Analysis - The Apple Tree

The Apple Tree (1917) is a long short story written by a prominent English novelist, playwright and short story writer John Galsworthy. His most famous novels are The Man of Property, A Modern Comedy and The Forsyte Saga. In his works, he gives a truthful picture of English bourgeois society at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. The Apple Tree is called "most finely crafted, most symbolic, and most poetic tale".

The extract under analysis shows us two no-longer-students Frank Ashurst and Robert Garton who want to get to Chagford, Ashurst having an aching knee. On their way, they decide to put up for a night on some farm. They see a girl who invites them in her aunt's farm and whom Ashurst find quite attractive. On the farm, they ask for a stream to have a bath and are told about one near an apple tree.

In the given extract, there is no conflict; it is only an exposition of the story, where we can see only the beginning of the relationship between Ashurst and Megan. In this part, the author shows us the contrast between people of different social classes.

The main characters are Frank Ashurst and Megan David. He is a representative of the upper class, a graduate from the university, he is "pale, idealistic", and he has a bent for literature. As an educated person, he loves talking about philosophical matters. The girl they meet is different. She's wearing a "dark frieze skirt", "worn and old greyish blouse", "split shoes" and a Scottish bonnet worn usually by men, her hands are "rough and red", and her neck is "browned" because of working under the sun. She is, surely, not that educated as Ashurst is.

Two more characters reflecting this contrast are Ashurst's friend Garton and Megan's aunt Mrs. Narracombe. Garton is opposed to Ashurst to some extent (he is "like some primeval beast" and very communicative, while Ashurst is more meditative), but mostly for diversity of characters. He is also well-educated and intellectual and may even seem somewhat haughty. Mrs. Narracombe is hospitable, and this trait of character is more often demonstrated by representatives of the lower class.

In order to prove his point of view, the author uses stylistic devices. First, there are a number of epithets in descriptions ("peacock tam-o'-shanter", "crisp voice", "round-the-corner", "dewy eyes"), idioms ("talking through his hat"), metaphors ("haven't met a soul for miles"), similes, trite and genuine ("thin as rails", "like some primeval beast"). All these devices are used to create the atmosphere, to make the descriptions more artistic and underline the characters' peculiarities in a more accurate way. There are also some poetic words ("maiden").

Galsworthy uses such a graphic means as graphon ("I thought you were a Celt"). The reason to italicize the word "thought" is to show that Garton makes a special stress on it as if emphasizing his knowledge. There is one more graphon of different kind, which serves to create the atmosphere. The author uses dialectal forms "strame, sittin', an'" instead of "stream, sitting, and" to show that the action takes place in Devonshire.

Besides, in order to reveal Ashurst’s feelings and meditation at the end of extract, the author uses enumeration of things which belong to different spheres: "He thought of Theocritus, and the river Cherwell, of the moon, and the maiden with dewy eyes". Here we can see also an example of polysyndeton which makes the sentence smoother and more poetic.

As for syntactic structure, there are both simple and complex sentences. The former are used in dialogues accompanied by ellipsis (which, alongside the absence of the author's speech, makes them more vivid and natural), and the latter are used mostly in descriptions. In the description of Megan there is also anaphora ("her shoes were, ... her little hands, ... her neck…") and some chaotic repetitions ("her face was short, her upper lip short", "her brows were straight and dark, her lashes long and dark, her nose straight"). Those repetitions of simple adjectives create rhythm and, probably, make us think that Ashurst's eyes are quickly jumping from one part of Megan's body to another. In addition, there is an example of inversion ("by the house door stood a woman") for the purpose of smoother narration.

The extract is written in a third-person narrative. The author helps us to see the action with Ashurst's eyes and listen to his inner thoughts. Those thoughts characterize him well enough: we could do even without his direct description to understand that he is "full of absence". His thoughts change their direction quickly, e.g.: "The sky, the flowers, the songs of birds! Robert was talking through his hat."

There is also a symbol in this story — the apple tree (the title is not occasional, of course). In Celtic culture (Megan is a Celt), the apple tree deals with love, truth, beauty, remembrance, purity. These meanings are only hinted at in this extract, but we can see them fully in the whole story.

I cannot help admiring this work. I am charmed by the style and the master use of expressive means and stylistic devices, especially syntactic ones. They make me want to read the story again and again. I am also attracted by symbolism and poetics of the story. Besides, it is necessary to say that Galsworthy managed to create a good image of people from different social classes and living in different places.