29 pages • 58 minutes read
John GalsworthyThe Japanese Quince
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1910A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Irony
Dramatic irony is at the center of the story as the narrator guides the reader to understand more about Nilson than he understands about himself. The style of narration is suited to this, as the reader has access to Nilson’s thoughts and feelings but is able to understand them in ways that go beyond Nilson’s awareness. When Nilson and Tandram meet, for example, the narrator describes Tandram in precisely the same way as Nilson had been described. The reader senses immediately that each man is a mirror reflection of the other, but Nilson seems unaware of the resemblance.
Verbal irony is also woven throughout the descriptions of Nilson’s thoughts and actions. For example, the word “meditations” is ironically applied to material wealth in Paragraph 2. This word is normally used in a spiritual sense, and its unexpected deployment in the context of stock prices is jarring. Similarly, the rather innocuous word “unaccountably,” used in the final paragraph to describe Nilson’s troubled mood, ironically implies a connection to accounting and finance.
Personification
Both the blackbird and the tree are given human-like characteristics. This is most evident when the tree responds positively to the admiring gazes of Nilson and Tandram: “And the little tree as if appreciating their attention, quivered and glowed” (Paragraph 19). In this instance, the literary device moves beyond personification to the so-called “pathetic fallacy” (from the Greek pathos, meaning “emotion”), whereby human emotions are attributed to non-human objects. In the next sentence, the blackbird is described as giving “a loud, clear call” (Paragraph 19). Once again, the description straddles the boundary between human and non-human agency; however, the word “call” implies an intentional utterance, something more deliberate than a simple birdsong. The blackbird is beckoning the men to another kind of life.
Similarly, the narrator refers to the tree “in the heart of whose branches the bird was perched” (Paragraph 5); the word “heart” is used metaphorically to merely mean “the center.” However, in the context of the story and considering other descriptions, it is reasonable to read “heart” in human terms. Nilson’s physical ailment is located near his (literal) heart. The tree is described as seeming “more living than a tree” (Paragraph 23). The personification functions to highlight the contrast between the actual lives that Nilson/Tandram are living and the life that is possible if they were to listen to the impulses of their hearts.
Tone
The story is narrated in a straightforward way that establishes a neutral tone in keeping with Galsworthy’s naturalistic style. This relatively plain style rejected the highly embellished, grammatically complex, and “showy” style of much Victorian-era writing; however, it also serves a meaningful purpose in the story, reflecting the plainness, predictability, and surface simplicity of Nilson’s life. The sentences are not elaborate or excessively detailed. Actions, objects, and thoughts are directly narrated with little or no commentary. Against the neutral palette of this naturalistic tone, the occasional use of hyperbole or understatement becomes more noticeable. Hyperbole, which is an intentional form of exaggeration, can be used for ironic or even satiric effect when juxtaposed with a largely neutral tone. For example, when Nilson is described as “emboldened” to speak to Mr. Tandram, the heightened language is almost heroic, suggesting a level of courage that is at odds with the simple act of greeting a neighbor.
Setting
The London setting of Campden Hill, a neighborhood in Kensington, is significant. Modern London is a sprawling city and is the product of centuries of integrating smaller communities, towns, and villages on the outskirts into the city limits. Kensington was originally one of these small villages on a prominent road leading out of London. Over time, the city grew and absorbed these communities. The integration of Kensington into London occurred between 1850 and 1880; what had once been largely rural and pastoral became part of the urban landscape of London. Noted for its healthy air and its rural feel, Kensington featured newly built blocks of red-brick flats in planned neighborhoods. Just as today, these neighborhoods were highly desirable to the upper-middle class in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The little garden in the center of the block evokes Kensington’s rural past and the changing face of London; these aspects of the setting would have been immediately recognizable to Galsworthy’s audience.
The humanmade nature of the environment is another aspect of the setting. Everything in the story (apart from the blackbird) is manufactured, manicured, and manipulated. The garden is an artificial representation of Kensington’s rural past. Nilson looks out a French window and walks down “scrolled iron steps” when he goes outside (Paragraph 22).
Finally, the time of year (the onset of spring) is significant in that it signals a time of renewal and latent possibilities. In a letter, Galsworthy explained the significance of the season. He said that the story “attempts to convey the feeling that comes to all of us—even the most unlikely—in the spring.” He went on to call the story “a satire on the profound dislike which most of us have of exhibiting the feelings which Nature produces in us, when those feelings are for one quite primitive and genuine” (Galsworthy, John. The Short Stories of John Galsworthy, edited by Jan Hendrik Smit, Druk D. van Sijn, 1947, p. 45). Nilson, however, turns away from this promise of rebirth and renewal—turning away from the green leaves and pink and white flowers and returning instead to the black and white lines of his newspaper.
