Galsworthy's "Justice : A Problem Play that Satirizes Crime Law and Divorce Law at

Force in Then England

No subject of equal social importance has received such thoughtful consideration in

recent years as the question of Crime and Punishment. A number of books by able
writers, both in Europe and this country discuss this topic from the historic,
psychological, and social standpoint, the consensus of opinion being that present
penal institutions and our methods of coping with crime have in every respect
proved inadequate as well as wasteful. This new attitude toward one of the gravest
social wrongs has also found dramatic interpretation in Galsworthy's "Justice. It is a
problem play that satirizes crime law and divorce law at force in then England.

The play opens in the office of James How & Sons, solicitors. The senior clerk, Robert
Cokeson, discovers that a check he had issued for nine pounds has been forged to
ninety. By elimination, suspicion falls upon William Falder, the junior office clerk. The
latter is in love with a married woman, the abused and ill-treated wife of a brutal
drunkard. Pressed by his employer, a severe yet not unkindly man, Falder confesses
the forgery, pleading the dire necessity of his sweetheart, Ruth Honeywill, with
whom he had planned to escape to save her from the unbearable brutality of her
husband.Notwithstanding the entreaties of young Walter How, who holds modern
ideas, his father, a moral and law-respecting citizen, turns Falder over to the police.

The second act, in the court room, shows Justice in the very process of manufacture.
The scene equals in dramatic power and psychological verity the great court scene
in "Resurrection." Young Falder, a nervous and rather weakly youth of twenty-three,
stands before the bar. Ruth, his faithful sweetheart, full of love and devotion, burns
with anxiety to save the young man, whose affection for her has brought about his
present predicament. Falder is defended by Lawyer Frome, whose speech to the jury
is a masterpiece of social philosophy. He does not attempt to dispute the mere fact
that his client had altered the check; and though he pleads temporary aberration in
his defense.He pleads with the jury not to turn the weak young man into a criminal
by condemning him to prison.

But the chariot of Justice rolls mercilessly on, for--as the learned Judge says-Judge: Your counsel has made an attempt to trace your offense back to what he
seems to suggest is a defect in the marriage law; he has made an attempt also to
show that to punish you with further imprisonment would be unjust. You will go to
penal servitude for three years.
Thus the whole episode of judgment and punishment is hoax and inhumane. John
Galsworthy , not on by its theme , but also deliberately chose the title Justice in
order to satirise the contemporary social and legal systems of the country, which in
the name of justice forced the helpless individuals like Falder and Ruth to suffer
and perish finally in the most inhuman way in a civilised society. Ironically it is
injustice told in the justice drama.

Significance of the Mute Scene in John Galsworthy's "Justice"

John Galsworthys notes in The Mute Scene is an integral part of the drama, Justice
which, not to be read as added material, but to be read as material that comments
upon and deconstructs the core theme Justice. The Mute Scene (Act III, scene iii) is
very important from the theatrical point of view since through this Galsworthy
presents the deep agony of a helpless man, Falder in the solitary confinement. The
scene arouses not only our pity and fear, but also our hatred for the system. It is
heart-gripping in its silent force. The whole scene is a pantomime, taking place in
Falder's prison cell.

By scrutinizing John Galsworthys notes in The Mute Scene in the use of the prison
cell, the silent verse, the romantic quest for freedom and the silence of life for his
theatre public, we find Galsworthys own subversion and questioning of his native
land laws and civic cultures. Now let find what happens in The Mute Scene. In fastfalling daylight, Falder, in his stockings, is seen standing motionless, with his head
inclined towards the door, listening. He moves a little closer to the door, his stocking
feet making no noise.

He stops at the door. He is trying harder and harder to hear something, any little
thing that is going on outside. He springs suddenly upright--as if at a sound--and
remains perfectly motionless. Then, with a heavy sigh, he moves to his work, and

stands looking at it, with his head down; he does a stitch or two, having the air of a
man so lost in sadness that each stitch is, as it were, a coming to life. Then, turning
abruptly, he begins pacing his cell, moving his head, like an animal pacing its cage.
He stops again at the door, listens, and, placing the palms of his hands against it,
with his fingers spread out, leans his forehead against the iron.

Turning from it, presently, he moves slowly back towards the window, tracing his
way with his finger along the top line of the distemper that runs round the wall. He
stops under the window, and, picking up the lid of one of the tins, peers into it. It
has grown very nearly dark. Suddenly the lid falls out of his hand with a clatter--the
only sound that has broken the silence--and he stands staring intently at the wall
where the stuff of the shirt is hanging rather white in the darkness-he seems to be
seeing somebody or something there. There is a sharp tap and click; the cell light
behind the glass screen has been turned up. The cell is brightly lighted. Falder is
seen gasping for breath.

A sound from far away, as of distant, dull beating on thick metal, is suddenly
audible. Falder shrinks back, not able to bear this sudden clamor. But the sounds
grow, as though some great tumbrel were rolling towards the cell. And gradually it
seems to hypnotize him. He begins creeping inch by inch nearer to the door. The
banging sound, traveling from cell to cell, draws closer and closer; Falder's hands
are seen moving as if his spirit had already joined in this beating; and the sound
swells until it seems to have entered the very cell. He suddenly raises his clenched
fists. Panting violently, he flings himself at his door, and beats on it. At last, Falder
leaves the prison, a broken ticket-of-leave man, the stamp of the convict upon his
brow, the iron of misery in his soul.

The Mute Scene is Justice Galsworthys fame and charismatic personality

encouraged readers to conflate him with his dramatic characters; his notes
emphasized his voice in the creation of his point of view and in the questioning of
his own argument in favour of real justice abolishing the diabolic prison law and
solitary confinement. Thus, this assessment of existing social system is quite
accurate in determining the plight of civil society and particularly the poor.

Character of Ruth Honeywill: How is She Responsible for Falders Death?

Introduction:

John Galsworthys Justice has a propaganda basis. While his fiction is concerned
principally with English upper middle-class life; his dramas frequently find their
themes in this stratum of society, but also often deal, sympathetically, with the
economically and socially oppressed and with questions of social justice. His Justice
also has two problems raised and recked in minute details the rigorous system of
legal justice prevailing in the society and the other is the contemporary prison
system. To portray these social hindrances Galsworthy has to device a plot. And
here is the story of a young man Falder who has been crunched under the wheel of
fatal social systems. And the person behind the Falders tragic catastrophe is a love
and sympathy personified Ruth Honeywill.
Only woman character in Justice:
In justice Ruth is the only woman character. A married and having two children, she
lives a miserable life under a cruel husband who tortures her both physically and
mentally. As a woman of destitute she earns sympathy and love from Falder. In fact,
in order to take her away from her cruel husband that Falder commits the crime
leading to the subsequent incidents of the play.
Ruth Honeywills problems as portrayed in the play Justice: Ruth, a destitute woman
in order to flee from her cruel tyrannical husband she needs a friend. In facts, by
marrying Falder who loves her and promises to rescue her from her cruel husband
she would somehow problems are not solved. Falder with the desperation of love
commits forgery and later imprisoned. Ruth is forced to lead an inglorious life with
her husband in Falders prison days. In the end when Falder commits suicides her
last ray of hope extinguishes.
Biographical Note:
The Ruth= Falder relationship is a biographical note regarding Galsworthys own life
who gets married to a woman who is the wife of his cousins like Ruth who also leads
on unhappy life. The kind and sympathetic Galsworthy rescue her and marries her
after obtaining divorce. But here in the case the divorcee is not conceived the
relationship turns to be tragic.
Ruths responsibility behind the death of Falder:
Apparently, Ruth is wholly responsible for the death of Falder. For it is for the sake
of his love for her that Falder committed this crime. To rescue her, again from her
cruel husband as soon as possible hastened the crime, because his sympathy for
her persuaded him to accept the first opportunity offered to him.
But on further analysis it will be clear that social and legal system of his time was
no less responsible for his tragic death. It there were laws for easy divorce or
provision for rehabilitation of convicts after their release this tragedy would never

have happened. Hence Ruth as well as the special custom and legal system of the
day was responsible for the death of Falder.
Conclusion:
If it is a tragedy of Falder why not its a tragedy of Ruth? If Falder is crunched into
deadly system Ruths littered hopes, loves and dreams put into account must be a
tragedy of equal worth.

John Galsworthy's "Justice":Key facts :Characters: Few Questions answers

Key facts Read More Drama

Author: John Galsworthy (1867-1933)

First Published: 1910

Type of Work: Drama
Type of Plot: Social criticism
Time of Work: 1910
Setting: London
Principal Characters: William Falder, Cokeson, Ruth Honeywill
Genres: Social realism, Drama
Subjects: Justice, Prisoners, Prisons, Suicide, 1910s, England or English people,
Lawyers, London, divorce system, injustice, humanism etc.
Locales: London, England
Author's Other Contributions:The Man of Property (1906), In Chancery (1920),
Awakening (1920), To Let (1921),The Forsyte Saga (1922),The White Monkey (1924),
The Silver Spoon (1926), Swan Song (1928), Maid in Waiting (1931), Flowering
Wilderness (1932), Over the River (1933), End of the Chapter (1934), Strife (1909),
The Pigeon (1912), Old English (1924), and The Roof (1929).

Glory: Galsworthy was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in literature.

Characters Read More Drama

William Falder, a junior clerk in a law firm who raises a company check from nine to
ninety pounds and is sent to prison for three years. When he is released on parole,
he is apprehended by the police for not reporting to the parole authorities. He
breaks away from the arresting officer and kills himself by jumping from an office
window.

Ruth Honeywell, the woman for whom Falder altered the check. He had intended to
take Ruth and her two children from her brutish husband, and he needed the money
for the expenses they would incur when they left London.

Robert Cokeson, a senior clerk in the firm. He supports Falder through the trial,
while he is in prison, and after his release.

James and Walter How, partners in a law firm and Falders employers. They cause
Falders arrest, but after his release from prison they are willing to discuss taking
him back into their employ.

Davis, a junior clerk first suspected of altering the check.

Hector Frome, Falders attorney during the trial.

Harold Cleaver, the counselor for the prosecution at Falders trial.

Few Questions Answers Read More Drama

Q.What is the pseudonym that Galsworthy took? What kind of aesthetic theory did
he believe in? Read More Drama

Ans: Galsworthy took the pseudonym John Sinjohn. Galsworthy was a

representative of the literary tradition, which has regarded the art as an instrument
of social debate. He believed that it was the duty of an artist to examine a problem,
but not to provide a solution.

Q.Justify the significance of the title Justice. Read More Drama

Ans: John Galsworthy deliberately chose the title Justice in order to satirize the
contemporary social and legal systems of the country, which in the name of justice
forced the helpless individuals like Falder and Ruth to suffer and perish finally in the
most inhuman way in a civilised society.

Q.Justify the sub-title of the drama A tragedy. Or, Do you think Justice a social
tragedy?

Ans: Justice is different from the other tragedies written in Aristotelian formula.
There is no conventional hero-villain conflict in the play. The central protagonist
Falder is not at all a heroic figure; rather he is of a weak-willed and nervous
personality. Again, the place of the villain has been taken by the inhuman social and
legal systems, to which the hero becomes a victim.

Q.Character of Falder/Falder as a tragic hero. Read More Drama

Ans: In Galsworthys Justice the central protagonist, Falder is a weak-willed and

nervous person with a good intention of providing relief to a suffering woman. In so
doing he commits a crime which leads him to prison and to death. Thus he becomes
a pathetic figure rather than a tragic one.

Q.Character of Ruth Honeywill Read More Drama

Ans: Ruth is a poor, unimpressive woman married to a brutish drunkard. Her

suffering makes her love Falder sincerely. Again, she does all this more for her
children than for herself. Like Ruth in the Old Testament she is sad and gloomy
figure. All her hopes, however, get shattered at the death of Falder.

Q.Who is James How? How and what does he declare about Falder?

Ans: James How is the embodiment of the cruel, inhuman social and legal system. It
is not, of course, that he is the villain of the piece. He judges and acts on the
prevalent conventional morality that makes him blind to the serious flaws in the
systems. He is the owner of the firm in which Falder is a junior clerk. When he
comes to know of the crime, he decides to send him to jail.

Q.Who is Walter How? What does he decide about Falder?

Ans: Walter How, the son of James How, stands as a foil to his father. Owing to
generosity and clear view of events, he judges everything on the human ground and
tries his best to dissuade his father from sending Falder to prison. While his father
represents conventional morality, Walter How represents the kind of morality
Galsworthy wants the social and the legal institutions to go by. When Walter comes
to know of the crime committ4ed by Falder, he decides not to send him to jail as it is
his first crime.

Q.The character of Cokeson Read More Drama

Ans: In Galsworthys Justice Cokeson, the head clerk of Hows firm, is a goodnatured person, but he has his limitations as a member of the lower middleclass. He
understands Falder and feels for him, but he cannot go against his employer. Finally,
he answers all fittingly at the end when Falder dies.

Q.It is a matter of life and death.Who says this and to whom and why?

Ans: Tortured by her drunkard husband almost to death, Ruth Honeywell comes to
meet Falder for being rescued from him. But in the office, Cokeson tells her that
such personal affairs are not entertained. This forces Ruth to entreat him with these
words.

Q.Justice is a machine. Who says this and why?

Ans: Falders defence counsel, Mr. Frome introduces the metaphor of machine in
order to convey the sense that the legal system operates in such an inhuman way
that it makes mockery of the concept of justice and destroys the individual
completely. The end of the drama, the end of Falders life proves his words.

Q.Law is what it is, a majestic edifice sheltering all f us Who says this, when and
why? Read More Drama

Ans: In the course of sentencing Falder to imprisonment, the judge as a protector

and agent of the existing legal system asserts that the institution of law is a noble
one. It seeks to protect the good citizens from the bad ones, to protect the society.
The judge is the spokesman of the conventional concept of justice in the
contemporary judicial system. Naturally, his opinions and views do not go by human
norms.

Q.It must have been temptation of the moment ...A man does not succumb like
this. Who says this? Why does he say so? What do you think of his character from
the speech?

Ans: After the detection of Falders forgery and his confession, James How decides
upon prosecuting Falder. Walter How, his son, pleads for Falders case. He opines
that Falder, a gentleman, must have been tempted to do this. His words indicate
that he is a good-natured youth, who judges everything on the human ground.

Q.The quality of mercy is not strained... Where does the speaker quote the line
from? Why does he do so? Read More Drama

Ans: The speaker, Walter How, quotes the famous line from Portias speech in
Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice, where she appeals to Shylock for Antonios
case. Walter How wants to convey that mercy is a greater virtue and, therefore,
greater justice, which makes everyone happy. He tries to convey his father that they
should pardon on this virtue.

Q.Significance of the Mute Scene in Justice.

Ans: The Mute Scene (Act III, scene iii) is very important from the theatrical point of
view since through this Galsworthy presents the deep agony of a helpless man,
Falder in the solitary confinement. The scene arouses not only our pity and fear, but
also our hatred for the system.

Q.Significance of the Trial Scene in Justice. Read More Drama

Ans: The Trial Scene in Justice sets the play in motion. The title of the play is directly
related to the Trial Scene which concretises the conflict between two abstract forces
of antagonismlaw versus humanity.

Exercises

Q.Would you consider Justice a problem play? Give reasons for your answer.
Q.Who stood for Falders defence in the court? Comment upon his character.
Q.How does the play Justice present womens problem in the contemporary
England?Comment upon the character of the Governor of the prison.
Q.How does Galsworthy present the prison as a torturing machine?
Q.What does Cokeson say when Falder dies?. Comment upon the language of the
prisoners in Justice.
Q.What is the dramatic significance of other prisoners in Justice?

Significance of the Dumb Scene (Act III Sc. III) in John Galsworthys "Justice"
In John Galsworthys play Justice the exercise of social injustice in the name of legal
justice has been criticized. And in the dramatic action of the Dumb Scene (Act III Sc.
III) of his play, Galsworthy has portrayed the deep agency of a sensitive prisoner
kept in a solitary confinement. With a cudgel in hand here Galsworthy is merciless in
his criticism of prison administration that treats prisoners not as humans but as
dumb inhabitants of dungeon.

Here is the description of the small cell that brings out the indifference of the prison
authority to the emotional needs of a prisoner. The scene shows Falder, the convict,
hasten to catch a sound from the world outside. But nothing except the sound of a
lid of tin falling from his hand or that of an occasional banging travelling from cell to
cell is heard. He has no companion but his image reflected on the tin lid. The only
activity in which he may engage himself is the stitching of a shirt in which he
sometimes seen to fancy something else or somebody. In a fit of depression he
prowls about, listens eagerly to sounds incoming. The solitariness crushes him
beyond reorganization. The simile of a caged animal has been appropriately used to
describe the impact of a terrible confinement on Falders psyche. No wonder he
would gasp for breath or engage himself in meaningless activities like the beating of
the door.

Thus the Dumb Scene intensifies the tragedy of Falder arousing pity and fear in the
audience. It is a faithful depiction of the terrible or hell experienced by Falder as well
as by prisoners of that time during the period of solitary confinement in yearly 20th
century. Galsworthy has made the scene eloquent without using dialogues or
lengthy speeches. In it, he has effectively attacked the system of solitary
confinement prevailing in his time. The scene could well be the catastrophe of
Falders tragedy.

The catastrophic scene should have aroused pity and fear in the audience. But
Falder fails to arouse their admiration, which is characteristic of a tragic hero.
Replacing the blind, relentless fate of the Greek tragedy, social determinism crushes

him under its chariot wheels. In stead of struggling stoically with the hostile society,
like a classical tragic hero, he is subsumed to its forces. His end is rather pathetic
than tragic. So, he cannot be called a tragic hero in the Aristotelian sense of the
term. But his unequal struggle with the social forces and his ultimate end represent
the tragedy of modern man struggling against an antagonistic society which holds
an individual in its power yet perishes him. That is why, Falder should be regarded
as a tragic hero in the modern sense of the terms and the Dumb Scene the height of
his tragic plight.