The Heart of the Matter

Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter was published in 1948 and is one of his most famous Catholic-themed novels. These novels comprise the majority of his literary oeuvre and underscore a recurring theme in Greene’s works: moral crisis and true faith. Greene’s iconoclastic views of Catholicism are explored through complex protagonists like Henry Scobie, the flawed hero of The Heart of the Matter, who are torn between passion and faith.

The Heart of the Matter is drawn from Greene’s experiences in Freetown, British Sierra Leone where he was a member of the British Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6. Greene’s three-year stint in British intelligence during World War II introduced him to diverse characters and remote cultures that he incorporated into his novels including The Heart of the Matter. Several subplots including one about a smuggled Portuguese letter were drawn directly from his experiences in espionage. While the setting of the novel is not named, Greene later confirmed it to be Freetown in his 1980 memoir, Ways of Escape.

Although Greene himself was not fond of The Heart of the Matter, the novel was immensely popular, selling over 300,000 copies upon publication in the United Kingdom. It went on to win the 1948 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction and is ranked 40th on Modern Library's list of 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Page citations in this guide refer to the 2004 Penguin Classics deluxe paperback edition.

Plot Summary

Scobie is a police officer in a British colony in West Africa during World War II. His wife, Louise, loves poetry and literature, but she is miserable and can’t make friends in the colony. Scobie and Louise had a daughter, Catherine, who died several years earlier in England. Louise is a devout Catholic while Scobie is a convert to Catholicism who has lingering doubts about God. Scobie feels responsible for Louise’s misery and solitude in colonial life. When Scobie is passed over for the Commissionership, Louise grows more bitter. Completely miserable with life in the colony, she asks Scobie to send her to South Africa, but Scobie struggles to secure the funds for her passage.

A new inspector named Wilson arrives in the colony. Wilson instantly develops an attraction to Louise who shares his love for poetry. He mistakes their friendship for love and cannot understand how a romantic like Louise can be with a plain, colorless man like Scobie. Scobie’s primary responsibility is to head inspections of local passenger ships for smuggled diamonds or other contraband.

Unable to raise the funds to send Louise to South Africa, Scobie turns to a cunning Syrian trader named Yusef. Scobie knows about Yusef’s criminal dealings on the black market, but he is desperate to send Louise to South Africa to give her happiness. Prior to his arrangement with Yusef, Scobie investigates the suicide of a young man named Pemberton, the assistant District Commissioner at Bamba. Scobie suspects Pemberton took out a loan from Yusef. Despite the risks, Scobie decides to borrow money from Yusef with an interest of four per cent per annum. Satisfied that he has relieved her misery, Scobie sends Louise off to South Africa. Meanwhile, Yusef warns Scobie that a new inspector has been sent by the British to look for smuggled diamonds.

Book 2 begins in Pende with the arrival of several shipwrecked passengers who survived at sea in lifeboats for 40 days. Scobie, Wilson, District Commissioner Perrot, and Mrs. Perrot discuss recent events involving Tallit, another local Syrian merchant and Yusef’s more reputable rival. Tallit is arrested when port inspectors confiscate illegal diamonds from a parrot’s crop on a Portuguese ship bound for Lisbon. Tallit claims Yusef set him up.

Scobie is haunted by the images of the shipwrecked corpses and is thankful for Louise’s safety. He develops a relationship with one of the survivors named Helen Rolt. Helen is only 19 years old and a new widow. Although Scobie finds her unattractive, he pities her. Their relationship soon becomes romantic, leading Scobie to commit adultery. Scobie abhors lying, but he is forced to conceal their romance to protect Louise. Feeling a suffocating sense of responsibility to both Louise and Helen, Scobie’s faith in God wanes. Further augmenting his guilt, Scobie concocts additional lies to ward off suspicions that he is involved in Yusef’s contraband schemes.

Meanwhile, Scobie and Helen’s relationship suffers from his immense guilt and burgeoning spiritual crisis. Helen accuses him of weaponizing his Catholicism against her to avoid divorcing Louise. Their quarrelling worsens when Louise sends a telegram informing Scobie that she is returning, but Scobie assures Helen he is committed to her. Scobie’s spiritual and moral strength further deteriorates, however, as he faces official questioning over the Tallit affair. Beset by crippling paranoia, he soon develops suspicions about Wilson and his loyal servant, Ali.

Book 3 begins with the return of Louise who implores Scobie to fulfill his Catholic duties and attend Mass and Communion. Initially hesitant, Scobie finally goes to confession and discloses his adultery to the town priest, Father Rank. Despite his confession, Scobie fails to develop feelings of contrition and begins to fear that his soul is eternally damned. He confides in Yusef that he is suspicious of Ali. Yusef promises that he will take care of Scobie’s paranoia and has Ali murdered. Although only indirectly responsible for Ali’s murder, Scobie blames himself, further compounding his guilt. Helen informs Scobie that she must leave him, but Scobie’s sense of responsibility to her is unbreakable.

Scobie then concocts an elaborate plan to commit suicide by disguising it as heart failure. He muses on his relationship to God and the ramifications of committing suicide, a mortal sin in Catholic theology that assures eternal damnation. Ultimately, Scobie decides that he can’t live without repenting, and he’d rather cause pain to God than to Louise or Helen. After his suicide, Louise reveals to Wilson that she knew about Scobie’s affair with Helen. Unbeknownst to Scobie, it was talk of the town. Wilson, now revealed to be a spy, suspects that Scobie killed himself as his diary entries detailing sleeplessness and heart pain were retroactively added. Louise angrily confides in Father Rank, who tells her that despite the rules of the Church, no one can understand God’s mercy or what goes on in the human heart.