The Renascence In Purgatory

Graham Greene (1904—1991) had been nominated as "the most famous contemporary British novelist" by "New York Times". Rich literary style and outstanding literary achievements laid the literary status of Greene which can not be challenged. Greene’s work mainly described the current world which are full of moral and political conflicts, incisively and vividly revealing the plight of modern people’s life and spiritual situation."The Heart of the Matter" is Greene’s most successful and most representative work. The novel shows the protagonist Scobie’s complex human nature, vividly portraying Scobies’s life tragedy caused by his compassion and strong sense of responsibility. By using the method of ethical literary criticism, starting from the protagonist Scobies’Dutch act, this article aims to analyze Scobie’s ethical identity confusion, ethical dilemma and the internal and external cause of his suicide. Apart from that, the paper also tries to explore the ethical significance of his suicide and the author’s ethical feeling which reflected in it.The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first part is mainly to solve the problem of Scobie’s ethical identity. Under the weight of sympathy and compassion, Scobie confused his lover identity. Attacked by Western civilization and Africa civilization, Scobie confused his culture identity.Under the dilemma of doubt and belief, Scobie confused his religious identity. He wanted to play every role to its fullest, but in every role he fell into a self lost.The second chapter mainly explores the difficult ethical choices of Scobie. In the complex circumstances and anxious state of mind, Scobie fell into extreme dilemma in family morality, professional ethics and religious morality. All the choices faced by Scobie led to life desperation. No matter what he chose, it was difficult for him to get rid of the plight of life, which made his subjective efforts became useless in objective ethical situation. The third chapter mainly discusses the ethical thinking on Scobie’s suicide. Scobie could not reconcile the inner spiritual pain and the external social oppression, so he went to suicide. He insisted on benevolence at the cost of his life. His Dutch acts not only accomplished self redemption, realized the responsibility for other people but also achieved survival transcendence.Through the discussion of the above three chapters, we naturally come to the conclusion:through the narrative of Scobie’s ethical tragedy, the work fully reflects the moral dilemma and spiritual crisis of modern people. All these reflect Greene’s deep solicitude for human survival and human spiritual situation. Greene put the prospects and possibilities of redemption on the individual self-help action. In his narrative of Scobie’s spiritual journey, Greene told us that no matter what the life experience is, we should insist on love and constantly go beyond the difficulties to salvation like Scobie.