If it is true that you cannot please everyone you meet, then no one told Scobie. As we continue in Book two we find that his utter inability to not help anyone he comes into contact with forces him to beg to be left alone. His desire to be alone is only matched, it seems, by his extreme sense of commitment to everyone he meets. Scobie wants to comfort and help everyone he meets, but as he forms relationships with other people, he continues to desire to be left alone in these relationships. It seems that as he grows closer to people, he only sees this as another burden for him to uphold. He does not see a mutually beneficial relationship, only one where he has to endlessly please the person he is with.
We see these desires by Scobie as he is torn between his commitment to his wife Louise and his newfound commitment to Helen Rolt. Scobie acts as a father figure by bringing her stamps, but he also acts as a lover by carrying out an affair with her. This strange combination of feelings and actions can be explained only by Scobie’s relentless need to comfort those in need. However, as he continues to grow closer to Helen, he is only more troubled and continues to want to be alone. After he has an argument with Helen, he dutifully returns later and “prayed between the two knocks that anger might still be there behind the door” (235). He actually wants to be rejected; he wants her to be furious and send him away. Scobie actively pursues relationships, but is unable to break them because of his sense of responsibility. As a result, he prefers and even desires to be rejected.
His final hope is that he will be left completely alone without any of the relationships he has formed. No Helen, no Louise, no responsibilities for him to manage. He no longer has to worry about the happiness of others; that is his ultimate desire. His yearning to be rejected and left alone is confirmed when he wonders “why can’t they leave me in peace?” “I’ve got nothing to give them” (237). Scobie believes he offers nothing to these relationships. He does not benefit from them; he does not add to them; there is no reason for them. The only reason he returns is his responsibility. Should people reject him anyway, he goes away and does not think twice. He tries to please everyone, though it would appear he does not actually want to.
Question for discussion: Could Scobie ever feasibly have a relationship that makes him feel truly happy?
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One of the things Kyle touches upon here is how chaotic Scobie’s desire to please everyone has made his own life. Especially with Louise returning home now, Scobie will have more stress and more to deal with. Greene used the environment in one of the scenes as a metaphor for how hectic Scobie’s life is becoming. Just as he realizes that he made a commitment to Helen to stay with her forever, “the curtains blew in and he ran to the windows and pulled them shut. Upstairs the bedroom windows clattered… tearing at hinges.” He has to run back and forth in his house, trying to keep things under control, but he simply can’t. As much as he wants everything to be peaceful and safe, circumstances have prevented him from doing so. In both these situations (trying to keep everything in his house under control and trying to maintain his relationships with Helen and Louise), Scobie is the main cause for all of his stress. He had the opportunity to go on leave, and escape all of this stress, but put it off. Now he has forced himself to have to deal with the rains, and he put himself in the midst of the chaos. In a similar way, Scobie chose to make commitments to both Louise and Helen. He was given the perfect opportunity to back away from all of the stress that his relationship with Helen was causing him, but he ran right back to her. Scobie might like to blame everyone else, but when it comes down to (dare I say) the heart of the matter, it’s his fault.
As we mentioned in class, though pity and compassion may have been synonyms before our reading of The Heart of the Matter, we now see the distinct difference between the two. Pity is defined as “the feeling of sorrow caused by the suffering and misfortunes of others,” whereas compassion means “sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.” The major difference is that compassion stems from a desire to do good and help others. Scobie lacks this sympathetic urge to help everyone. Instead, it is replaced by responsibility. Though Scobie appears as a selfless character who is always willing to lend a hand, his inner motives and emotions tell a different story. He desperately wants to be left alone and attain peace but goes against his true nature and becomes involved in others’ problems. Scobie even realizes this flaw: “pity smouldered like decay in his heart” (227). He seems to understand his internal flaw and yet his feeling of responsibility leads him to betray his own self. His pity ultimately places him in terribly undesirable circumstances like his love affair with Helen and the loan from Yusef. Although Scobie may seem like a kind and selfless figure, his emotions reveal his true character which is flawed and no longer admirable.
Piotr -- Thanks for clarifying these two terms with a definition. I noticed how pity appears to be an emotion that seems to project inward rather than outward. We feel sorrow because of the misfortune of others, whereas the definition of compassion suggests there is more room for outward action.
Throughout the course, we have seen that many of Greene's characters are paradoxical. Scobie is no exception to this rule. Though he thinks it is his responsibility to help others (indeed, he goes as far as to say that he is the only one who acknowledges his responsibility), he feels as though he has nothing to offer anyone and wishes to be left alone. It's interesting to note the shift of emphasis from responsibility to emptiness in Scobie's relationships as the book progresses. Initially, the narration focuses on a very grave notion of responsibility as the foundation of Scobie's relationships. As Scobie tells more and more lies, however, these relationships are emptied of their very little meaning. Perhaps the best demonstration of this lack of substance comes to light in one of Scobie's conversations with Helen. She asks him, "what do we get out of [this relationship]?" to which Scobie responds, "I get a lot" (271). Scobie admits to the reader he was lying. Scobie's paradoxical vision of his relationships seems to result from his constant and impulsive lying.
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