Reassertions of Class Consciousness and Tragic Vision in John Galsworthy’s Strife

Abstract

John Galsworthy, a contemporary playwright of G. B. Shaw, established realism in drama in the early 20^th century England. Through his plays, he exposed the socio-economic, socio-political, socio-cultural, and socio-legal problems in a realistic, sincere and impartial way, providing implied solutions to those problems as an objective observer of the contemporary English life. With objective impartiality, he exposed the wrong-headedness of some traditional beliefs and advocated social reform. The objective of the present paper is to expose the metaphors of tragic vision on account of class consciousness in John Galsworthy’s Strife followed by some implied solutions. The reasons of tragic vision are pride, lack of human insight, extreme and fanatical approach, rigidity, class consciousness, uncompromising stands, warring faction, obstinacy, and desire to win and dominate, etc. Through this play the playwright wishes to establish the notion that human beings should be ruled by logic and reason and his testimony lies in portraying the futility and stupidity of quarrelling over conceptual differences, which might have been settled by compromise or arbitration.