[abstract] john galsworthy is one of the most prominent english critical realistic writer and playwright in the 20th century. his well-known medium-length novel the apple tree has shown a romantic realistic inclination. in this novel, galsworthy tells us the love tragedy between ashurst and megan. it is found that the origin of the tragedy is the unequal capitalist society. ashurst has dual personality. on one hand, he is selfish, irresponsible, eager to defend for himself and deceives himself as well as others; on the other hand, he indulges himself in pity and chivalry. john galsworthy had not smashed the trammels of the capitalist system. through his portrayal of ashurst’s personality, his limitation revealed. on one hand he had realized the declining capitalist society; on the other hand, he intended to defend his own class. pity and chivalry were just tools that he used to prettify the bourgeois. he wanted to use aesthetics in the literature to cover the ugly aspect of the bourgeoisie. he was a bourgeois himself.
the paper, on the basis of the previous findings, explores the essence of the bourgeoisie in the apple tree. it begins with the writing background of john galswothy. then it explores john galsworthy’s portrayal of ashurst’s personality, and it analyzes the origin of the tragedy. at last it analyzes the essence of “pity” and “chivalry”, and the romantic flavour shown in the story. it’s hoped that the present study will further study john galsworthy and the apple tree.
[key words] the apple tree; dual personality; pity; chivalry; romantic; bourgeois

 

【摘 要】 约翰·高尔斯华绥是二十世纪英国著名的批判现实主义作家和剧作家。Www.11665.Com他的中篇小说《苹果树》表现出一种浪漫化的现实主义倾向。在这个故事中作者描写了阿舍斯特和梅根的爱情悲剧。通过分析本文发现造成这出悲剧的根本原因是不平等的资本主义社会。阿舍斯特的性格具有两面性:一方面是自私自利，不负责任，热衷于为自己辩护和自欺欺人；另一方面是沉溺在所谓的“怜悯”和“骑士精神”中。高尔斯华绥并没有冲破资本主义制度的束缚。通过他对阿舍斯特性格的刻画，他的阶级局限性也体现了出来：他一方面已经认识到了腐朽衰落的资本主义社会，并勇敢的把它揭示出来；另一方面他力图挽救资本主义制度，为本阶级寻找出路。怜悯和骑士精神是其对本阶级的美化，他企图用文学中的美来掩盖丑陋的资本主义。他本身就是一个资产阶级。
本文在前人分析的基础上探讨《苹果树》中体现的资产阶级的本性。 它首先分析高尔斯华绥的写作背景，其次分析他对阿舍斯特两面性性格的刻画，最后分析造成阿舍斯特和梅根爱情悲剧的根本原因。另外，本文还将分析 “怜悯”和 “骑士精神”的实质和浪漫色彩在小说中的体现。希望本文的分析能对高尔斯华绥及《苹果树》做进一步的了解。
【关键词】《苹果树》; 两面性；怜悯；骑士精神；浪漫化；资产阶级

1. introduction
john galsworthy, one of the winners of nobel prize for literature, is one of the most prominent english criticized realistic writer and playwright. he takes the english background from the end of the 19th century to the 20th century as his setting, using naturalism as his writing method analyzing the moral and social problem of the english. his works have strongly attached the unequal capitalist society. in his realistic novels, he not only describes the everyday life of the upper class, but also reveals their mental outlook. he has shown great pity to the poor. he has written lots of works, such as the forsyte saga, a modern comedy and the end of the chapter.
the apple tree, a medium-length novel, is also written by him. he says that it is one of his best five stories.[1] it is written in beautiful words and is worth reading. in this novel, galswothy tells us the love tragedy between ashurst and megan. ashurst first loves megan for the reason of pity, and then deserts her also because of pity. this paper intends to examine galsworthy’s handling of ashurst’s personality, to uncover the essence of capitalist society, and to reveals the fact that john galsworthy is a bourgeois himself by analyzing his portrayal of ashurst’s dual personality.

2. writing background of john galsworthy
john galsworthy was born in a well--to–do bourgeois family. through his life, he is preoccupied with the social injustice in his time. the time he lives and works is the period that the capitalist countries developed from free competition to monopoly capitalism. at this time, the capitalist society’s all kinds of contradictions have become more and more intensified. the capitalist system has passed its golden period and shown a declining tendency. english, used to be the most powerful country in the world, at this time also shows a declining trend. at the early 20th century, all kinds of social transformation trend of thought appear and the workers’ movements also upsurge at that time.
douglas hewitt says “our lives have always been largely controlled by economic and political realities, and this is true whether we realize it or not”.[2] so is john galsworthy. the social upheaval influences his writing. living in this time he stickes to his democratic and free stand. he never gives up condemning the ugly aspect of the civilized capitalist society.[3] he also wants to find a way out for his class. on one hand, he has seen the declining tendency and contradictions of the capitalist society and bravely revealed them in his works; on the other hand, he aims to improve his class wishing it might retain its ruling position in society.[4] so he is a bourgeois himself. he has never smashed the trammels of the capitalist system. in the apple tree, he has not touched the foundation of the capitalist society. the fear that his class might collapse makes him place his hope on the characters that he criticizes, and ashurst is one of them.

3. john galsworthy’s portrayal of ashurst
in the novel, the author uses narration interspersed with flash-back as writing method successfully portraying the dual personality of ashurst. through the portrayal, he uncovers the essence of bourgeoisie.
3.1 dual personality of ashurst
ashurst unconsciously falls in love with the simple country girl megan just because he finds her pray for him and kiss his pillow secretly. although he knows that megan is “lack of intellectual personality”, and is not in the same class with him, he                                                                                                                                                        promises her that he would marry her. he makes this decision just because of his impulse and the drive of the beautiful spring.[5] when he leaves megan and arrives at torquay, he meets with stella who is also very beautiful and is well-matched with him in social and economic status, he quickly falls in love with her. he regrets what he has promised to megan. after repeating mental struggle, he chooses stella and cruelly abandons megan. through the galsworthy’s portrayal of the character—ashurst, we can see that ashurst has dual personality: one is selfish, willful, irresponsible, eager to defend for himself and deceives himself as well as others; the other is that he indulges himself in “pity” and “chivalrous spirit”.
3.2 psychoanalysis of ashurst 
john galsworthy is good at psychoanalyzing the characters in his works.[6] to reveal ashurst’s dual personality, he also uses psychoanalysis as his writing method. through psychoanalysis, ashurst’s dual personality is vividly and incisively displayed, especially in the last paragraph of the story. at that time, ashurst was going to have a picnic with the hallidays, on the way he saw megan who came a long way to torquay searching for him. whether to see her or not, he had to make a decision. in this paragraph, ashurst’s complicated feelings reached to the highest point. his dual personality was also shown in the best way. it is a very long paragraph. the following section divides it into several paragraphs and discusses how ashurst’s dual personality works. (the following paragraphs with quotation mark are taken from the novel the apple tree.)
“from the corner he could only just see megan; a long way ahead now. he ran a few steps, checked himself, and dropped into a walk, with each step nearer to her, further from the hallidays, he walked more and more slowly.”
john galsworthy is an outstanding linguist. the words: checked, dropped into, nearer to, further from, and more and more slowly vividly reflect ashurst’s complicated feelings. he didn’t know what to do. to ask megan to go back or to go back with her, he had no ideas. he had to follow her and keep thinking. when he became nearer to her and further to the hallidays, he still had not cleared his mind. but he was afraid to be away from the hallidays, so he walked more and more slowly.
“how did it alter anything—this sight of her? how make the going to her, and that which must come of it, less ugly? for there was no hiding it – since he had met the hallidays he had become gradually sure that he would not marry megan. it would only be a wild love- time, a troubled, remorseful, difficult time and then- well, then he would get tired, just because she gave him everything, was so simple, and so trustful, so dewy. and dew- wears off!”
in these sentences, ashurst’s irresponsible attitude is clearly shown. he thought that the love with megan was ugly, that their love time was a wild love time. he had decided to desert her and to stay with the hallidays, but he had not proper excuses. at last he chose megan’s simplicity and trusty as his excuse to abandon her. he was hypocritical and deceived himself as well as others.
“the little spot of faded colour, her tam-o’s-shanter cap, wavered on far in front of him, as she looked up into every face, and at the house windows. had any man ever such a cruel moment to go through? whatever he did, he felt he would be a beast. and he uttered a groan which made a nursemaidturn and stare. he saw megan stopped and                                                                                             lean against the sea-wall, looking at the sea before, and even in her distress could not resist that sight. ‘yes- she’s seen nothing.’ he thought; ‘everything’s before her. and just for a few weeks’ passion, i shall be cutting her life to ribbons. i’d better go and hang myself rather than do it!”
 ashurst was compassionate. he bore no malice to hurt megan. the sentence “had any man ever such a cruel moment to go through?” shows that he didn’t want to make such a cruel decision. he pitied her and condemned what he had done to her. galsworthy used the word “beast” to show ashurst’s deep regret. in these sentences, ashurst’s another character—indulging himself in pity and chivalry reveals.
“and suddenly he seemed to see stella’s calm eyes looking into his, the wave of fluffy hair on her forehead stirred by the wind. ah! it would be madness, would mean giving up all that he respected, and his own self-respect. he turned and walked quickly back towards the station.”
these sentences show that ashurst was not in the same class with megan. he was in the upper class and megan lower class. when he thought of stella, his class viewpoint came into being. in his opinion, to marry megan would mean giving up all that he respected, and his own self-respect. the word “quickly” in the last sentence shows ashurst’s irresponsible attitude. he and megan were not equal in spirit and personality.[7] megan loved him whole-heartedly, but he look down upon such kind of love.
“but memory of that poor, bewildered little figure, those anxious eyes searching the passers-by, smore him too hard again, and once more he turned towards the sea. the cap was no longer visible; that little spot of colour had vanished in the stream of the noon promenaders. and impelled by the passion of longing, the dearth which comes on one when life seems to be whirling something out of reach, he hurried forward. she was nowhere to be seen; for half an hour he looked for her; then on the beach flung himself face downward in the sand. to find her again he knew he had only to go to the station and wait till she returned from her fruitless quest, to take her train home; or to take train himself and go back to the farm, do that she found him there when she returned. but he lay inert in the sand, among the indifferent groups of children with their spades and buckets. pity that little figure wandering, seeking, was well-nigh merged in the spring-running of his blood; for it was all wild feeling now—the chivalrous part, what there had been of it, was gone. he wanted it all with a horrible intensity, as the faun wants the nymph. the quick chatter of the little bright trout-stream, the dazzle of the buttercups, the rocks of the old ‘wild men’; the calling of the cuckoos and yaffles, the hooting of the owls; and the red moon peeping out of the velvet dark at the living whiteness of the blossom; and her face just out of reach at the window, lost in it love-look; and her heart against his, her lips answering his, under the apple tree- all this besieged him. yet he lay inert. what was it which struggled against pity and this feverish longing, and kept him there paralysed in the warm sand.”
ashurst pitied megan again. he couldn’t get rid of the memory of her. the sense of guilty made him searching for her again, but in fact he was afraid to see her again. he didn’t know whether “to take her train home; or to take train himself and go back to the farm.” he searched megan again and again just in his heart, but not in real action. maybe in his heart he called out again and again—megan, come back to me! but he just lay inert in the sand and struggled against pity and feverish longing. he was hypocritical and deceived himself as well as others.

“three flaxen heads- a fair face with friendly blue-grey eyes, a slim hand pressing his, a quick voice speaking his name-“so you do believe in being good?” yes, and a sort of atmosphere as of some old walled-in english garden, with pinks, and cornflowers, and roses, and scents of lavender and lilac-cool and fair, untouched, almost holy—all that he had been brought up to feel was clean and good. and suddenly he thought: ‘she might come along the front again and see me!’ and he got up and made his way to the rock at the far end of the beach. there, with the spray biting into his face, he could think more cooling. to go back to the farm and love megan out in the woods, among the rocks, with everything around wild and fitting—that, he knew, was impossible, utterly. to transplant her to a great town, to keep, in some little flat or rooms, one who belonged so wholly to the nature—the poet in him shrank from it. his passion would be a mere sensuous revel, soon gone; in london, her very simplicity, her lack of all intellectual quality, would make her his secret plaything—nothing else. the longer he sat on the rock, with his feet dangling, over a greenish pool from which the sea was ebbing, the more clearly he saw this; but it was as if her arms and all of her were slipping slowly, slowly down from him, into the pool, to be carried away out to sea; and her face looking up, her lost face with beseeching eyes, and dark, wet hair—possessed, haunted, tortured him! he got up at last; scaled the lou rockcliff, and made his way down into a sheltered cove. perhaps in the sea he could get back his control—lose this fever! and stripping off his clothes, he swam out. he wanted to tire himself so that nothing mattered, and swam recklessly, fast and far; then suddenly, for no reason, felt afraid. suppose he could not reach shore again—suppose the current set him out—or he got cramp, like halliday! he turned to swim in. the red cliff looked a long way off. if he were drowned they would find his clothes. the hallidays would know; but megan perhaps never—they took no newspaper at the farm. and phil halliday’s words came back to him again: ‘a girl at cambridge i might have—glad i hadn’t got her on my mind!’ and in that moment of unreasoning fear he vowed he would not have her on his mind. then his fear left him; he swam in easily enough, dried himself in the sun, and put on his clothes. his heart felt sore, but no longer ached; his body cool and refreshed.”
as is seen from above, ashurst was a bourgeois. he admired the life of the upper class and despised that of the lower class. it was impossible for him to cast aside the comfortable life. he thought that he was a poet and would not imprison megan in some little flat, but that was just his excuse. living together with megan on the farm among the poor, he felt chivalrous; however, if they live in the big city among the rich, he would feel shameful. he was hypocritical and eager to defend for himself. the action that he swam to the sea to drown himself was just a false appearance that he used to cheat himself and others. it was ridiculous.
john galsworthy was a prominent writer. in this long paragraph, he vividly presented ashurst’s dual personality. through the psychoanalysis of ashurst, he had portrayed a typical bourgeois image. he had shown great pity for the poor and deep detestation to the bourgeoisie.

4. causes of the tragedy
      john galsworthy is an outstanding writer. through the narration of the story, he makes us believe that the equal relationship in personality and spirit between the lovers is the basic condition that leads to a happy marriage. he seems to tell us that the unequality between ashurst and megan is the main reason that causes the tragedy. he dares not touch the foundation of the capitalist society.
4.1 unequal relationship between ashurst and megan
ashurst and megan are not in the same class. they are not in the equal relationship. first, they are unequal in economic status. ashurst is in the upper class and megan the lower class. ashurst is the only son of a late professor of chemistry and has four hundred pounds a year. he has been educated in the university. megan lives in her uncle’s farm and has never go to school. she is lack of intellectual ability. second, they are not equal in personality and spirit. ashurst has dual personality. megan is simple and kind-hearted. her love to ashurst shows kind of slave-like obedience. she loves ashurst at the first sight of him, but she dares not tell him. her only hope is just to stay with him and take care of him. when he asks her to marry him, she says “oh, no! i could not. i only want to be with you!” she thinks that he would not love her. she never thinks that they are equal. she will always treat him as her master.
4.2 the origin of the tragedy
megan’s death and stella’s miserable marriage certainly have inseparable relation with ashust. it seems that they are both caused by him. but obviously that ashurst is not the kind of person who willfully dally with women.[8] he first loves megan whole-heartedly and then loves stella sincerely. and obviously, megan’s slave-like obedience has inseparable relation with the tragedy. but it is not the origin either. with the development of the story, we can see that it is the hierarchy capitalist society that leads to the tragedy. ashurst first loves megan but when he meets with stella, his love to megan becomes vague. he thinks that “to transplant her to great town, to keep in some little flat or rooms, one who belonged so wholly to nature” is impossible. it is the class viewpoint that makes him have such kind of idea. he can’t shake off the yoke of his own class. he is not brave enough to cast aside his social position and comfortable life. megan will never be brave enough to fight against the unequal society. her death in such kind of condition is unavoidable. through the narration of the story, we can see that it is the unequal capitalist society that caused the tragedy.

5. limitation of john galsworthy
as an english realist at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, john galsworthy seeks for new ways and means revealing the truth of life. he is an outstanding writer. but he also has his own limitation.
5.1 weak “pity”
the word “pity” appears in the story for many times. but such kind of pity is weak pity under the romantic reality created by the aestheticist. it is this kind of pity which can’t stand the test of love that causes the galsworthy’s writing purpose and the theme of his literary work. at the beginning of the story, there is a discussion between ashurst and garton. (the following paragraphs with quotation mark are taken from the novel the apple tree.)
“‘my dear fellow’, garton was saying, ‘pity’s only an effect of self-consciousness; it’s a disease of the last five thousand years. the world is happier without.’
ashurst following the clouds with his eyes, answered:
‘it’s the pearl in the oyster, anyway.’
‘my dear chap, all our modern unhappiness comes from pity. look at animals, and red indians, limited to feeling their own occasional misfortunes; then look at ourselves—never free from feeling the toothaches of others. let’s get back to feeling for nobody, and have a better time.’
‘you’ll never practice that!’
garton pensively stirred the hotch—potch of his hair.
‘to attain full growth, one must’s be squeamish. to starve oneself emotionally’s a mistake. all emotion is to the good—enriches life.’
‘yes, and when it runs up against chivalry?’
‘ah! that’s so english! if you speak of emotion the english always think you want something physical, and are shocked. they’re afraid of passion, but not of lust—oh, no! –so long as they can keep it secret.’”
pity is the footnote of the whole story. it reveals galsworthy’s moral criterion and aesthetic standards. galsworthy seems to tell us that ashurst makes mistakes because of pity. “pity” itself is beautiful. it is a kind of noble sentiment and is much more important than mistake. he praises ashurst’s “pity”. he looks the love tragedy between ashurst and megan as a mistake. in this novel we see no approvement and negation to ashurst. what we see is ashurst’s complicated character in the romantic realistic love story. from this we can easily understand galsworthy’s class stand. in this novel, he shows a complete picture of english bourgeois society, but “a bourgeois himself”.[9] he nevertheless clearly sees the declining of his class and truthfully portrays this in the story. his criticism of the bourgeois is limited to the spheres or ethics and aesthetics only. he has not touch the foundation of the capitalist society. “he aimed to improve his class, wishing it might retain its ruling position in society.”[10]
5.2 hypocritical chivalry
ashurst always thinks that he is chivalrous. when he kisses megan, he thinks that he is chivalrous. when he compares himself with rude joe, he thinks that he is chivalrous. but according to his behaviours, it is not difficult to find the essence of chivalry. in ashurst’s mind, chivalry just means the elegant behaviour of the educated people. it has nothing to do with ethic. he first loves megan and then deserts her which leads to her death. so such kind of chivalry is hypocritical chivalry. john galsworthy praises such kind of chivalry. in this novel, he criticizes the hypocritical rich men, and praises the simple countrymen. at the same time, he seems to tell us that the gap in spirit between the rich and the poor can’t be merged, but if the rich men have sense of chivalry, the world would still be beautiful. ashurst’s dual personality reflects john galsworthy’s limitation. on one hand he wants to uncover the ugly aspects of the capitalist society; on the other hand, he wants to protect it.  chivalry is the medium that he uses to beautify the ugly aspects of ashurst.

6. romantic flavor shown in the story
    the love story between ashurst and megan is an old story. but it is beautifully described by john galsworthy. he is a splendid writer. in this story, romantic emotional appeal is shown in the plot that he worked out, the characters that he portrayed and the description of the circumstances.
first, romantic literary flavour is clearly shown in the plot that he works out. john galsworthy narrates the story interspersed with flashbacks. at the beginning of the story, there are only two characters appearing. it is ashurst and stella. they were motoring to the place where ashurst and megan first met to celebrate their silver-wedding day. when ashurst suddenly recognized the place, his memory of the love story that he used to have with megan began. when the story ended, he came back to the reality. the death of megan is only told at the end of the story. such kind of plot-making makes the readers be kept in suspense until the very end of the story.
    second, the portrayal of the personality of the characters shows romantic flavour. ashurst has dual personality; megan is simple and infatuated; stella refined and restrained. especially ashurst’s personality is vividly portrayed here.
   third, the description of the circumstances shows romantic flavour. john galsworthy is a splendid linguist. when he narrated the story, he also beautifully described the environment. the beauty of the farm and the apple tree gives readers the sense that they are just in the real nature and live together with the characters. the beauty of the nature and the tragedy of megan put together give readers deep impressions.
    in this story, john galsworthy also uses allusion to deepen the color of tragedy. the title “the apple tree” easily makes the readers think of the garden of eden and the tragedy between eve and adam. he seems to tell the readers that the tragedy between ashurst and megan is just like the tragedy between eve and adam. the sentence “the apple-tree, the singing and the gold.” appearing at the beginning and the end of the story is taken from the tragedy hippolytus. here john galsworthy hints that ashurst’s love to megan is just like the joke that aphrodite plays on hippolytus. their love will turn out to be a tragedy. such kind of writing method not only presents a beautiful sad story to the readers, but also give them space to imagine the illusion.

conclusion
realism means “(in art and literature, esp. following romanticism in the 19th century) the showing of things as they really are.[11] realism is to show the reality of the society. truthfulness, tendentiousness and feeling for the people are characters of realism.[12] realistic writers, taking reality as their subject matter, express their ideas through the portrayal of the characters in their works.[13] john galsworthy insistes the idea that literature came from reality.[14] he is a realist. the apple tree was written in 1916. in this story galsworthy tells us the beautiful sad story between ashurst and megan. through the portrayal of ashurst’s dual personality, he unmasks the unequality of the capitalist society and condemns the hypocritical bourgeois. he shows great pity to the poor.
however “reality will never be perfect. in such kind of reality, there will be no perfect realism”.[15] john galsworthy is not a perfect realist. he had not smashed the trammels of the capitalist system. marx and engels insist that “a work of art should conform to its author’s outlook on the world, since only that outlook could give it artistic unity”.[16] ashurst’s dual personality reflects galsworthy’s outlook of the world. he willfully beautify the bourgeois intellectual. he attempts to cover the ugly aspects of the capitalist society by using aesthetics in the literary works. pity and chivalry are his medium used to mediate the conflicts between the opposed classes. by creating romantic flavour in the story, he misleads the readers and gives them a false imagination of the capitalist society. he is a bourgeois.
 the apple tree not only presents us a sad story but also makes us think about the essence of the hierarchy capitalist society.
it is hoped that the present study will explore john galsworthy and his novel the apple tree in a further step.

bibliography
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[2] douglas hewitt. english fiction of the early modern period 1890—1940[m]. longman literature in english series, 1988: p5.
[3] 屠枫, 周永启. 苹果树[m]. 解放军文艺出版社，2005: p2.
[4] liu bingshan. a short history of english literature[m]. henan people’s publishing house, 1993: p462.
[5] 同[1] p14.
[6] 陈淳. 二十世纪现实主义的重要代表—高尔斯华绥[j]. 北京师范大学，1993:p15.
[7] 李恒方. 曼吉和她的“苹果树”[j]. 河南大学学报，1995:p33.
[8] 同[1] p14.
[9] 同[4] p462.
[10] 同[4] p462.
[11] 艾迪生·维斯理·朗文出版公司辞典部编. 朗文当代高级英语辞典（英英.英汉双解）[m].  商务印书馆，1998：p1249.
[12] 同[6] p15.
[13] 王忠祥, 聂珍钊. 外国文学史[m]. 华中科技大学出版社，1999：p31.
[14] 同[6] p15
[15] 郭爱竹. 简论约翰·高尔斯华绥的创作主题及其在短篇小说《日本榅桲》中的体现[j]. 河北大学成人大学教育学院学报，2004:p26.
[16] 陈嘉. 英国文学作品选读[m]. 北京：商务印书馆，1988：p196.