The Japanese Quince

Some scholars have argued that the blackbird is not significant symbolically but is merely a prop—a favorite English songbird that one might expect to appear in a story of this period. However, the description of the blackbird perching “in the heart of the tree” (Paragraph 5) suggests otherwise. The bird and tree function together as a single symbolic unit. While the tree symbolizes a fully embodied life that is uninhibited and dynamic, marked by growth and the acceptance of change, the blackbird is the heart of the tree. The anatomical term “heart” is used to describe the blackbird’s position in the tree as well as the location in Nilson’s chest where he feels an emptiness: “a faint aching just above the heart” (Paragraph 5). Through this verbal repetition, a link is established between Nilson’s condition and the blackbird’s song. All that the bird represents—independence, spontaneity, ecstasy—is what Nilson lacks. Each time the bird appears in the story, it is singing or chanting its song, as though beckoning Nilson to a different kind of life.

The garden unifies the themes, imagery, and characters in the story. The garden symbolizes an original state, a natural landscape—much as the original village of Kensington (the location of Campden Hill) was a relic of England’s past. The garden and, specifically, the tree in the garden may even allude allegorically to the biblical Garden of Eden. Nilson’s life is enclosed within this garden, but unlike Eden, it is not a fruitful paradise but a barren desert of experience. The tree is a hint or echo of a lost paradise that Nilson has become separated from. In the story in Genesis, Adam and Eve experience separation when they partake of the tree’s fruit. This tree has no fruit, but it is nonetheless blossoming with life and the blackbird’s song. It is both the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. Adam and Eve became self-aware and self-conscious of their nakedness. Similarly, Nilson and Tandram become aware—and ashamed—of themselves as they stand before the tree and contemplate its beauty. They realize that they are “naked,” that is, transparent and vulnerable to one another. As a result, they both retreat into isolation, just as Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden into exile.

The hand-glass functions as both an emblem and a symbol. As an emblem, it is an extension of Nilson’s character and a token of his affluence, social status, and personal taste. As a symbol, the hand-glass represents the world of appearance. Moreover, the mirror anticipates the encounter with Tandram, in which the two men are mirror images of one another. The ivory designates the object as a luxury item, but it also hints at the colonial system that sustained the wealthy lifestyle of Britain’s upper-middle class, tying into the story’s theme about Materialism and Nature. Ivory was imported from England’s colonies in Africa and India, suggesting the complex ways in which Britain profited from imperial exploitation. Galsworthy was aware of these moral inconsistencies and satirized the values of Britain’s wealthier classes throughout his novels, stories, and plays.