Main Characters in John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga
Main characters of Forsytes (Soames and Irene)
The Forsyte Saga, in particular The Man of Property, is regarded as John Galsworthy’s most enduring work. It is the story of one upper middle-class family in England in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The Man of Property opens in June 1886, at the gathering of the Forsyte clan, at the home of Old Jolyon, to celebrate the engagement of his granddaughter, June, child of young Jolyon, to the architect Philip Bosinney, an outsider to the clan. Old Jolyon’s nephew, Soames, the thirty-one-year-old successful notary, is the perfect Forsyte. He is wealthy, slender, pale, rather bald, strong chinned, and always impeccably dressed. Moreover, he has, after several vain attempts, married a great beauty, Irene, whom he considers as much his property as his stocks and bonds and the paintings he collects and sometimes sells at great profit.
The most important character is Soames Forsyte, the title character of The Man of Property. He is a successful lawyer and a collector of paintings. He is married to Irene Heron, whom he and society regard as his property. At the climax of the book, Soames rapes her. Galsworthy was horrified at the situation of a woman who is forced into the sexual act with a man she does not love. He did not agree with the prevailing attitude of the time that a husband had the right to his wife’s body.
Irene was only twenty-two at her marriage, the daughter of a poor widowed professor, and she was quite incompatible with her stepmother. She did not love Soames, but yielded to his persistent blandishments partly out of a need for security. Now Soames is sexually frustrated by his wife’s coldness. He finds he cannot fully “possess” her. As if to place her like a jewel in a superbly expensive setting, he commissions Bosinney to build him a mansion at Robin Hill. Irene and the architect fall in love and begin an affair. She denies herself to Soames, who yearns for her all the more.
The
The Forsyte Saga, in particular The Man of Property, is regarded as John Galsworthy’s most enduring work. It is the story of one upper middle-class family in England in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The Man of Property opens in June 1886, at the gathering of the Forsyte clan, at the home of Old Jolyon, to celebrate the engagement of his granddaughter, June, child of young Jolyon, to the architect Philip Bosinney, an outsider to the clan. Old Jolyon’s nephew, Soames, the thirty-one-year-old successful notary, is the perfect Forsyte. He is wealthy, slender, pale, rather bald, strong chinned, and always impeccably dressed. Moreover, he has, after several vain attempts, married a great beauty, Irene, whom he considers as much his property as his stocks and bonds and the paintings he collects and sometimes sells at great profit.
The most important character is Soames Forsyte, the title character of The Man of Property. He is a successful lawyer and a collector of paintings. He is married to Irene Heron, whom he and society regard as his property. At the climax of the book, Soames rapes her. Galsworthy was horrified at the situation of a woman who is forced into the sexual act with a man she does not love. He did not agree with the prevailing attitude of the time that a husband had the right to his wife’s body.
Irene was only twenty-two at her marriage, the daughter of a poor widowed professor, and she was quite incompatible with her stepmother. She did not love Soames, but yielded to his persistent blandishments partly out of a need for security. Now Soames is sexually frustrated by his wife’s coldness. He finds he cannot fully “possess” her. As if to place her like a jewel in a superbly expensive setting, he commissions Bosinney to build him a mansion at Robin Hill. Irene and the architect fall in love and begin an affair. She denies herself to Soames, who yearns for her all the more.
The