The Apple Tree John Galsworthy

The extract under consideration is a piece of a third person narration. However, it is not just a matter-of-fact account of events. You can find not a few pieces of description throughout the story. Thereby the finely wrought delineation of the characters and scenery is gained. Also there are quite a lot of dialogues in the story which are important in revealing a person’s inner state and overall atmosphere. On the whole, the prevailing tone of the extract appears to be rather romantic and elevated.

This effect is caused by the description of the two friends Frank Ashurst and Robert Garton.

The former is an idealistic and romantic young man full of absence. And the latter stands in contrast to his friend, being too practical. The author depicts him in a rather amusing way which can’t but evoke a smile on the reader’s face which adds to the gay atmosphere. Yet there is a suggestive symbol – a cuckoo which is a kind of warning of imminent tragedy.

The author uses such stylistic device as foreshadowing. He drops a clue about what is to come in the story, which builds tension throughout the book.

Thus the plot development is suggested by the word “pity”. It appears all of a sudden in the very first utterance and is very eloquent as well as its second repetition in Megan’s speech. All that creates a dramatic sense, In sum the plot of the story centres around two friends Frank Ashurst and Robert Garton who are on a tramp.

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They are on a rest and are about to set off and find some farm to put p but suddenly they see a girl coming down to them. The fiends ask her to put them up and she agrees to lead them to the farm she lives at.

The Apple Tree Analysis

There they meet her aunt, she allows the young man to stay for the night and they go to a stream to bathe. The story proves to be very symbolic. The two friends are on a trip. Apart from its literal meaning it represents the life’s journey. Frank and Robert are at the beginning of it, what is to come in store for the men? Let’s take a closer look at them. Ashurst is romantic and idealistic young man. The scene in which the action takes place reveals his inner state as the author uses somewhat high-flown style in depicting it: “he had plucked a blue foweret, and was twiddling it against the sky”.

As if opposed to his friend, Robert is matter-of-fact and barren of imagination. There is a remarkable peculiarity about the way Garton’s appearance and actions are depicted. I mean metaphors and similes of which the author is lavish. They are sharp and facetious and can’t but evoke an ironic smile, for example: “Garton queer, round-the-corner, knotted, curly, like some primeval beast”, “Garton’s was a kind of dark unfathomed mop”, “Robert was talking through his hat! ” As to Megan, her portrayal is very laconic.

She doesn’t appear to be beautiful but her eyes are wonderful. Their delineation is symbolic – they are the reflection of her soul – dewy as if opened for the first time that day. And girl looks at Ashurst without shyness in an open manner, she is inartificial and naive. Megan feels pity for Ashurst because of his knee, and her attention pleases him. Once again this feeling is recurrent in the story and it definitely has symbolic significance. It creates the mood of the approaching disaster. And Megan’s aunt seems to forebode it.

The author portrays her by several sharp strokes. “Mrs. Narracombe had a quick, dark eye, like a mother wild-duck’s, and something of the same snaky turn about her neck. ” She appears to be very strict and acute woman and distrusts the strangers but finally Ashurst gains her confidence by a jesting remark. As the extract ends we find the two friends at the stream. Frank is sitting under the apple-tree waiting for Robert. And this is another symbol used by the author – the apple-tree – so expressive and meaningful that it becomes the title of the story.

Now it is in leaf, and all but in flower – its crimson buds just bursting. It stands for the feeling which is about to burst between Ashurst and Megan in a little while. What is in store for them? Frank doesn’t think about it, his feelings and meditations are ambiguous and idle and he feels absurdly happy. We can only guess what is to happen with them but for the time being “every bough is swinging in the wind, every spring bird calling, and a slanting sunlight dapples the grass”.

The story afforded great pleasure to me, I enjoyed every minute of it. I give the author his due for brilliance of style. The foundation of Galsworthy’s talent lies in a remarkable power of ironic insight combined with an extremely keen and faithful eye for all the phenomena on the surface of the life he observes. Galsworthy’s realism lies in his capacity for making his hero part and parcel of his surroundings and convincing the reader of his typicality: he is a fine artist in reproducing the individual workings of his characters’ mind.