At first glance, their relationship seems to be hopeless. They are genial, and Scobie cares for Louise as best he can, but neither side loves the other. Scobie sticks with her out of what he calls "a sense of responsibility." Louise, too, believes that no love remains in the marriage. In her conversation with Wilson she says, "'Henry doesn't love me,' she said gently" (144). She goes on to exclaim that he hates her, but quickly calms back down into the near-apathetic state that the rest of her conversation with wilson had degenerated to. Although Henry and Louise maintain a cordial relationship, but that really seems as though there is all there is to it.
However, when you look a little closer, you start to notice some inconsistencies with this interpretation. First, (although it is a little bit before my assigned section) Scobie is absolutely outraged at his colleagues at the club when they insult Louise. He begins to make excuses for her, and he tries to demonstrate his devotion to her in order to prove them wrong. In fact, this is one of the few times that we see Scobie truly angry. These are not the actions of a disgruntled husband who bears no more love for his wife; they very much demonstrate love and affection, even if Scobie does not admit that they are there (we must recall that Greene tends to use somewhat unreliable or biased narrators).
Louise, as well, has every confidence in Scobie's ability to procure money. She does not know how he will do it, but she trusts that it will be done, and this is the only thing that can put her back to sleep. To me, at least, this speaks of blind trust and faith, the sort you would expect to see in a typical healthy marriage. In addition, when Wilson tries to move closer to her in the train station, she becomes very agitated, shouting, "I don't love you! I love Ticki!" (146). She is obviously avoiding getting close to Wilson, and she cites her marriage as the reason, rousing herself from a mostly half-hearted conversation to "shout furiously." She avoids Wilson thereafter, and even tries to be nicer to Scobie - almost as though she has realized that their marriage is not lost completely. She even is ready to sacrifice her escape from the colony in order to ease the burden on her husband; this can easily be attributed to the love and affection that must still exist in their relationship, and that she perhaps just rediscovered.
In short, this marriage is not quite as hopeless as it seems to be. Both sides still hold something akin to love for each other, and Louise especially begins to show just how much she cares for her husband in tonight's reading. Of course, this interpretation is far from perfect; the marriage isn't exactly what one might call healthy. That said, what do you think will happen now that Louise is gone? Could any animosity arise between Wilson and Scobie?
2 comments:
I agree that we should hesitate to say that the Scobies’ marriage is completely loveless. Eddie brings up crucial evidence that highlights the love between them. Nevertheless, I am not so sure that the love between them rectifies and redeems their relationship, especially Major Scobie’s “misordering of loves”: putting responsibility over intimacy with Louise.
As we’ve seen, Scobie loves his wife in “times of ugliness” (96). His devotion to her at the club, at least to me, seems to suggest more of a devotion to her happiness. Scobie makes a show of his “love” in a parental attempt to keep Louise happy. Even in Parts II and III, Scobie’s primary motivations for borrowing Yusef’s money come from that responsibility. The one scene that I think most likely supplements Eddie’s post comes during Scobie’s dream. After the dream-Scobie decides not to kill himself, he “[tears] up his letter and [runs] downstairs to tell Louise that after all everything [is] all right” (159). For a moment we see a new Scobie – one who actually loves his wife. On the other hand, one can also defend that Scobie is still solely concerned with her happiness. By telling her, “everything [is] all right,” Scobie could be demonstrating his usual devotion to responsibility (the responsibility of making Louise happy) (159). When she does not respond, he either feels (as a loving husband) guilt, remorse, and despair, or he feels (as the usual Scobie) as a failure.
The one person whose love seems genuine and marriage-like in this relationship is Louise. I am not so sure that the love Scobie rarely demonstrates is sincere.
I disagree with Eddie’s claim that the relationship between Scobie and Louise can be salvaged. Though Scobie seems to be protective of his wife at times, he does it out of responsibility. For example, when his colleagues make fun of his wife, Scobie gets angry because he thinks, “this was my doing” (105). He feels bad that Louise is the target of their jokes because he believes he is guilty for turning her into who she is. But the main reason why I think their marriage will inevitably fall apart comes from Scobie’s notion of peace. While on the road to Bamba, Scobie has a dream where he is walking through a peaceful meadow with no one but Ali. He called it, “a dream of perfect happiness and freedom” (150). The obvious person missing from the picture is Louise. She is the cause of his misery and fatigue at home. Her unhappiness furthers his own despair that he cannot seem to get rid of. Shortly thereafter, while driving through the steaming jungle, Scobie has yet another moment of pure happiness: “he could be happy with no more than this- the grinding van, the hot tea against his lips, the heavy damp weight of the forest, even the aching head, and loneliness” (151). Here, Scobie admits that loneliness is pleasant, and Louise is the one holding him back. And ultimately, when Louise is on the boat set for South Africa, Scobie lays down at home where “the sadness was peeling off his mind, leaving contentment” (167). Therefore, I believe that Scobie feels no attraction to Louise and is better off without her.
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