The Two Main Female Characters in the Heart of the Matter
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- Date Submitted: 06/05/2013 04:37 AM
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The two main female characters in The Heart of the Matter
“The Heart of the Matter”, written by Graham Greene portrays the story of a man who loses all of his sanity, eventually ended up committing suicide. Although the two main female characters weren’t involved in the act itself, they still had an involuntary action in what happened. Both Louise and Helen were part of the downfall of Major Scobie.
Louise, Scobie’s wife is a middle-aged woman, whom to Scobie is viewed as being unattractive both physically and morally nowadays, and to him she is aging badly. It’s difficult to him to imagine her as being young and pretty and also Scobie sees her as lacking in taste. Her love for the literature made her lose her friends as it brought up snobbery in herself. She is extremely religious and quite often she enforced her beliefs on Scobie, the latter sees this as another example of her excessive selfishness. This image is also enforced by the lack of empathy for Ali’s death. But on the other hand we must understand that Louise lives quite a solitude life compared to other wives; she’s really disappointed with the fact that her husband didn’t get promoted.
The second wife in Scobie’s life, Helen, is a young girl who is introduced as a shipwreck survivor. The first time we meet Helen we see her grasping a stamp-album and wearing a loose wedding ring. As opposed to Louise, she is quite an uneducated person, misspelling common words and also she can be seen as being physically undistinguishable. Despite their 30 years gap and the immaturity we see in Helen, they become lovers at their second meeting. Scobie tries to fills Louise’s void with the aid of Helen; knowing that she is in South Africa made this much easier for him. Helen grows to become jealous and she reflects Louise in this way, also having no religious belief Helen cannot understand Scobie’s concerns about religion.
Both of these women had a very important part in Scobie’s downfall. Louise, being the...
“The Heart of the Matter”, written by Graham Greene portrays the story of a man who loses all of his sanity, eventually ended up committing suicide. Although the two main female characters weren’t involved in the act itself, they still had an involuntary action in what happened. Both Louise and Helen were part of the downfall of Major Scobie.
Louise, Scobie’s wife is a middle-aged woman, whom to Scobie is viewed as being unattractive both physically and morally nowadays, and to him she is aging badly. It’s difficult to him to imagine her as being young and pretty and also Scobie sees her as lacking in taste. Her love for the literature made her lose her friends as it brought up snobbery in herself. She is extremely religious and quite often she enforced her beliefs on Scobie, the latter sees this as another example of her excessive selfishness. This image is also enforced by the lack of empathy for Ali’s death. But on the other hand we must understand that Louise lives quite a solitude life compared to other wives; she’s really disappointed with the fact that her husband didn’t get promoted.
The second wife in Scobie’s life, Helen, is a young girl who is introduced as a shipwreck survivor. The first time we meet Helen we see her grasping a stamp-album and wearing a loose wedding ring. As opposed to Louise, she is quite an uneducated person, misspelling common words and also she can be seen as being physically undistinguishable. Despite their 30 years gap and the immaturity we see in Helen, they become lovers at their second meeting. Scobie tries to fills Louise’s void with the aid of Helen; knowing that she is in South Africa made this much easier for him. Helen grows to become jealous and she reflects Louise in this way, also having no religious belief Helen cannot understand Scobie’s concerns about religion.
Both of these women had a very important part in Scobie’s downfall. Louise, being the...