1 The Role of Pity in Graham Greene’s: The Heart of the Matter

Set in a small British colonial outpost in West-Africa, The Heart of the Matter (1948) comments on the ambitious subjects of war, espionage, love, adultery, treachery, and betrayal. The world Greene creates in this novel is vicious and brutal, and the characters he delineates are insignificant, ordinary people—helpless puppets in the chill grip of circumstances. The protagonist of the novel, who also faces the harsh, wretched and squalid living conditions, is doomed by the emotion of pity. The novel, which has won the 1948 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction by Graham Greene, is considered to be one of the most significant works of serious fiction, distinguished from his other works called entertainments. It describes the tragic stor y of Major Henry Scobie who is a long-serving policeman, and is responsible for the local and wartime security in a British colony, situated on the West Coast of Africa. The novel is furnished with minute details about the environment and conditions which, in turn, play a very significant role. Therefore, the present research article shows the role of pity in the novel