the soul carrying the countless consequences of salvation and damnation and of the ultimate metaphysical realities of good and evil, sin and divine grace, could the novel recover its dramatic power. It is one of the famous trilogy, the other two novels being, The Power and the Glory and Brighton Rock. All these three novels reveal Greene’s preoccupation with Roman Catholicism. They are religious in tone. In them Greene’s obsession with the theme of salvation versus damnation is evident. In these novels he has presented life in terms of the faith of Roman Catholicism, largely in an objective manner. The title of the novel comes from an observation appearing in the novel itself. The actual heart of the matter relates to the character named Scobie and his relations with his wife, with his mistress and with Yusef. In the case of Scobie, the heart of the matter is that Scobie can discard his mistress, Helen and stay with his wife; he can forsake his wife to live with Helen, he can stay with his wife but continues to keep Helen as his mistress; he can commit suicide. There is also the possibility of the problem being solved through some divine miracle. But, as it is not in anybody’s hands, the novelist selects suicide as the only recourse for his hero. Seen from another angle, it may also be said that the heart of the matter for Scobie is that he is a good man with a fatal weakness, the weakness being the feeling of spontaneous pity which he experience specially for Louise, then for Helen, and finally for both of them simultaneously. Eventually his feeling of pity for both women and his sense responsibility for both of them become too powerful for him to bear any more. Besides he also feels a greater responsibility towards God: Christ had not been murdered: you couldn’t murder God: Christ had killed himself; he had hung himself on the cross. In the novel there seems the element of impatience and moral crisis with the background of Catholic dogma. Even Scobie more than one question the teachings of the Church. He tells the priest that God would forgive him, and when Father Clay begins to pronounce the attitude of the Church, Scobie speaks impatiently, even the Church can’t teach me that God doesn’t pity the young. The Heart of the Matter deals with the issue of pity and moral crisis. Greene illustrates this theme by describing Scobie, the main character of the book, as “a weak man with good intentions doomed by his big sense of pity. Scobie’s ultimate sacrifice, Suicide, fails to bring the expected happiness he imagines it will to his wife and despite the fact that the end of the novel when Scobie’s wife refuses to give in to his advances even after Scobie’s death. Other instances of failure, both subtler and more obvious, can be seen throughout the work, lending it a muted, dark feeling. Although Scobie, like Greene, has faith in God, he often gets irritated with him. In fact, Greene himself often felt a dislike for God because of the prevalence of sin, evil, corruption and suffering in the world created by him. This dislike, or even hatred, for God is expressed in the novel through Scobie. Scobie is an impasse because of his inability to understand God’s ways, and because of his uncertainty about his attitude towards him. There is a moral crisis, exhibited through the character Scobie. The moral predicament of the central character, Scobie, consists of his inability to choose between act of hurting his wife (Louise), his beloved (Helen) and God and the Church or Catholic doctrine cannot provide any guidance to him in his matter, or any means of escaping the situation in which he finds himself trapped. The spiritual conflict or the conflict between good and evil is the dominant theme of the novels of Graham Greene. It may be said that The Heart of the matter is a novel in which Greene adapted faith, Catholicism and moral dilemma; it presents the tragedy of its central character Scobie, which is due to his inability to reconcile the conflict between his faith and the typically secular situation in which he is placed. Greene believes in the original sin of man.

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As a Catholic he is of the opinion that man has a natural tendency to fall to the path of evil. Therefore he makes a clear distinction between virtue and vice. These are the nations of right and wrong on the human level and sin and virtue on the spiritual level. It is rightly said that Greene’s novels deal with man in relation to society and to himself but fundamentally in relation to God. Therefore, Greene preoccupies himself with man’s innate sinfulness, and his consequents search of God’s mercy and salvation. Being broad minded, Greene does not force his hero into acting in accordance with the teachings of the church, he allows him to act as his conscience dictates or his situation impels him to do, which was later exploded as the moral crisis in the story. The Heart of the Matter is not just about failure, but about the price we all pay for our individualism and the impossibility of truly understanding another person. Each of the character in the novel operates at tangential purposes which they often think are clear to others, or think are hidden from others, but are in fact not. Greene believes in the immortality of human soul. But he also believes in sin which deprives the soul of sanctifying grace. Catholicism envisages that man has to suffer on account of the original sin by coming into this world which is devoid of sanctifying grace. Human sins are mortal as well as venial. Mortal sin can be atoned for by sacramental confession. Further, the Grace of God can help man. Human soul can redeem itself from its sins only by the grace of God. As in many of Greene’s earlier works this book deals with not just the tension of the individuals and the state, but also the conflict of the individual and the church. Scobie throughout the book constantly puts his fears in the voice and context of religion. After his wife returns he has a pathological fear of taking communion while suffering the stain of mortal sin and later agonises over the choice of suicide in terms of its theological damnation. The conflict is particularly interesting because it is not a conflict of faith, but rather a dispute set in legalistic terms: whether a violation of the laws of faith is justified by the personal sense of duty the character feels; which duty, personal or theological, is in the end primary; and what happens when those laws are broken. This argument is not simply one of whether Scobie is damned to hell, a question Greene himself tired of, but rather of whether what he did was worth anything in the world of the present.

CONCLUSION Catholicism envisages that man has to suffer on account of the original sin by coming into this world which is devoid of sanctifying grace. Human sins are mortal as well as venial. Mortal sin can be atoned for by sacramental confession. Further, the Grace of God can help man. Human soul can redeem itself from its sins only by the grace of God. Scobie can neither give up his relations with his mistress Helen, nor can he refuse to go for committing suicide. According to Roman Catholic faith, a person who resorts to suicide is also damned. That way Scobie heaped damnation over his head by committing suicide. His damnation is inevitable in both the cases and thus the theme of moral crisis is revealed in this novel The Heart of the Matter.

WORKS CITED: Greene, Graham. The Heart of the Matter . New York: The Viking Press, 1948. Arora, S.N.A Critical Study of Greene's The Heart of the Matter . Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot, 1985. Hewish, John. Graham Greene: A Critical and Biographical Study . New York: Sheed and Ward, 1960.

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