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Plays: Second Series:
The Eldest Son
The Little Dream
Justice
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The Eldest Son, by John Galsworthy.
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This play in its theme is similar to another one, The Silver Box, by Galsworthy, in that there are two young men across caste lines whose crime is same, but result different due to status; the difference in the two plays is the nature of the crime, and every other circumstance and more.
Here it's not about theft, but about marriage, or rather, refusal or inability to marry even when there's a baby coming, and how society looks at such conduct. The latter, while it should be, is far from independent of the social caste of the couple, and that's mostly the point.
Galsworthy has solved it a tad close to convenient but attempting to save some grace, by the angry father of the girl giving her courage through his pride, to refuse the young master's "offer of marriage", which the young boy has made not only firmly but stuck to despite his almost whole family attempting to dissuade him; nevertheless, one has to wonder why the lot weren't amenable to the young boy's scheme of marrying and relocating to Canada, why they thought it was tragic, why they thought the marriage must fail. In the social setup of rigid castes in England or Britain, they could be predicting correctly; but in say, California, it wouldn't have mattered. Or even in the snobbish Southrn society, where the girl would be considered more of a lady than in Britain, while his antecedents would be serving him better than his ability to earn, the latter unproved as long as he lived in Britain.
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June 04, 2021 - June 05, 2021.
Purchased June 14, 2013.
Kindle Edition, 68 pages
Published May 17th 2012
(first published September 1st 1964)
Original Title
The Eldest Son: A Domestic Drama in Three Acts
ASIN:- B0084B3L1C
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The Little Dream, by John Galsworthy.
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A charming play, not only reminding one of alpine air and snow clad peaks, wildflowers and streams, clear air much more.
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May 26, 2021 - May 26, 2021.
Purchased August 12, 2013.
Kindle Edition, 31 pages
Published May 17th 2012
(first published September 26th 2004)
ASIN:- B0084B3RZC
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Justice, by John Galsworthy.
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Calder, a new junior clerk in the How law office, has changed a cheque from nine pounds to ninety pounds, expecting it to be blamed on the clerk he'd replaced, who's migrated to Australia. He's caught squarely because the cheque book was in pocket of How junior who was out of town, and the change from nine to ninety pounds was recorded on the stub as well, so the person who migrated coukdnt hsve done it.
But the day he was caught was the night he expected to get out of town with Ruth Honeywell and her children, trying to save her from her abusive husband who's threatened to slit her throat.
Galsworthy has a defence lawyer pleading, apart from circumstances, a weak character for the poòr young man; which makes one wonder. Would they portray him as a weak character in the rough West if, under same circumstances, he stole the money, to help the woman he loved so she could flee with him and escape the murderous husband? Or would he be seen as a hero, even, to be helped further by a stronger hero?
Perhaps Galsworthy said it in a nutshell through the defence lawyer who says:-
" ... Gentlemen, Justice is a machine that, when some one has once given it the starting push, rolls on of itself. Is this young man to be ground to pieces under this machine for an act which at the worst was one of weakness? Is he to become a member of the luckless crews that man those dark, ill-starred ships called prisons? ... "
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June 05, 2021 - June 07, 2021.
Purchased June 14, 2013.
Kindle Edition, 97 pages
Published May 17th 2012
(first published 1910)
Original Title Justice
ASIN:- B0084B3U6I
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May 26, 2021 - June 07, 2021.
Purchased June 08, 2021.
Kindle Edition, 196 pages
Published March 24th 2011
(first published July 17th 2006)
ASIN:- B004TP12PY
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