No one questions the dramatic sense of John Galsworthy. As a born playwright, he has succeeded in establishing a sense of realism through his plays. And this dramatic genius can genuinely be identified as John Galsworthy’s quality.
Plays like Strife and Justice show how the playwright has successfully drawn attractive plots in his plays with a completely realistic touch. His words show his profound belief in the dramatic sense of truth or reality. The John Galsworthy quality makes commonplace men and women the ultimate highlights of the plays, like Loyalties, Justice, and Strife.
Galsworthy’s naturalism is his greatest asset to attain the excellence in depicting characters as a dramatist. Even readers sometimes don’t hesitate to compare him with eminent playwrights George Bernard Shaw and Henrik Ibsen. Some say John Galsworthy’s works contain the same moral earnestness as Shaw’s. And his naturalism is very close to that of Ibsen.
Galsworthy is probably one of those few dramatists who preferred to remain a moralist and realist while penning his plays. However, that doesn’t mean he has set aside his power of artistry. His inventions show that he is a conscious and conscientious artist. Even his words indicate his proneness to remain honest with his beliefs all the time. For sure, Galsworthy is one of those few talented playwrights whose plays are, no doubt, socially purposive and, at the same time, artistically effective. In a word, he is an exceptional character identified as a robust social reformer and a real-life artist.
As a dramatic genius, Galsworthy is one of those rare finest artists whose plot, character, environment, and situation are closely knit.
Readers can find his dramas as unique products that emerge from the harmonious blending of said features. According to John Galsworthy, a drama should form a structure that contains “a spire of meaning.” Even the grouping of characters needs to possess inherent morals, and it is up to the playwright to bring those morals into the limelight.
The merit of a successful play lies in its theme. Every dramatist knows well the inescapable truth that a good theme or storyline is essential for ensuring the successful establishment of the final objective in a drama or play. Also, one strong need is that every individual character, each dialogue, and each one of the happenings must make some contributions to its development. The truth is that all plays by Galsworthy possess these qualities. It is a strong reason why their plots are very much alive to deliver the actual objectives. These plots are undeniably well organized and, at the same time, suffer from nothing that looks incoherent or abnormal.
Moreover, the mentioned effectiveness of the plots appears very appealing because of John Galsworthy’s unique dramatic action. The beauty of the playwright’s portrayal potential is that a stirring and emotional conflict between two opposing ideals is always present in the plays to bring dramatic action to life. And here, the famous dictum, “no conflict, no play,” fits very well in his plays.
For instance, a clash between law and humanity is present in Galsworthy’s Justice. In Strife, readers can notice a conflict between labor class and capital. This conflict of the opposing ideals is one of the essential characteristics representing the significance of John Galsworthy’s quality.
John Galsworthy’s matchless dramatic potential lies in conceiving and making the dramatic possibilities out of undramatic situations alive.
Moreover, each undramatic case is unsurpassable on its own. However, these cases play constructive roles in producing significant moments. Importantly, readers can perceive these moments. They can perceive these moments sometimes in a prison house or a courtroom, or it may be a place specified for public meetings. There is no denying that the said places only perform and bear the evidence of routine work.
However, Galsworthy’s dramatic sense of realism makes such areas look more like war zones to ensure that they represent the pathos of human tragedy. It is indeed true that this potential to create an intense drama out of undramatic situations is undoubtedly an exceptional quality of John Galsworthy. In addition, it establishes the dramatist as one of the finest naturalistic artists. Also, due to this potential, the famous playwright has succeeded in enhancing theatrical excitement to its zenith.
Earlier, it was hard for dramatists to think about making common and ordinary characters their plays’ key characters. However, most people believe that John Galsworthy was the first dramatist to break this trend. His naturalism makes regular characters the lifeblood or driving force of his plays. His characters are available in the day-to-day life of society. It is evident that, as a dramatist, he is more comfortable avoiding drawing heroic characters like Hamlet, Macbeth, or Cleopatra. His characters are mere commonplace individuals with no extraordinary heroic capabilities. They don’t put readers into a utopian, fascinating world. In short, they are heroes with no extraordinary power.
Characters drawn from the regular life passions are more appealing than the fancied, fictional, or mythical characters. It is undeniable that Galsworthy’s characters are down to earth. They may not possess greatness like a superhuman, but they are full of life. They have no political vision like Macbeth or Brutus and don’t have the temperament like Hamlet. They don’t even possess Bluntschli’s incredible common sense. They feel encouraged to follow the common trend of human life. Their existence is more connected to regular social phenomena. And this portrays the potentiality and essentiality of John Galsworthy’s quality.
The above discussion has made it clear that Galsworthy’s plays are, no doubt, rich with absolutely well-knit significant plots, lively and commonplace characters, and living situations.
However, these features can’t define him entirely as a dramatist. It is that remarkable John Galsworthy quality, which includes some more significant traits. A genuine sympathy always prevails for women and men, in his words. He may not be an ideal protagonist in open eyes, but his intense outlook is evident through his plays. Readers never see him challenge or defend any specific thought or ideology in any form of provocative manner. But, his words are indeed identical to show that he represents modern humanitarianism. In his problem play Strife, Galsworthy portrays an extreme conflict between capital and labor. However, he raises no slogan to support a specific side. Even though his words unveil the mood that he is an apostle of humanitarian vision.
It is now a solid and significant proven fact that even the presence of sympathy, sincerity, and irony in the plot can’t make any play or drama successful if the dramatist doesn’t possess an effective presentation style. It is that exceptional style of presentation that has helped Galsworthy to use his dramatic gifts successfully. Being a philanthropist, he feels, and as a true artist, he perfectly expresses that feeling. The unique dramatic genius in him knows the significance of the proper manner of expression, which ultimately endows all his plays with perfection. And every admirer of true art craves that perfection.
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