The Japanese Quince By John Galsworth

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John Galsworthy (1867~1933)

•Deal with social class, upper-middle class lives. •Highlights the characters' insular, snobbish, acquisitive attitudes and their suffocating moral codes. •Challenged the ideals of society depicted in the preceding literature of Victorian England.

Works & Achievements

•The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter.

•Won Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932.

Plot•Mr. Nilson, an upper class gentleman was attracted by a Japanese quince in the yard. Finding that another gentleman who looks like himself is also enjoying the sight of the plant, Mr. Nilson changes his attitude towards the Japanses quince immediately, and feels embarrassed about himself.

"Quite," murmured Mr. Nilson. "These exotics, they don't bear fruit. Pretty blossom!"

Why "Japanese Quince"?

"Fruit":Material outcomes

"Exotics":UnorthodoxForeign, innovative new things

Symbol

His attitude towards the japanese quince helps to flesh out a character that is:

• extremely conservative, insular and utilitatian

Mr. Nilson: an epitome of his circle, the upper-middle class, who have a rigid and unreasonable insistence on the old ways they are familiar with.

Psychological Change

• Mr. Nilson’s attitude towards the Japanese quince is affected by the presence of another upper-class gentleman.

• The change of his attitude reveals how the ideologies, old attitudes and pressure from the circle shackle people at that time.

Psychological Change

The Mirror Image

The Mirror Image

The Mirror Image

• In such a short story, the author spent a fair amount of ink on portraying Mr. Tandram, and more importantly, the description of Mr. Tandram should have coincided with that of Mr. Nilson. The author deliberately arrange this confrontation of the two similar men.

• The two men, or almost all men from the upper-middle class at that time, are identical like products from the same production line.

“The sound of a cough or sigh attracted his attention. There, in the shadow of his French window, stood Mr. Tandram, also looking forth across the Gardens at the little quince tree. Unaccountably upset, Mr. Nilson turned abruptly into the house, and opened his morning paper.”

The Mirror Image

Galsworthy's Sarcasm

• When they are faced with each other, those snobbish, arrogance, proud men would feel ashamed, and see that himself, are just as foolish as the one in front of him.

• They themselves dare not face the social customs, moral codes that they are proud of.

Galsworthy’s Sympathy Towards Them

• It is the society, the conventions that have shaped them.

• the trauma that has been inflicted on them is already irreversible.

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Thank you!