Act III of the
Silver Box
Introduction
John Galsworthy is a famous novelist
and playwright whose works contains a great deal of criticism of British
society, particularly of the values of the well-to-do professional class. Like
all the writers of the time, John Galsworthy is a satirist and at bests an
ironist.
The Silver Box is a powerful and
bitter play. Through the character of James Jones, Galsworthy criticizes the
British society in which the rich are favoured by law and injustice is done to
the poor.
“Law grinds the poor, and richmen rule the law.”
- Oliver Goldsmith
Summary
Mr. Barthwick was a member of the
British Parliament. He posed himself as a social reformer who seemed to have
great sympathy and compassion for the poor and Dow-trodden people. In a drunken
state his dissolute son, Jack Barthwick, stole a lady’s purse. He returned home
very late at night. James Jones, a poor and jobless person, happened to pass
near the house of Mr. Barthwick. He saw Jack Barthwick trying to find the
keyhole on the wrong side of the door. He helped Jack in unlocking the door of
his house. As Jack had nothing to give him, so he invited him to have a drink.
Jones entered the house with Jack. He drank whisky excessively and under the
influence of whisky he stole a sliver cigarette box and the same purse, stolen
by the jack. In the morning Thomas Marlowe, Butler to Barthwick, found the
silver box missing. He communicated the loss to Mr. Barthwick who sent him to
the police station to lodge the report of the theft.
The police acted promptly and
arrested Jones along with his innocent wife who was employed as a charwoman in
the house of Mr. Barthwick. Jones became violent and resisted the police when
they arrested his wife who did not commit any crime. The police took her into
custody because they suspected that she might have stolen the silver box or
helped her husband in entering the house of Mr. Barthwick. Owing to the
scoundrel Mrs. Jones lost her job and had to vacate the house in which she
lived with her three children.
Jones was aried in the court of law
for stealing the silver cigarette box and making an assault on the police. He
was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment with hard labour. He protested
against this injustice, for Jack who committed the identical crime, was not
punished. He says to Magistrate:
“Call this justice? What about him? He got drunk! He took the purse.
But its his money got him off-Justice!”
Mrs. Jones was also tried for
stealing the silver box and helping her husband in obtaining access to the
house of Mr. Barthwick. But the charges leveled against her could not be proved
and she was acquitted. At the end of the trial she looked at Mr. Barthwick with
a silent request for re-employment but he made a gesture of refusal and hurried
out of the court. Thus the poor family was ruined completely.
Conclusion
The dramatist concludes that it is
the poor people who always suffer and pass through mental and physical torture
and they are the one, who face these adversities with patience and endurance.
While the opulent make use of their resources and enjoy a trouble free life
even after committing the most abhorrent crimes.
“How easy it is to judge rightly after one sees what evil comes from
judging wrongly.”
- Elizabeth Gaskell
- Elizabeth Gaskell
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