Tatiana Pavlova
2ATM III year
TEXT ANALYSIS
The apple-tree by John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy (1867—1933), a prominent English novelist, playwright and short-story writer, came from an
upper middle-class family. He was educated at Harrow and Oxford and was called to the Bar. His first novel (From
the Four Winds) was published in 1897, but it was The Man of Property that won him fame. Among his numerous
novels The Forsyte Saga and A Modern Comedy are the most prominent. They give a truthful picture of
English bourgeois society at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. The Apple-Tree (1917) is
one of the most popular long short stories written by John Galsworthy.
In the novel «The apple-tree» the author tells us about two young guys, Frank Ashurst and Robert Garton, who
after their last year together at college were on a tramp.
As their journey was too long and Ashurst*s football knee had given out, they decided to find some place to put
up, but there were no people and farms round them.
While they were sitting near the river and taking rest, a young girl – the maiden, rural ninny was passing through
the forest and invited them to her farm.
Her image has stuck in the Ashurst*s mind so deep, that even when he took a rest on her farm, she still was in his
memory.
For the first sight we will not be able to find out some extraordinary problem or main line of this novel, but we all
know that the most difficult things are the easiest to be founded and contra.
Two close friends and very different in characters are regard the world in different ways. Ashurst idealistic and
romantic, Robert –a practical man.
They have a different picture of university, life and happy in their mind. The author shows this idea in the dialog
when Ashurst asks a young girl about everything and Robert asks two simple and important questions: her name and
if she cans to shelter them.
The difference between two friends is shown in the description of their appearance: Ashurst pale, idealistic, full of
absence; Garton queer, round-the-corner, knotted, curly, like some primeval beast. Both had a literary bent; neither
wore a hat. Ashurst's hair was smooth, pale, wavy; and had a way of rising on either side of his brow, as if always
being flung back; Garton's was a kind of dark un-fathomed mop.
The whole novel can be divided into three parts:
1. The introduction, when the author presents us the description of they appearance an the point of their journey;
2. The development, when they met a girl and she invites them to her farm;
3. The outcome , when Ashurst lies on the bank and thinks about different things.
The absence of the culmination is very strange thing in the composition of any story, but this novel is endures in a
peaceful and regular manner. The only thing that breaks the composition is a sudden, long dialog in the middle of the
third person narration. The author uses this stylistic device to emphasize the difference between two friends.
If summarize this three factors we can conclude that the main idea of this novel is to show the different ways of being
happy and having a piece in the heart for different people.
People, who live in the megapolyses, run very big and important business, have a great deal of money, popularity and
glory, dream about a quite nook on the farm, where they can be with their families on alone and just enjoy the life.
And people from the countries dream to escape from routine rhythm of village life and have a lot of money and
values.
But some people can feel happy just looking at the sunrise, blue sky, listening the birds singing ,murmuring of the
stream or lust looking at the beautiful woman in her natural beauty.
This is the main line of the novel «The apple-tree», - to enjoy the things which you have in their natural manifestation.