The Conflict Between Humanity And Divinity

Published in 1948, The Heart of the Matter was considered to be the best and the most controversial novel of Graham Greene, and thus it aroused great attention of the critics in western world. The critical approaches to this novel generally fall into three categories: one is from the religious perspective to explore its political and Catholic themes; one is from the 'secular' perspective to evaluate the novel; another is at the stylistic level to discuss the unique narrative techniques and discourses of the novel. The present thesis is a thematic study of The Heart of the Matter, which, by focusing on the character analysis of the hero, Scobie, attempts to present the complexity as well as the tension of human nature and thus to reveal the profound theme of the novel, namely, the conflict between humanity and divinity. Graham Greene's fictional world is full of binary oppositions, such as good and evil, faith and betrayal, salvation and damnation, through which the extremely paradoxical circumstances for the protagonists and the great tension within his characters are best presented. Therefore the approach of this thesis is to analyze the novel in light of these binary oppositions as well as the Catholic ideas in if so as to uncover Greene's rather than his protagonist's unique notion of religion, which proves to be non-orthodox but full of humanist concerns. Hopefully, by analyzing The Heart of the Matter in this manner, this thesis will provide a new perspective of Graham Greene's fictional world and will help us acquire a better understanding of Greene's religion as well as his art.This thesis is composed of three chapters as well as an introduction and a...