John Galsworthy's "Justice":Key facts :Characters: Few Questions answers

Key facts Read More Drama

Author: John Galsworthy (1867-1933)

First Published: 1910

Type of Work: Drama
Type of Plot: Social criticism
Time of Work: 1910
Setting: London
Principal Characters: William Falder, Cokeson, Ruth Honeywill
Genres: Social realism, Drama
Subjects: Justice, Prisoners, Prisons, Suicide, 1910s, England or English people,
Lawyers, London, divorce system, injustice, humanism etc.
Locales: London, England
Author's Other Contributions:The Man of Property (1906), In Chancery (1920),
Awakening (1920), To Let (1921),The Forsyte Saga (1922),The White Monkey (1924),
The Silver Spoon (1926), Swan Song (1928), Maid in Waiting (1931), Flowering
Wilderness (1932), Over the River (1933), End of the Chapter (1934), Strife (1909),
The Pigeon (1912), Old English (1924), and The Roof (1929).
Glory: Galsworthy was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in literature.

Characters Read More Drama

William Falder, a junior clerk in a law firm who raises a company check from nine to
ninety pounds and is sent to prison for three years. When he is released on parole,

he is apprehended by the police for not reporting to the parole authorities. He

breaks away from the arresting officer and kills himself by jumping from an office
window.

Ruth Honeywell, the woman for whom Falder altered the check. He had intended to
take Ruth and her two children from her brutish husband, and he needed the money
for the expenses they would incur when they left London.

Robert Cokeson, a senior clerk in the firm. He supports Falder through the trial,
while he is in prison, and after his release.

James and Walter How, partners in a law firm and Falders employers. They cause
Falders arrest, but after his release from prison they are willing to discuss taking
him back into their employ.

Davis, a junior clerk first suspected of altering the check.

Hector Frome, Falders attorney during the trial.

Harold Cleaver, the counselor for the prosecution at Falders trial.

Few Questions Answers Read More Drama

Q.What is the pseudonym that Galsworthy took? What kind of aesthetic theory did
he believe in? Read More Drama

Ans: Galsworthy took the pseudonym John Sinjohn. Galsworthy was a

representative of the literary tradition, which has regarded the art as an instrument
of social debate. He believed that it was the duty of an artist to examine a problem,
but not to provide a solution.

Q.Justify the significance of the title Justice. Read More Drama

Ans: John Galsworthy deliberately chose the title Justice in order to satirize the
contemporary social and legal systems of the country, which in the name of justice
forced the helpless individuals like Falder and Ruth to suffer and perish finally in the
most inhuman way in a civilised society.

Q.Justify the sub-title of the drama A tragedy. Or, Do you think Justice a social
tragedy?

Ans: Justice is different from the other tragedies written in Aristotelian formula.
There is no conventional hero-villain conflict in the play. The central protagonist
Falder is not at all a heroic figure; rather he is of a weak-willed and nervous
personality. Again, the place of the villain has been taken by the inhuman social and
legal systems, to which the hero becomes a victim.

Q.Character of Falder/Falder as a tragic hero. Read More Drama

Ans: In Galsworthys Justice the central protagonist, Falder is a weak-willed and

nervous person with a good intention of providing relief to a suffering woman. In so
doing he commits a crime which leads him to prison and to death. Thus he becomes
a pathetic figure rather than a tragic one.

Q.Character of Ruth Honeywill Read More Drama

Ans: Ruth is a poor, unimpressive woman married to a brutish drunkard. Her

suffering makes her love Falder sincerely. Again, she does all this more for her
children than for herself. Like Ruth in the Old Testament she is sad and gloomy
figure. All her hopes, however, get shattered at the death of Falder.

Q.Who is James How? How and what does he declare about Falder?

Ans: James How is the embodiment of the cruel, inhuman social and legal system. It
is not, of course, that he is the villain of the piece. He judges and acts on the
prevalent conventional morality that makes him blind to the serious flaws in the
systems. He is the owner of the firm in which Falder is a junior clerk. When he
comes to know of the crime, he decides to send him to jail.

Q.Who is Walter How? What does he decide about Falder?

Ans: Walter How, the son of James How, stands as a foil to his father. Owing to
generosity and clear view of events, he judges everything on the human ground and
tries his best to dissuade his father from sending Falder to prison. While his father
represents conventional morality, Walter How represents the kind of morality
Galsworthy wants the social and the legal institutions to go by. When Walter comes
to know of the crime committ4ed by Falder, he decides not to send him to jail as it is
his first crime.

Q.The character of Cokeson Read More Drama

Ans: In Galsworthys Justice Cokeson, the head clerk of Hows firm, is a goodnatured person, but he has his limitations as a member of the lower middleclass. He
understands Falder and feels for him, but he cannot go against his employer. Finally,
he answers all fittingly at the end when Falder dies.

Q.It is a matter of life and death.Who says this and to whom and why?

Ans: Tortured by her drunkard husband almost to death, Ruth Honeywell comes to
meet Falder for being rescued from him. But in the office, Cokeson tells her that
such personal affairs are not entertained. This forces Ruth to entreat him with these
words.

Q.Justice is a machine. Who says this and why?

Ans: Falders defence counsel, Mr. Frome introduces the metaphor of machine in
order to convey the sense that the legal system operates in such an inhuman way
that it makes mockery of the concept of justice and destroys the individual
completely. The end of the drama, the end of Falders life proves his words.

Q.Law is what it is, a majestic edifice sheltering all f us Who says this, when and
why? Read More Drama

Ans: In the course of sentencing Falder to imprisonment, the judge as a protector

and agent of the existing legal system asserts that the institution of law is a noble
one. It seeks to protect the good citizens from the bad ones, to protect the society.
The judge is the spokesman of the conventional concept of justice in the
contemporary judicial system. Naturally, his opinions and views do not go by human
norms.

Q.It must have been temptation of the moment ...A man does not succumb like
this. Who says this? Why does he say so? What do you think of his character from
the speech?

Ans: After the detection of Falders forgery and his confession, James How decides
upon prosecuting Falder. Walter How, his son, pleads for Falders case. He opines
that Falder, a gentleman, must have been tempted to do this. His words indicate
that he is a good-natured youth, who judges everything on the human ground.

Q.The quality of mercy is not strained... Where does the speaker quote the line
from? Why does he do so? Read More Drama

Ans: The speaker, Walter How, quotes the famous line from Portias speech in
Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice, where she appeals to Shylock for Antonios
case. Walter How wants to convey that mercy is a greater virtue and, therefore,
greater justice, which makes everyone happy. He tries to convey his father that they
should pardon on this virtue.

Q.Significance of the Mute Scene in Justice.

Ans: The Mute Scene (Act III, scene iii) is very important from the theatrical point of
view since through this Galsworthy presents the deep agony of a helpless man,
Falder in the solitary confinement. The scene arouses not only our pity and fear, but
also our hatred for the system.

Q.Significance of the Trial Scene in Justice. Read More Drama

Ans: The Trial Scene in Justice sets the play in motion. The title of the play is directly
related to the Trial Scene which concretises the conflict between two abstract forces
of antagonismlaw versus humanity.

Exercises

Q.Would you consider Justice a problem play? Give reasons for your answer.
Q.Who stood for Falders defence in the court? Comment upon his character.
Q.How does the play Justice present womens problem in the contemporary
England?Comment upon the character of the Governor of the prison.
Q.How does Galsworthy present the prison as a torturing machine?
Q.What does Cokeson say when Falder dies?. Comment upon the language of the
prisoners in Justice.
Q.What is the dramatic significance of other prisoners in Justice?

POEM SUMMARY "THE LISTENERS" BY WALTER DE

LA MARE
THE LISTENERS
"Is there anybody there?' said the Traveler,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grasses

Of the forest's ferny floor:

And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the Traveler's head
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
'Is there anybody there?' he said.
But no one descended to the Traveler;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his Grey eyes,
Where he stood perplexed and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
By the lonely Traveler's call.
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
'Neath the starred and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:'Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word,' he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone...
SUMMARY!!!!

THE LISTENERS
The poet is simple and the sense of fear is evoked through
suggestion by the poet. It depicts its encounter of a man with
ghosts though he is not aware of it.
It was a moonlit night. A traveler came to the door of a house in
the forest. He knocked at the door calling the house-holders to
open the door. Silence was the answer to his call. A bird flew
out of the window above his head. He knocked an the door again
but there was no answer. The traveler stood there in confusion.
He did not know that there was a group of spirits listening to
him. Those phantoms were dwelling in that house. They were so
still that except the call of the visitor even the air was
motionless. The visitor felt strange and his horse too sensed the
eerie atmosphere. He move on. The visitor shouted to the
stillness that he had come here to keep his promise but no one
received him. His words echoed in the house but the spirits stood
silently. He left the place and the horse galloped away.
"The Listeners" by Walter De La Mare as A Supernatural Poem

The Listeners by Walter De La Mare is a fine supernatural poem. It is, as T S Eliot

called it, an 'inexplicable mystery'. It is a poem of haunting and the subtle way in
which the poet binds the world of the supernatural is really worth praising. It is
superb not only from the standpoint of artistic beauty with pretty words in a rhythm
or rhyme, but also from that of the presentation of details and arrangement of
incidents of the two worlds the worlds of the humans and world of phantoms, a
glimpse of something deep, another world created by words - never merge in the
poem. The closed door nicely symbolizes the eternal gap between these worlds.

A Traveller comes to the deserted house outside at night in a forest on skittish

horseback and knocks on the on the moonlit door. He asks if there is anybody in the
house. There is no response. There is deep silence all round. The Travellers horse
champs the grasses of the forests ferny ground. A bird flies out of the small tower
on the roof of the house. It flies above the head of the Travellers head. The Traveller
knocks again a second time and asks if there is anybody inside the house. This time
also nobody responds to his call; nor does anybody descend to open the door. No
head leans over the leaf-fringed sill and looks into the grey eyes of the Traveller.
Here the expression the leaf-fringed sill suggests that the house has long been
uninhabited. So weeds have overgrown the windows and doors of the house. The
Traveller becomes confused when his second call also goes unheeded. He grows
increasingly more impatient and frightened. He cannot account for the loneliness
that prevails in the house. So he stands perplexed and still.

Only a host of phantom listeners that dwell in the lone house stand listening to the
voice coming from the world of the living. In other words those who listen to the
voice of the Traveller are all ghosts. The house is a haunted one and the ghosts fell
curious about human voice. They stand crowded on the dark stair in the quit of the
faint moonlight. The air in the deserted house, inhabited by shadowy ghost, seems
to be stirred and shaken by the sound of the Travellers call. The Traveller hears no
human voice in response to his calls. Only but the stillness answers his calls. Thus a
psychological communication is established between the Traveller and the
phantoms. The poets horse moves, cropping the dark turf beneath the starred and
leafy sky. The leaves cover the star- studded sky in such a way that the leaves and
the stars seem to be interspersed in the sky, equally far and equally near.

The Traveller again knocks on the door, louder than before. He lifts his head and
says, Tell them I came and kept my word. This time also there is no response. The
phantom listeners make no movement. They stand perfectly still. The words uttered
by the Traveller resound in the empty house. The world of the phantoms is shadowy
and faint, but there is moonlight in the world of men. The moonlit door is contrasted

with the showiness prevailing inside the haunted house. The one man left awake
refers to the Traveller because he is the only man living in the region of the dead.
The Traveller mounts his horse, placing his feet upon the stirrup. He departs, leaving
us alone in the house with the phantoms, who now seem very real, who heard
everything, who are listening with us to the noise slowly fade away. The phantom
listeners hear the clatter of the horses hoofs on the stony path as he rides away.
The sound of the horses hoofs fades and dies away in the distance. And, then, deep
silence reigns supreme in the world of the dead. The expression silence surged
softly backward means that after the departure of the Traveller silence rolls back in
the place like the waves of the sea.

'The Listeners' - A Brief Interpretation of de la Mare's Poem

Is there anybody there? said the Traveller,

Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grasses
Of the forests ferny floor:
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the Travellers head:
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
Is there anybody there? he said.
But no one descended to the Traveller;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,
Where he stood perplexed and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
By the lonely Travellers call.
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
Neath the starred and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:
Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word, he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,

Though every word he spake

Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.
WalterdelaMareswellknownpoemissetinthedeadofnight,andtellsthestoryofa
travellersarrivalatahouseinthewood.Thepoemiscomposedinasimplefourlinemasculine
rhymingscheme.Themajorityoflinesendwithapunctuationmark,suchasacommaorasemi
colon,keepingasteadytempo.Thepoemiswritteninaverybasicstyle,withnostanzasor
metre.Thismeansthatitismuchmoreaccessibleforchildren,sothatitcanbereadinthestyle
ofastory,butisalsoopentodeeperscrutinyfromadults.
Thetravellerisdepictedknockingonthemoonlitdoor.Thisgeneratesaneerietone,and
impliesthatsomethingmysteriousandsupernaturalisabouttotakeplace.Thelightofthemoon
iscitedrepeatedlythroughoutthepoemperhapsthewriterhopestoconveytheideathatthe
phantomsthrivefrommoonlight,orindeedarecomponentsofthemoon.Theideaoftheturret
directlysuggestsdarknessyetagain.Itpersuadesthereadertoimagineahightowerprojectinga
largeshadowoverthedoorway,thusencompassingthetravellerinabsolutedarkness.
Thejuxtapositionofthewordssilentandchampedimmediatelyintroducesacontrast,asthe
onomatopoeicwordchampedsuggeststhesoundofeating.Thisimpliesthatthenoisesofthe
horsearealoneintheirdisturbances,andthatitistheonlysoundtobeheeded.Thisis
accentuatedagainbythealliterationinthewords:Oftheforestsfernyfloor;therepeatedf
soundssymbolisingthehorseschewing.
Imageryisusedthroughoutthepoeminordertopresentthehostsasghostlike,chillingentities.
Theworddescendedsuggestsfloatingandfeatherlikefalling;thisistheinitialsuggestionof
thesupernatural.Thisimageryissustainedbytheemploymentofthewordsphantomlisteners,
againintroducingtheconceptofghosts.Thewriterusesaninversionintheline:Nevertheleast
stirmadethelisteners.Althoughthismayhavebeendonetoretainasteadyrhythm,itisalso
possiblethattheinversionwasemployedtoalienateusevenmorefromthephantoms,
emphasizingthefactthattheyarefromadifferentworld,andthusnormallanguagedoesnot
complywiththem.Thephantomsaremadetoseemyetmorealienandeeriebytheuseofthe
phrasethatvoicefromtheworldofmenThisimageryofghostscontinuestobeprominent
throughoutthepoem.
DelaMaresuseofthewordhostwhenreferringtothephantomsimpliestwothings.Notonly
doesitsuggestthatthereisalargeassemblyoflisteners,butitalsoindicatesthattheyare(or
were)theownersofthehouse,andarethereforethehosts.PerhapsdelaMareintendedto
presenttheselistenersastheresidents,whohad,somehow,perished.

Acontrastisintroducedbythejuxtapositionofthewordsquietandvoice.Asthesetwo
wordsareplacedsoneartooneanother,italmostimpliesthatthevoicefromthetravellerwasa
weak,hushedvoice,andthatheisbarelyheardabovethesilence.Thewriterthenemploysa
paradoxinordertoaccentuatethesilenceofthephantoms,perhapstoreiteratetheirroleas
observers,ratherthanparticipants,intheworldofmen.Hewrites:Theirstillnessansweringhis
cryObviouslystillnesscannotbearesponse,asitisnotasound,andisinfactthereverse.
Thereforeithighlightstheimmensesilenceandstillnessoftheseghostlikefigures.
Thewriterusesasignificantnumberofwordstounderlinethedesolateandlonelyatmosphere,
suchasloneandempty.Thisisasimplemethodtoaddtotheeerieandhauntingatmosphere,
makingitamorechillingpoemtoread.Therearealsocountlesswordstosuggestdarknessand
gloom,suchasdarkandshadowiness.Againthismakesthepoemmoreghostly.DelaMare
writes:StoodthrongingthefaintmoonbeamsonthedarkstairTheuseofthewordstair
hereimmediatelysendsachilldownthereadersspine,asitcanbetakentohaveadouble
meaning.Whenitisreadaloud,thereaderwillvisualizeapairofeyesstaringwithcontempt.
Theideathatoneisbeingobserved,especiallywhenalone,isindeedparticularlyevocative.
Thedialogueinthepoemsustainsthereadersattentionandinterestthroughoutbymakingthe
storyseemmoreimmediateandreal.Thishastwoeffects:itismademoregripping,and
thereforeitisalsomademorechillingtothereader,asthestorybecomesmoreplausible.
Furthermore,delaMaremakesuseofsibilanceinthesecondlastline,thecruxofthepoem,
whenhewritesthesilencesurgedsoftlybackwardTherepeatedssoundisperhaps
imitatingwhispers.Thelistenershavebeensilentduringtheircontactwiththeworldofmen,but
asthetravellerdrawsback,theybegintomurmurtooneanother.Thisisindeedanunnerving
idea.Thesoundalsosuggestscontempt,asitisassociatedwiththesnake,theanimalthat
representsevil.
Thispoemisanexcellentexampleofwhatisknownasevocativesupernaturalism.Theauthors
useofwordsandrhetoricaldevicesevokethespookyandsupernaturalatmosphere,without
reallyassertingthetruthoftheparanormal,otherthanthementionofphantoms.
Atfirstglance,thereisnoobviouspurposeorhiddenmeaningtothepoem,andindeedT.S.Eliot
saidthatitwasaninexplicablemystery.Therearetwopossibleexplanationsfortheexistence
ofthesephantoms.Perhaps,asmanypeoplebelieve,theproprietorsofthehousediedfromthe
bubonicplague(avalidexplanationconsideringthattherewasnoknowledgeoftheirdeaths,and
thatthewholefamilydied).Anotherlesslikelyexplanationisthatthetravellerhimselfwasa
ghost.Thisexplainshisinabilitytoattracttheattentionofthoseinside,andcanalsoexplainhis
reasonforbeingthereperhapsheiscaughtinalimbotypestate,stillholdingmoralobligations
intherealworld.
NonethelessitisclearthatWalterdelaMaresintentionwastounnervethereader,anditis
undeniablethathehassucceededindoingso.Thecombinationofrhetoricaldevicesanduseof
particularwordsenabledhimtocreateasupernaturalandindeedparanormalatmospherethat
wasprominentthroughoutthepoem.Perhapsthatwashisonlyaimtokeepthereaderawakeat
night!

The Listeners by Walter De La Mare Summary Analysis

The Listeners by Walter De La Mare Summary Analysis:
A traveler came on horse back to a deserted house in a deep forest. He knocked on its closed
moonlit door and asked if there was anybody in it. His horse went on clamping the grass and a
bird flew out to the turret of the house, but there was perfect silence in it.
The travelers second knock with a similar question went unheeded too. For no one looked out of
the leaf-fringed window sill to enquire who had come. The house was inhabited by phantoms and
they heard the travelers voice. The traveler perplexed an still. The traveler felt in his heart the
strangeness and stillness of the phantoms suggested the character of the house. He smote on the
door a third time and said in a louder voice that he came but no one answered to his call and that
he kept his word. The phantoms made no stir and so the traveler got upon his horse and left
there.