Heart of the Matter

Comparisons in the End of the Affair and the Heart of the Matter

The storytelling of many authors tends to have several similarities that show throughout their technique. The Author Graham Greene does not change this theory. Both of his novels the End of the Affair and the Heart of the Matter have many similarities throughout their stories tale. In both novels the themes of prohibited love, the fight within one’s self, and religion play a major roles in both stories plots. Graham Greene stories allow for the reader to gain life lessons and come closer to his or her religion.

In the Graham Greene novels there is always an unlawful love, an affair of sorts, which forces the plot of the story and ultimately forces the main characters to make choices and decisions that change the complexity of the problems found by these characters. This is apparent in the End of the Affair as the Maurice Bendrix and Sarah Miles partake in an affair as Sarah is married to her husband Henry. This affair ultimately causes Sarah to need to see Bendrix and ultimately pay for this action. While in the novel the Heart of the Matter Scobie, whose wife has left him for South Africa, and Helen Rolt, whose young husband has died, have an affair that could ruin the policing career of Scobie. This sin eventually causes Scobie to commit his final sin at the end of the novel. Both of these affairs are carried about yet both Henry and Louise (Scobies wife) know of these affairs thus pushing the plot onward and force the two in the affairs to eventually end them. This similarity is common in the novels of Greene.

The next type of similarity is the battle within. In the End of the Affair Sarah Miles is tormented from within on her promise to God to never see Bendrix again in order for his life to be spared. She soon sees Bendrix and eventually is killed by an illness. With this instance Sarah is tempted to break her covenant with God or circum to the lords will. She chooses the...