The Heart of the Matter

Book 1, Part 2 yields further insights into Wilson’s character. The fortuneteller’s reading of Wilson will prove remarkably apt. Wilson’s interactions with Louise vindicate the fortuneteller’s reading of Wilson as an ambitious dreamer who is emotionally sensitive and secretive. Moreover, Wilson is an avid reader of poetry but feels too insecure to admit it because poetry is not considered a masculine subject. Poetry and fiction are recurring motifs of the novel that help challenge assumptions about the utility of books. In the modern world, literature increasingly becomes associated with femininity and frivolity. Many of the novel’s characters, including Scobie who eschews reading books, obsess over telling the truth yet are emotionally dishonest and lack self-awareness. Numerous characters grapple with how to discern truth and meaning amidst moral crisis but reject books as a source of self-knowledge.

By contrast, Louise, who is referred to jeeringly as “literary Louise” (22), is a poetry lover and occasional fiction writer, but she scoffs at Wilson’s idealism. She derides his proclamations of love and attributes this foolishness to his reading of romantic poetry. Wilson dismisses their six-year age difference, but Louise rejects this as another fantasy. She says, “Love isn’t a fact like age and religion…” (68). Louise is much more competent at balancing her romanticism with responsibility. The emotionalism of the Romantic movement was a reaction to the strictness and cold rationality of the Enlightenment. More than any other character, Louise balances the sublime and sentimentality of romanticism with duty, whether social, religious, or personal.

Meanwhile, Wilson is sentimental but unrealistic and emotionally rash. Like Harris, who needs a cockroach hunt to sleep, Wilson becomes increasingly affected by the elements. Greene writes that “the lust of the hunt touched Wilson’s imagination” (60). The animalistic interiors of the colonizers come into full view in these moments. Harris instructs Wilson to strike the cockroaches to “mesmerize” them (60). Again, this mesmerizing language echoes the disorientation associated with Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

Meanwhile, Father Rank is portrayed as a loquacious gossiper who can’t be trusted with private disclosures. His reputation as a gossiper is ironic considering his confessional duties. Almost absurdly, Father Rank says that his “head is a hive of rumours” (58), and that if a person discloses something to him in confidence, he assumes he ought to pass it on. However, despite his gregariousness and jovial nature, Father Rank proves very perceptive and sympathetic. He views truth as something not to withhold. From a psychoanalytical standpoint, Father Rank exemplifies the importance of not internalizing pain and suppressing emotions and self-truths. He is an atypical priest in his flexibility, which is important for understanding how Greene grapples with the theme of religion. But he’s also a foil for Wilson and Scobie, who internalize their insecurities, albeit in different ways.