The psychological and moral impact of property in john galsworthy's the man of property

Abstract EN

The Man of Property (1906 ) , the first book of John Gal^orthy's first trilogy The Forsyte Saga ء is intended to be a criticism of the possessiye instinct in the modem social life .

The research aims at the eyils of that instinct, that holds modem man's interests and attention , how destructible the effect of property has been upon the Forsyte family , most represented by Soames Forsyte ء who are characterized by their desire to increase their wealth , self pr^ervation ء lack of imagination and their disbelief in loye , beauty , and philosophical ideas .

It sheds light on this fomily's reyersed concept of property , their acquisitive attitudes and their suffocating moral codes , that bring about their final degradation .

The core of John Galsworthy's criticism in The Man ofProperty was the English upper - middle class family و known as the Forsyte family that survived from 1886 to the advent of the nineteen- twenties .

Through The Man of Property ,Galsworthy tried to show the decline and degeneration of the bourgeois fomily ء how their maimers and behaviour changed " as the Victorian era came to an end and the 20th century began .

" 1 As an Edwardian ء Galsworthy in his works challenged the ideals of society often depicted in the 19th century literature .

He examined the des^ctive force of private property and its impact on human behaviour , how this force or instinct opposed the idea of beauty ء love and imagination , " which the Forsytes do not take into their philosophy " 2 and which " upset their plans and disturb their emotional life .

" 3 This very idea is carefully explained by Galsworthy himself in his preface through which he intends to clarify the title of the novel, that he " used with a suitable irony .

" 4 In this view and using Galsworthy's words ء the main theme of the novel is " the impingement of beauty and the claims of freedom on a possessive world "5 و how beauty has become a source of disturbance in the lives of men .This theme is best exemplified in the story of Irene Forsyte و the wife of the novel's central character and it is the one on which Galsworthy builds his " tragic story