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Chapter IV SOCIAL REALISM IN THE SELECTED PLAYS OF JOHN GALSWORTHY Galsworthy and the Realistic Drama in England. Galsworthy is a modern dramastist. He writes well-made plays dealing with social problems. Like Ibsen he is a rebel against the old drama which bore no relation to life. He follows the trends set by the Realist and Naturalist theatre. This chapter deals with the contemporary social problems depicted by John Galsworthy in his selected plays. English theatre before Galsworthy was chiefly traditional. It sacrificed the truth of characterisation and probability of incident to situation and the need for providing everybody with a good part. Eugene Scribe, the most competent French playwright who created the well- made play said in his address to the French Academy in 1836: You go to the theatre, not for instruction or correction, but for relaxation and amusement. Now what amuses you most is not truth, but fiction. To represent what is before your eyes everyday is not the way to please you; but what does not come to you in your usual life, the extraordinary the romantic, that is what charms you that is what one is eager to offer you. This conception of the function of the theatre prevailed both in France and England. In England the Victorian stage was governed by commercial motives. It was satisfied with the money that its labour brought it. Invention was dreaded. The actor-managers judged a play by the opportunities it gave them for emotionalism. They had no mind to place before the audience heroes fashioned out of actual, dull, everyday men and heroines that looked like simple maids in gingham gowns. This fear of realism on the part of the professional actor was justified, he believed that if the resemblance between the hero and the audience appeared too great, the scope for the development of passion, and big ‘dramatic’ opportunities like murder and suicide would seem false and lneffective. Nevertheless, realism was in theoffing. In France Eugene Scribe wrote half a thousand well-made plays with the assistance of several hacks. When he died in 1861, his tradition was carried on by Victorien Sardou. He wrote topical plays and made naturalness in drama a convention. He developed stage logic. In fact the carried the play a little towords journalistic realism.
In England, the pioneer of the well-made play was Thomas William Robertson. He began as an adapter of the Scribe-Sardou sort of trifle, but either though an independent urge to observation or though the influence of Augier Emile and Dumas the Younger (French
dramatists), he took a step forward in the direction of the “social” drama. His playsSociety (1865), Caste (1867), Home (1869), School (1869), War (1871) and others are considered as land-mark on the way to Realism. They established a new kind of domestic drama which some contemporaries dubbed as the “tea cup and-saucer” threatre. It has been observed by some critics that Robertson’s aim was to urge the public to bring their “fireside concerns” to the playhouse. This he sought to do by making his plots and characters and setting as realistic as he possibly could.
Besides Robertson and the adapters of the French plays, the story of the well-made-play in England is told by two great men: Henry Arthur Jones and Arthur Pinero. Both found their inspiration in Sardou rather than in Scribe. Each added his individual variations and touches. Each raised the English drama from the triviality and falsity of the French adaptations to realism. Pinero was an expert craftsman. He introduced several advances in technique.
Allardyce Nicoll says that playwriting should not be “the art of sensational and spectacular illusion”. It should be rather “the art of representation of English life”.^1 He insisted that the man of letters must become the stage craftsman. Drama must be more than mere popular amusement, and there must be close commection between any living drama and the larger drama and society in which the theatre exists. When Pinero and Jones were vivifying the stage of the nineties by their ‘problem’ plays, there was a lack of psychological climate. Sex, politics, and religion were still taboo as subjects of conversation at decent dinner-tables. The dramatist’s right to choose any subject he pleased was not granted by populace. Freedom of the stage was not a practical realilty. These things came with Henrik Ibsen and George Bernard Shaw. Ibsen, a Norwegian playwright, was the greatest figure of the Realistic theatre of the nineteenth century. He made the drama social, revolutionary, topical. He diagnosed the ills of mankind, destroyed illusions, satirized conceit, provincialism and hypocrisy. Economic pinch and social injustice which he had personally suffered shaped his keen edged social drama. His plays are un-Romantic thesis plays. They are observed dramas. Ibsen was the first modern dramatist to handle serious problems with material drawn from everyday life. His characters were ordinary people. His plays depicted domestic tragedies. He portrayed the struggles of individuals in conflict with the forces of convention. All his plays were pregnant with progressive social ideas about the rights of man as well as woman. The
A realist interprets an experience from the standpoint of the ideal. He judges the old values and standards in relation to the new progressive values and standards. A naturalist regards experience as the only order of reality. He believes in strict objectivity and detachment and literal transcription of an experience. His motto is observation, not evaluation, reportage not representation. It may be stated here that by his very approach a naturalist compromises with the status quo. Since he does not judge things with reference to a new set of values, he simply readjusts them within the existing frame-work. A spirit of compromise differentiates the naturalist from the realist who acts like an iconoclast.
Thus, Galsworthy does not advocate complete freedom for a dramatist. He says: “The dramatist’s licence… ends with his design. In conception alone he is free. He may take whatever character or group of characters he chooses, see them with whatever eyes, knit them with whatever ideas, within the limits of his temperament; but once, taken, seen, and knitted he is bound to treat then like a gentleman, within the tenderest consideration of their main springs.” Galsworthy continues: “The aim of the dramatist employing naturalistic technique is evidently to create such an illusion of actual life passing on the stage as to compel the spectator to pass through an experience of his own, to think and talk and move with the people he sees thinking, talking and moving in front of him.”Galsworthy does not want to identify himself with any individual or group. He aims at impartiality or a sort of negative capability. He observes: “Every grouping of life and character has its inherent moral; and the business of the dramatist is to pose the group as to bring that moral poignantly to the light of day.” He says that he is no reformer but only a painter of pictures, and observes: “The sociological character or my plays arises from the fact that I do not divorce from life”.
Objectivity is the principal characteristic of Galsworthy’s technique both in the novel and the drama. In his book The Inn of Tranquility (1912), he says: “Let me try to eliminate any bias and see the whole thing as should be seen by an umpire- one of those pure being in white coats, purged of all prejudices, passions, and predilections of mankind. Only from an impersonal point of view, if there be such a thing, am I going to get even approximately to the truth.” Galworthy speaks here the language of Zola. Naturalism, said Zola, follows the methods of science and studies life with complete dispassionateness. Exaggeration or understatement are absent from this technique. A naturalist tears a page out of life and dramatizes it. His aim, as
Galsworthy says, is to communicate emotions, not to solve problem. He only poses a problem as it occurs in ordinary, real life. He brings into his dramatic vision the conflicts and the motives which lead to conflict. He expresses them and the social waste and violence associated with them realistically. The realism of the naturalist is thus “disinterested, objective, and impersonal as science itself. Its main objective is the representation of the real world. That is why it subordinates plot to character. Every element of drama – situation, diagogue, setting, gesture and acting- contributes to the total unified effect. In dialogue, the naturalist practices an exact fidelity to everyday speech”.^3
In his essays, Galsworthy speaks of ‘naturalistic technique’ not as the ideal technique, but highly advantageous. Naturalistic art, he believes, is like a steady lamp, held up from time to time in whose light things will be seen for a space clearly and in due proportion, freed from the mists of prejudice and partisanship. This makes clear that Galsworthy desired to reproduce the natural spectacle on the English stage with detachment. He wanted to criticise society with cold objectivity. Hence, in his plays which are mostly concerned with the clash of two opposing principles, he presents the case with equal fairness.
Galsworthy is pre-eminently a realist. He is that artist whose temperamental preoccupation is with the revelation of the actual inter-relating spirit of life, character and thought, with a view to enlightening himself and others. He is distinguished from that artist whom, he calls romantic-whose temperamental purpose is the invention of a tale or design with a view to delighting himself and others. Lynton Hudson rightly observes that the drama to Galsworthy was, as poetry was to Wordsworth, a means of preaching. Wordsworth saw sermons in stones and Shaw wanted the audience to go to the theatre as they went to the Church. However, Galsworthy was a social reformer with a difference. Thus Galsworthy became one of the major exponents of the Realist drama, the problem play, the play of ideas, the social and domestic drama, the drama that cared more for probabilities than for romantic make believe. The fact that Galsworthy deviates from this ideal needs some comment. In his plays, there is a considerable degree of sympathy for the oppressed and downtrodden and this usually takes the form of sentimentality.
Realistic drama is a useful term applied to the kind of a play which treats particular social or moral problems so as to make people think intelligently about it. It is generally tragic in tone and deals with painful human dilemmas. It is the kind of a play that by implication asks a
situations, incidents and actions running rampant through most of the plays handed down to the 19 th^ century and at the turn of it. It indicated the sheer need of a revolutionary change in the form, content and style of drama. Realistic presentation of the scenes of everyday life, treatment of the social problems of the day and attempts at reproduction of the actual language of the people on the stage were some of the chief marks of the dramatic art under the influence of realism. The themes and the language accepted from the factual world made drama prosaic in spirit and form. It lacked the thrill of poetry and romance and tended to be a vehicle of ideas. The impact of this movement was felt everywhere in all branches of the dramatic literature of the time. That is how the realistic trend in drama was moving vigorously onward and giving birth to the different types of realistic prose drama. The two ways of presenting social themes on the stage are called by the historians of literature as the realistic play and the play of ideas. Galsworthy is fundamentally a modern realist. His plays mirror contemporary society. He had a profound humanitarian outlook of life and he tried to the best of his ability to adopt a realistic attitude. He was slow to condemn individuals. He was not sentimental in his approach and only rarely did he rely upon pathos for the effect of his scenes. Ha had an excellent sense of dramatic architecture and although his emphasis was not on individuals, he had a power to give the realistic quality to the persons with whom he dealt. Galsworthy is a great realistic writer. His realism should not be confused with the photographic representation of life. His realistic plays are poignantly shaped and inspired by high intention and imagination. He dealt with social reality like a social reformer. The social problem was the raw stuff of realism, it means through which he made his communication, evaluation and expression, to a large extent his imagination is enlivened by constructive imagination. He gave impressive close ups of life at its most damnable, but he had the artist’s love of design, his eye for detail, his plays deal with contrasts. His role as a reformer and philanthropist did not let him stray in the magic world of fancy or idealism. He was a great lover of truth and presented life around him as he truly saw it. Coats say, “Galsworthy is as relentlessly realistic in almost all his plays as in his novels and short stories. He shows us things visualized through his temperament, not as many people would prefer to see them. An incorruptible lover of truth, he attempts to shape all his plots and problems with the greatest impartiality, allowing both sides to air their opinions and throwing light on their ideas in all possible ways. For him the task lies in the unrolling of the problem, not in the solution. The unrolling of the problem should serve to make
us think and reflect to awaken our interest in what is hitherto unknown to us or wived in a wrong light. Galsworthy himself discusses his theory of realism. Analyzing the term realism he says, “To me the words realism, realistic have no longer reference to technique for which the words naturalism, naturalistic serve far better. Nor have they to do with the question of imaginative power- as much demanded by realism as by romanticism. For me a realist is by no means tied to the naturalistic technique- he may be poetic, idealistic, fantastic, and impressionistic anything but romantic that is so far as he is a realist he can not be”.^5
The word, in fact, characterizes that artist whose temperamental pre-occupation is with the revelation of the actual interrelating spirit of life, character and thought, with a view to enlightening himself and others, as distinguished from the artist whom he calls romantic- whose temperamental purpose is the invention of tale or design with a view to delight himself and others. It is a question of temperamental antecedent motive in the artist and nothing more. Galsworthy’s realism emerges primarily in two ways- in his theme and in characterization. All the plays of Galsworthy’s are sociological plays. He depicts real society in all its aspects. He wrote his plays with a definite purpose. His purpose was to expose the shortcomings and evils of the existing social institutions. This could not have been achieved unless he presented a realistic picture of social life and institutions. He possessed a remarkable power of objective detachment in his portrayal of society. He came under the influence of the French naturalism. He strived to persent the truth without favor of prejudice. Each of his plays deals with a realistic social problem. The Silver Box exposes the great social evil that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor. Strife presents the endless conflict between workers and the employers. The Pigeon brings out the question of the vagabonds and the poor. In The Eldest Son it is the problem of morality applied to the rich and poor. The Fugitive treats of women’s position in social life. The spirit of the crowd and idealism dominate The Mob. ‘Loyalties’ is a study in social pride and social conventions. Justice exposes the evils and shortcomings of prison system and judiciary. Not only are his themes realistic, but his treatment of those themes is equally realistic he presents both the sides with objective detachment. In The Strife , he presents the cause of both the workers and the employers with detached fidelity and truth. While writing Justice , he interviewed convicts, who had experienced months of solitary confinement, but he got the views also of prison governors and wardens, and these too were stated with complete disinterestedness. His legal knowledge came in good stead in exposing the shortcomings of the system of law and
John Galsworthy’s conception of drama is mainly based on realism and a general sense of morality. He believed that drama is a meaningful art form, capable of stirring the mind and bringing awareness of noble principles in life. It is a medium through which a dramatist can project a life as hesees it. He held firmly that the realistic depiction of contemporary life through drama would serve a useful purpose. It would make people realize their shortcomings, awaken in them a sense of guilt and prepare them to change the defective structure of society. With such a noble purpose in min, Galsworthy took to playwriting. He never, for a moment, thought that drama was merely an instrument of cheap entertainment. Every play of Galsworthy is shaped so as to have a spire of meaning. A problem- social, economic, domestic or personal- forms the canvas of the Galsworthy plays. On this canvas painted the figures of flesh and blood characters and they are so posed as to bring the inherent moral poignantly to the light of day. Galsworthy intended to disturb the complacent people of his time and shake them from their slumber. He wanted to bring to light the evils in the society so as to bring about a reasonable change in the outdated social structure of the day. The social thinker in Galsworthy employes drama to serve this purpose and the humanitarian in him appeals for benevolence, tolerance and understanding. His plays are intentionally wrought out pieces- significant scenes from everyday life- from which the inherent moral of which the dramatist speaks, emerges. The fabric of every Galsworthy play is woven around some definite idea, quite often an ethical idea. In order to fulfil the craving of his spirit he rounded up his characters and facts within thering fence of the dominant ideas which cause social, economic, domestic or personal problems such as the disparity between the rich and the poor, the clash between labour and the capital, social and legel injustice, domestic tyranny, the class conflict and unhappy marriages. These ideas form the very backbone of his plays.
While Galsworthy was careful that each play should incarnate an idea, he took care that his plays should not be sermons deliberately written. His method of presenting an idea is quite different from that of Barnard Shaw. Both Galsworthy and Shaw regarded drama as a meaningful form and emphasized its serious purpose in life. But Shaw uses drama to propogate his ideas and expound his theories. He creates the world of his own ideas which rarely corresponds to reality. Galsworthy, on the contrary, aims at creating the illusion of actual life upon the stage. Galsworthy stirs the heart, Shaw agitates the mind.
Galsworthy was disgusted with the then current unreal, romantic type of drama. The real life was worth depicting in the plays because such depiction, he thought, would in the right direction. The organic human being was the centre of attraction for Galsworthy. The uneven social condition of his time and the tyrannies inflicted on the individuals under them were very disturbing. The poor had to suffer greatly in consequence of the economic disparity that prevailed the aristocrats ruthlessly exploited their inferiors and the members of the weaker sections of the society had to bow before the law that was conviently interpreted for the benefit of the titled and money class, a constant fight raged between the common man and the worn out values of the gentry and the materialistic views of the newly rich class of the manufacturers, the women had to live their life according to the will of their husbands and could not get protection from society or law when singled out from the herd, the relations between labour and capital were not cordial, life in the prisons was hell for the prisoners. Galsworthy thought it necessary to arouse public opinion against this unhappy state of affairs through his plays. Thus he resorted strictly to the presentation of real life upon the stage because he wished to rise in revolt against the artificial, bastered form of drama. He wanted to bring a sense of awareness among people of the evils of their systems through drama by presenting the burning social problems of the day. As realism is an important trait of naturalism, so is the objectivity of the dramatist. The conscientiousness of a judge and the impartial attitude of an umpire are necessities for the realist dramatist. Galsworthy was a judge of facts and he could look towards things dispassionately and as objectively as he could. Of course, he could not maintain ruthless objectivity as he was obviously sympathetic towards the afflicted and the poor. In The Silver Box, Justice and The Fugitive his sympathy for the helpless persons is clearly seen, while in plays like Strife, The Skin Game, Loyalties and A Family Man his dispassionateness becomes easily discernible. But his sympathy for the sufferers does not mar his art. He is not a prejudiced or partial while presenting life’s problems in his plays because he knows that the realistic art is like a steady lamp.
Eventhough Galsworthy has established his reputation in the literary history of our times as a no negligible figure both in fiction and in drama, it has to be admitted somewhat regretfully for the matter of research activity, that full length studies of his work to date have been few and far between. In the awareness of that not even muchspade work has been done in this line on the chosen author, the present research study aims at close and systematic study of social realism to be found in the considerable body of Galsworthy’s drama.
shopkeepers, people who looked after other people’s money and property. Both the powerful rich and the educated middle-class were indifferent to the desperate plight of the working class, who lived a sordid, often brutal existence in the slums that had mushroomed around factories in industrial towns. The miserable life and poverty of the slum-dwellers was deplored in general but the task of social uplift was neglected by gove officials and philanthropists alike.
The years in between 1890 to 1940 witnessed sweeping, often cataclysmic shifts on power, causing great deal of physical suffering and spiritual disillusionment. Revolutionary ideas such as those of Darwin earlier in 1850, and now of Freud plunged people in doubt and uncertainity. The very foundations on which human beings had based their assumptions about stability and rationality were crumbling. The time was ripe for change. Thus, an undercurrent of thoughtful criticism began surfacing slowly. The new demand was for liberalism in politics and reforms on socialistic lines in England. The victory of the Liberal Party in the General Elections of 1906 in England left none in doubt about which way the tide was turning. For the first time there were thirty representatives of the Labour Party amongst the newly elected members of English Parliament. They were supported by the trade unions and their votes enabled the Liberals to pass many bills implementing reforms, for example in 1907, income tax for lower wage earners was reduced, and in 1908, pensions and Labour exchanges were introduced. The Liberals were in favour of freedom in politics, religion and in trade; their reforms were based on humaniterion principles- an attitude that Galsworthy shared.
The fifty years bridging the turn of the century were, therefore, witness to changes in technology, patterns of work, power and class relationships. A novelist writing during this period would have had much to write about, but the age failed to produce any truly representative political fiction. It is only in the sparkling social satire of Wilde and Shaw or in the brooding novels of Hardy and in Galsworthy’s realism, that we find a partial reflection of this eventful period.
Galsworthy was a social reformer. He was a philanthropist and a political philosopher. He rose to be the poor and downtrodden classes of society. He was deeply pained to discover how the poor class of society suffered, pined and languished away under a number of tyrannies inflicted upon them by the rich and ruling class of the people. He had seen the naked reality of society and felt aghast at the innumerable social, economic and political evils that prevailed in
his day. He sought to reform those evils through his literary works. Each of his plays, therefore, deals with one or the other social, economic and political problem.
Justice throws light on some glaring shortcomings in the contemporary English law and judicial system. He says that law is blind, feelingless and lifeless process. It crushes into powder anybody who is entangled in its network. It shows no sympathy to man on the score of basic human temptations and infirmities. It does not recognize the sentiment behind an action. It judges a man on the score of his tangible actions and completely ignores the sentiments behind the action, however, noble they might be. The judicial system, likewise, is a mechanical process. It is heartless, unscrupulous and unfair. It is a malignant process in which innumerable innocent and noble hearted men are victimized. The wheels of the chariot of law keep on revolving and men are caught every day and crushed under them. Galsworthy expresses his views through the words of Mr. Frome: - “Justice is a machine that, when someone has once given in the starting push, rolls on of it.”(Act-II, P.-24) It is this idea that has been developed in this play. Falder, the hero of this play, is a noble- hearted young man of 23 years old. He is not a criminal by nature. He has no marks of a professional criminal upon his face. But circumstances compel him to commit a crime in a maddening fit of mental excitement. He loves a woman whose life is in danger. He wants to help her but he has no money. It is the question of now or never before him. In this state of mind a cheque of nine pounds is given to him by his employer for encashment. He is so excited and emotionally agitated that he forgets the sense of good and bad and right and wrong. In a maddening fit of excitement, he adds zero after the figure 9 and ‘ty’ after the word nine and thus gets ninety pounds from the bank. All this was done in the course of just four fatal minutes. As soon as he gets the money, good sense prevails upon him. He feels ashamed of his deed and heartily wishes tat it could be undone. But it is too late. He thinks of throwing away the money and flinging himself before a bus but his attachment with his beloved fails him to do so.
Both John Galsworthy’s strengths and weaknesses as a dramatist derive from his commitment to the ideas and methods of realistic drama. He was neither a religious man nor a political activist, and his plays spoke for no specific ideology or orthodoxy, but he believed that every grouping of life and character has its inherent moral; and the business of the dramatist is so to pose the group as to bring that moral poignantly to the light of the day. This meant, as he said in, ‘Something Platitudes Concerning Drama’ that a drama must be shaped so as to have a spire
Justice, which crushes those very victims of society whom it should protect. Irony plays an important role in the progress of events in Justice. Falder, an essentially honest man at the beginning of the play, has become a vagrant by the end of the play, rejected by the society. Ruth, for whose sake he commited a crime, has become her employer’s mistress in return for the material support he gives her, and Mr. Cokeson and the Hows, who want to help Falder, can not do so. Falder observes; ‘nobody wishes you harm, but they down you all the same.’ His death, it appears in retrospect, was inevitable. Galsworthy adheres to the traditional concept of the interdependence of plot and character. Unity of action is maintained in the gradual unravelling of the theme- that of the unjust and inhuman treatment inflicted on prisoners in the name of justice…. Justice is a powerful social tragedy. It is a strong satire on the contemporary English system of law and judiciary. Galsworthy brings into light the glaring shortcomings and defects in the legal system of England. He says that law is a blind and inhuman process. Law does not take into consideration human psychology and inate human infirmities. The British judicial system is unfair and unscrupulous. It is a malignant process in which innumerable innocent and noble intentioned men are victimized. The chariot-wheels of the system of law continue to revolve furiously and innumerable innocent men are caught into them and crushed to powder. The prisons are like an ill-fated ship in which thousands of prisoners perish. Once a man is caught and convicted to imprisonment, there is no escape for him. Once a man puts his step into the cage, there is no withdrawl possible for him. It is a process of completing the crime. This is the idea behind this social tragedy Justice. This idea is brought home through the conviction and death of an innocent and noble hearted young man, Falder.
This act introduces the characters and the critical situation from which the dramatic conflict arises. Falder is a junior clerk in the prestigious solicitor’s firm of James and Walter How. Cokeson, the Managing Clerk, is annoyed by Ruth Honeywill, who is desperate to meet Falder. He relents when Falder arrives for work and allows them to speak to each other privately. Ruth tells Falder that her husband has again been violent with her, this time almost killing her, and she has left home along with her children. Falder sympathises and asks her to meet him at 11.45 near the booking office. The desperation of both is apperant, though their destination is unknown. Their plan is obviously a secret one.
A little later, Walter How discovers that the firm’s bank balance is much lower than he had estimated? The cheque-book counter-foils reveal the fact that an unauthorized sum of ninety
pounds has been withdrawn during the past week. Walter remembers having signed a cheque for nine pounds only. James, his father, reminds him of his bad habit of leaving space after his figures on a cheque and they realize that someone has taken advantage of this fact. Suspicion first falls on Davis, an erstwhile employee who has recently left for Australia. However, the bank cashier, Cowley, is able to identify Falder as the person who encashed the cheque in question.
When Falder is confronted with the evidence, he denies having anything to do with the matter. However, his alibi falls to pieces when Walter remembers that the counterfoil could only have been altered after Davis left for Australia, the cheque-book having been in his possession until after Davis’ departure. Cornered, Falder confesses his guilt and although Walter and Cokeson plead for leniency, James as the head of the firm, decides to prosecute. Ditective- Sergeant Wister then arrives and takes the unhappy young man, Falder, away.
This act comprises the trial of Falder. The scene is a realistc dramatic presentation of the proceedings of a law court. Witnesses are called and cross-examined. The evidence of Falder and Ruth reveals their secret love affair. She, as the victim of an unhappy marriage, longs to leave her husband and marry Falder. Falder, it is revealed, was driven to desperation on seeing the marks of violence on Ruth-evidence of er husband’s ill- treatment of her. In need of money, he was tempted on seeing the cheque, but can not recall altering it or any of the events, during the time he took it to the bank to encash. Only after the deed was done and the money in his hands, did the realization of the enormity of his offence dawn on him. He could have chosen to return money and confess but instead used it to buy their passage.
The interest in this act arises out of the arguments of the two counsels –Frome and Cleaver. Frome bases his arguments on humanitarian principles and pleads for a pardon on the grounds of temporary insanity. The prosecution counsel—Cleaver—however, demolishes Frome’s arguments with calculated effectiveness. The jury and the judge are disposed to believe his argument and the jury declares Falder to be guilty. The judge sums up the case, referring to the rsponsibilities of the administrator of justice. Falder is sentenced to three years penel servitude. In this scene, Galsworthy indirectly points out the lapses in the legal system, particularly the lack of sympathetic understanding and of any humane attitude of the judge towards human failings.
There are three scenes in this act, all in a prison where the life of the prisoners and the attitudes of prison officials are clearly delineated.
Cokeson has already heard about Ruth’s misfortunes—how she has had to become her employer’s mistress in order to support her children, having left her husband. Falder’s condition worries him further, for the young man seems to have lost his interest in life a strange thing in one so young. Rejected even by his own family, the only joy in his life is the love and support of Ruth.
The two partners come in while Cokeson is speaking to Falder. Sending the young man out of the room, Cokeson appeals to James How to re-employ him. James is reluctanct to have an ex-convict working in the firm, but unbends after Cokeson continues to plead with him. However, his agreement is conditional because he is adamant that Falder should dissociate himself from Ruth. Falder is then tackled by James but surprisingly he remains firm in his resolve to be with Ruth. James then prevails upon Ruth to give up Falder for his own good. Miserable and helpless she agrees. Cokeson sends Falder inside to give him time to cope with his unhappiness. It seems as if history is repeating itself, when Detective- Sergeant Wister appears, once more looking for Falder. This time it is because Falder, as an ex-convict, has failed to report himself to the police and they have also had reports that he has been trying to secure employment on the basis of forged references. James refuses to reveal Falder’s whereabouts, but Wister, seeing his cap lying on the table, realizes Falder is on the premises.
It is a pathetic sight as he leads the doomed young man away. A few minutes later, Falder commits suicide by jumping from the staircase. There is an overwhelming sense of sadness at the waste of a young man’s life, and Cokeson’s consoling words; ‘He is safe with gentle Jesus’ (Act-IV, P.-63), hang in the air as the curtain falls.
Interpretation of the Word ‘Justice’:- The word ‘Justice’ can be interpreted in various ways. At the fundamental level it stands for the principle of justness, fairness and impartiality and implies moral rightness. The word also refers to the functioning of the legal system- the dispensation of the impartial judgement by the process of the law. Justice is, further, the title conferred on a judge. Justice, in retrospect, has ironic undertones for whereas we are led to expect conduct in accordance with the principle of justness, what Galsworthy actually exposes is the injustice and iniquity of man-made systems of law. The whole play is a caustic comment on the discrepancy between the intrinsic nature of the term justice and the administration of it in the law courts. Falder’s act of forgery is a crime in the eyes of the society but the punishment meted out to him is out of proportion with the
seriousness of the offence. Galsworthy uses as his mouthpiece the young attorney, Hector Frome, who indicts the legal system as being least concerned with human character, situation and suffering. His rhetorical question—‘Is a man to be lost because he is bred and born with a weak character?’ underlines this ruthless aspect of so-called justice and his warning—‘Imprison him as a criminal, and I affirm to you that he will be lost’ goes unheeded by judge and jury. Falder is imprisoned in the cage of the Law, never to escape.
The playwright raises serious questions about the fundamental purpose of justice—is it meant only for punishing the wrongdoer or is it intended for correcting the erring individual and rehabilitating him as a responsible and trustworthy member of society? Justice is an illusive term and Galsworthy’s intention is to make the audience pause and ponder over the meaning of such an abstract word. In the play, Falder and Ruth appear as puny creatures, lost in the complicated labyrinth of the law, from which they can never emerge to freedom. Their only option is to make an unsavoury compromise with the situation. In Ruth’s case, she leaves her husband and becomes the mistress of her employer, in Falder’s case; he forges references to get a job after leaving prison. Death is, of course, the last resort and Falder, caught in the vortex of social forces, commits suicide. The tragic irony is that the symbolic blindness of impartiality of Justice has unfortunately become the blindness of complete indifference. The wrongdoer is punished— well and truly- but has Justice been done?
This tragedy made a powerful impact on the social life and judiciary of England. The legisletures became aware of the heartless process of law. Galsworthy made further personal appeals in the press and to the Prime Minister of England. In the end this tragedy led to the revision of the rules relating to solitary confinement. Galsworthy makes an important note about it in his diary, “Justice made a great sensation, especially in Parliamentary and official circles, Winston Churchill, the new Home Secretary, and Ruggles-Brise, head of the Prison Commission both witnessed it, the first with sympathy, the second with a sinking sensation. Reinforcing previous efforts the net result was that solitary confinement was reduced to three months for recidivists, and to one month for intermediates and star class.” Justice is thus one of the most important sociological plays of the twentieth century.
The great dramatists of the past ages like Sophocles, Shakespeare and others were concerned with the fundamental feelings of the human heart like love, hate, jealousy, ambition, madness etc. but the modern dramatist looks at the life around him and wants to present it in his
