In Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to provide my evidence on how love affected the storyline:

1.  If not for Tessa's love of the Africans, she would not have been as determined (if at all) to fight against their abuse by KDH and the British High Commission.

2.  If not for Sandy's love for Tessa, Tessa would never have had any leverage to read the letter from Pellegrin which admitted Britain's involvement in the KDH scandal.  Also, the letter would have never been read at Justin's memorial, exposing the scandal to the world.

3.  If not for Arnold's supposed love for Tessa, Justin would have lost a central reason to investigate Tessa's murder.

4.  If not for Justin's love for Tessa, Justin would not have continued investigating Tessa's death.  Also, he would not have gone so far as to risk his life to finish her work.

These claims prove my thesis:

Love, at any cost, is essential to how the plot unfolds in The Constant Gardener.

Tessa and Africa

Not all love portrayed in The Constant Gardener was between two characters.  Love is shown through Tessa's work in trying to publicize the exploitation of African civilians.  There are many scenes where she is interacting with Africans that illustrate this passion.  For example, there is a scene where Tessa and Justin are in the midst of a crowd when an African boy gives Tessa a gift - a handmade mobile.  Tessa receives the gift with "thank you"s, a kiss on each cheek, and a loving stroke of his face.  She even hangs the mobile up in her home in preparation for her baby.  This interaction demonstrates how much of an impression Tessa must have made on the child in order for him to give her a gift, and how much of an impression the child must have made on Tessa in order for her to hang it in her house.

When Tessa found out that the African public was being used for potentially fatal drug testing, her relationship with the natives prompted her to begin a journey in protest.  It was her love for the people that she was willing to risk it all to set the truth about their condition free.

Tessa and Sandy

We first meet Sandy Woodrow, a colleague of Justin's in the High Commission, when he is explaining to Justin that Tessa's body had been found, murdered.  Here, the phrase "kill the messenger" is somewhat appropriate.  Justin is far too naive to ever have suspected Sandy, the messenger, of any kind of wrongdoing, but certainly would have had reason to.

Sandy is not necessarily responsible for Tessa's death, but he did not play a preventative role in the process either.  Sandy was the person that Tessa believed could pass on her report about Dypraxa.  She first made him promise to send the report to his super, Pellegrin, while she was in the hospital.  Obviously, Tessa's pitiful position after losing her child in childbirth played to her advantage.  Sandy hesitantly agreed then to give her report to Pellegrin.  Later, Tessa asked if he had gotten a response, and this is what Sandy told her that he had received a private personal letter and could not show her.  This was their conversation:

Tessa Quayle: You know me well enough to know that I'm not gonna take 'no' for an answer.  Come on.
Sandy Woodrow: Tessa, I'm supposed to keep an eye on you.  Report where you are and what you're doing.  Trust me, Tessa.  This is something that you should not pursue.  I say that as a friend who cares deeply for you.

When he said he cared deeply for her, Sandy got close to Tessa's face and gently caressed her cheek.  Then, he jumped away when his wife opened the door.  Tessa used this sign of Sandy's true feelings to her advantage.  She tells him that he can "have her" if he shows her the letter from Pellegrin.  His heart beat out his brain, and he agreed to show her the letter.  With a kiss, he makes her promise not to tell anyone.

This letter is key to Tessa's research on the DHS scandal.  At the end of the movie, we find out that in the letter, Pellegrin admitted to being complicit about the pharmaceutical vice.  He wrote that he was going to shred Tessa's report and pretend not to have received it, because if the Commission appeared to have never known about the deaths by Dypraxa, they could not be held responsible for them.  The letter was read aloud at Justin's memorial service so that the public could know who was responsible for the deaths.

Tessa and Arnold

Justin's journey to find out what happened to Tessa was not only prompted by his love - it was also prompted by his suspicion that she was being unfaithful.  This suspicion is not very difficult for the audience to understand.  The very first scene in the movie depicts Tessa, in the company of another man, leaving Justin at an airport.  The conversation went like this:


Justin Quayle: Oh, thank you Arnold. I... I can manage that. But I still don't see why you couldn't wait a couple of weeks. Why go all the way up to Loki? 
Tessa Quayle: Well, we want to hear Grace Makanga speak, and she won't be coming to Nairobi.
Justin Quayle:  I see...
Tessa Quayle:  Oh sweetheart, don't bother to see us off.  It could be ages.
Justin Quayle:  Okay well... if you're sure.


After they share a hug and an exorbitant amount of kisses from Tessa, she walked towards the plane with Arnold.  It is clear from Justin's dialogue that he didn't think the trip had any purpose and he was hesitant about her departure.  When we watch Tessa and Arnold's interaction, we can guess why.  First, Arnold put his hand on Tessa's lower back and offered to carry her bag.  When Tessa hands it over, she placed her hand on Arnold's forearm while she said her last "goodbye"s to Justin.  These physical connections, in addition to Tessa's insistence that Justin not wait around to see the plane take off, make the whole scene questionable.


Another example of where Justin's insecurity comes from is during a scene at Justin and Tessa's house in Africa.  Justin had been working in his garden and walked past Tessa having a conversation with Arnold.  She says:

Tessa Quayle:  It's an outrageous thing.  It's like it's a marriage of convenience and all it produces are dead offspring.


Considering that the two had had a baby who died, Justin immediately assumed his wife was referring to their own marriage.  The fact that she was confiding in a man who she spent every day with did not help Arnold's cause.  One night, Justin waited up for Tessa until very late at night.  This is their conversation when Tessa finally returned:


(in the background, we hear Arnold say, "See you Tessa")
Justin Quayle: Hi
Tessa Quayle: Hi.  It's bloody awful weather.  You really shouldn't have waited up.  Good, then I think you should go to bed.  I'm safe home now, sweetheart.
Justin Quayle: No, you're drenched.  Look, take those wet things off.  Tessa, come to bed with me, please.
Tessa Quayle: I will, but there's, um, something I have to do first.  It's important.
Justin Quayle: Tessa, whatever it is that you and Arnold are doing, I'd like it to stop.


Considering that Justin does not know how Tessa is spending her days, that she was just dropped off late by a different man, and that she refused to go to bed with him, it can be understood that when he says "stop", Justin is asking Tessa to stop having an affair with Arnold.  Tessa, however, takes his comment to mean that he wants is working to rein her in and put a stop to her personal work.  The two end up in an argument and Tessa does not go to bed with Justin.


All of these scenes are proof that Justin believes Tessa and Arnold are having an affair when she is murdered.  This belief prompts him to begin to investigate her death.


Throughout his journey, Justin does find out that Arnold is gay, and therefore can not have been Tessa's lover.  Because this information comes after Justin is already in the midst of his investigation of his wife's death, it has no effect on his continuing questions about KDH.  The importance of Arnold and Tessa's relationship is that it helped to instigate Justin's curiosity about the murder and eventually lead to the unfolding of the pharmaceutical mystery.

Tessa and Justin

The first love story that I want to explore is between Tessa and Justin.  Being the two main characters of the film, there is a lot of time for the director to develop the relationship.  So sit back, this is gonna be a long one...

At first, Justin and Tessa don't seem even remotely compatible.  They meet when Justin fills in lecturing for a colleague in the British High Commission.  Tessa stands up, raises her voice, and bombards Justin with insinuating questions and comments on the government of Great Britain.  She is truly impassioned with her opinions - enough that she continues to cause a scene while the crowd is filing out around her.  Because of her obvious anger for Justin's line of work, it is remarkable that the next scene would be a love scene between them.

They say, "opposites attract", and so this is the case with Justin and Tessa.  For their relationship to work, Justin must admire Tessa's passionate attitude and Tessa must admire Justin's sweet, unassuming disposition.  Whatever the case, the two have a very strong, immediate connection.  When Justin has to go to Africa for his work, Tessa begs him to take her along - even if it means she has to accompany him as his wife.  Surprisingly, Justin agrees to the marriage proposal.  Justin and Tessa's abnormal beginnings are just a precursor to a relationship full of unexpectedness and ambiguity.

We learn that in Africa, the two had made a deal that Tessa's work was her own.  Her life was secretive while she was apart from her husband, but (at least in the beginning) the two seemed as normal as every other newly married couple.  When Tessa got pregnant, Justin video taped her laughing in the bath, close-ups of her smile, and followed her around the apartment like a puppy dog.  Their on-screen love was truly palpable to the audience.

After witnessing the romance, it is no wonder that Justin is completely distraught after learning that Tessa had been murdered. Since he was never informed of the work that Tessa did in Africa, he had no idea why she would have been killed.  The following is a quote from the film:

Tim Donohue: Leave this Justin. Go home. 
Justin Quayle: I can't go home. Tessa was my home.


Justin can not simply "go home" as was suggested to him.  His admittance that Tessa was his "home" proves that, even though their work lives were separate, Justin feels that his life is completely connected to hers - he can not be home without her.  This realization begins Justin's journey to find out the truth of Tessa's death.

This love is arguably the most important relationship of the film because it is the catalyst for Justin's journey.  Without the intense feelings for his beloved, he would not have felt the need to investigate Tessa's work.  What begins as a sort of curiosity - or perhaps a need for revenge - turns into his realization of the exploitation of the Africans, the exposition of KDH pharmaceuticals, and, eventually, Justin's death.

The last scene in the movie showed Justin waiting at Lake Tukana for his death.  He knew that the information he had obtained about KDH made him too dangerous a liability for the company.  He would face the same fate as his wife.  It is not nearly so sad, though, when he realizes that he would be reunited with his Tessa.  He would finally be home.

Importance of Love in "The Constant Gardener"

The factor of love and romance is woven throughout the entire film.  There are marriages of all different types, supposed affairs, and even a question of sexuality.  Although one could say that the element of love in the movie is merely a Hollywood agency to win over a general audience, love is certainly integral to the storyline.  This is because the differences in each character's approach to love represent how they deal with the main issue at hand: the mistreatment of the Africans by the drug company KDH. 

I plan on creating posts focusing on individual "love stories" between characters and how that directly causes events to happen in the overall plot.  This strategy will prove that love in The Constant Gardener is not just a Hollywood gimmick, it is central to how the film unfolds.

Summary of "The Constant Gardener"

The Constant Gardener was directed by Fernando Meirelles in the year 2005.  It centers around a man named Justin Quayle who works for the British High Commission and his wife Tessa, a political activist.  The two travel to Nairobi, Africa where one day, Tessa's body is found after being brutally murdered.  Justin, taken completely by surprise, is left confused and heartbroken.


Justin makes it his mission to find out about Tessa's secret work in Africa so that he can uncover the truth about her death.  He comes to find that she was involved in divulging a plot to exploit Africans by a pharmaceutical company.  The company was testing a potentially fatal drug on the Africans, and would do anything to conceal this despicable deed - including murder anyone who they viewed as a potential threat.


In then end, Justin's knowledge of the company's abuse makes him a liability.  He meets the same cruel end as Tessa, but not before he was able to pass on his information to a cousin.  At Justin's funeral, the cousin publicly shares Justin and Tessa's findings, and the audience is left hoping that this information provides some kind of justice for the lovers.