Scobie's Pity: On The Tragedy Of Morality In The Heart Of The Matter

The Heart of the Matter belongs to the trilogy of the English contemporary writer Graham Greene. The novel tells the upright catholic Scobie who regards the instinct passion of pity as a virtuous and noble quality when facing the pain of the people he loves. This results in the desertion of the God, his lover and the tragedy of himself. So far the researchers have considered him as a tragedy hero and pitied him as a good man. However, when we take a close look at Scobie's pity, we find something hidden behind this virtue. His pity is doomed by pride and lacks in reason which is the weakness of human beings of flesh and blood. However, the pious Scobie is absorbed in a world of goodness. He never faces his pride although he is more willing to see an anxious person who needs his pity. At the same time, he loses the autonomy because his instinct pity which results in the mess and destruction of him. His pity is not a virtue and it is not noble actually. This essay will analyze the tragedy of Scobie from the view of morality.The essay consists of five parts. The first part introduces the writing style of Graham Greene, the literature review of The Heart of the Matter and points out the purpose of the research. Chapter one analyzes the pursuit of Scobie through the relationship between the ideal of morality and Christianity. They are the two aspects of the same thing. They all look forward to a world of goodness. In morality it is a requirement, while in religion it becomes a being and Scobie's dream is in fact a world of goodness. Chapter two makes a comparison of love and pity of Christianity and those of Scobie. The benevolence in Christianity is a pure and unselfish love. It needs order and condition and emphasizes the reason. Then from the ideas of Kant, we find that Scobie's pity is only an instinct emotion and is not a virtue. His pity is doomed by pride and makes him lose the autonomy. It does nothing good except adding the pain to this world. For Kant, one should be rational and pity the others beyond the instinct passion. Chapter three points out that his pity is inevitable based on the analysis above. Although Christianity deeply influences Scobie, he can not make a clear distinction between his instinct passion and a noble quality which finally results in his tragedy. The final part is a conclusion of the whole thesis.