LITERATURE
Spirituality or Soullessness?
Tatyana Yarushina
Russian and Literature teacher,
Blagoveshchensk (Russia)
There is a whole world under the cover
lying on the table. The world that captures
your mind from the first pages, making you
empathize, worry, admire, letting you get lost
and plunge into the world of contradictions
between "possession" and "beauty",
"spirituality" and "soullessness", "traditions"
and "freedom".
The epic by John Galsworthy "The
Forsyte Saga", which includes the novels "The
Man of Property", " In Chancery", "To Let" and
two interludes.
The Forsytes are “a powerful link in social
life”, a bourgeois family, represented in the
novel by energetic, purposeful, strong people
who place at the center the sense of
ownership, rather than the feelings of love and
loyalty. It is this that underlies the life and
routine of the famous dynasty in England.
As the author writes in the first part of
the novel, if someone "has possessed the gift
of psychological analysis", he could have
"witnessed a spectacle, not only delightful in
itself, but illustrative of an obscure human
problem". What problem are we talking about?
Perhaps it`s about the soul, which, according
to folk wisdom, you never know? About the
soul that after being in hide behind the money
and mansions for a long time, decided to get
some fresh air?
If we consider the novel from this
particular point of view, then it is worthwhile
clarifying the peculiarities of the family, the
believe system of its members, basic life
principles. First of all, this is a practical view of
everything. The Forsytes create nothing, "not
another of them all had soiled his hands by
creating anything", therefore they consider
that they have the right to acquire what is
already ready and necessary for expanding of
their property.
There is no any art in the life of the
Forsytes, there are no singers, actors, artists,
architects, sculptors and writers among
them, spiritual and creative people; their
family is mainly represented by lawyers,
merchants, publishers, insurance and sales
agents. However, there is an exception there,
that is young Jolyon, who broke off with his
family and had been combining the work of an
insurance agent and a painter. Admiring a
garden, he once said to himself: "I've made
nothing that will live! I've been an amateur, a
mere lover, not a creator". Isn't that
something where one of the Forsytes dramas
originate from? The inability to create and
love? Dilettantism?
Once the author calls the Forsytes the
"unconscious artists", but this statement
refers to their attention to detail, that the
family turns its demanding look to; for
example, Philip Bosini's tasteless hat, that had
been left on a chair and stirred up the whole
couple by its inappropriate look. However,
such an attention to appearance is a
distinctive feature of a powerful bourgeois
class. And is there anyone looking deep into
the human soul, that is hidden behind the
exquisite attire?
64
SUNRISE
February 2019 №2