John Galsworthy Profile (1867-1933)

John Galsworthy Profile (1867-1933)

John Galsworthy (1867-1933)

His Personality- John Galsworthy was of slight build and medium height; his head long, well shaped; his features fairly regular, a stralght nose, high forehead; his eyes blue grey and clear. He used a monocle in his right eye in which he was genuinely short-sighted. His hands were remarkable, lean like a surgeon's, rather veined and very brown. He was very fastidious in his dress. It was very painful for him to see anything dirty. Anything mechanical automatically fell to pieces in his hand. He could never handle any sort of machinery. He could not even use a fountain -pen, which leaked immediately he tried to use it. 

John Galsworthy was very kind and generous. He was courteous even to his servants. He did not dismiss his two servants who avoided work. He always helped people. He usually gave away half his income and lived modestly on the rest. He kept the following motto on a small writing table : I shall pass through this world but once : any good thing, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, or dumb animal, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. "Galsworthy loved dogs and horses. He worked for the cause of the humane treatment of animals. 

He visited slaughter-houses and advocated humane methods of killing animals. 

John Galsworthy was a very shy person. He did not like publicity of any kind. He never publicized the help he gave to many needy people. He hated cruelty and injustice of every kind. Cruelty and injustice to the weak and helpless aroused his anger. 

John Galsworthy was a complex personality. He was a man of extraordinary self-control. He was very modest and reserved, He had a warm heart but he did not like to show emotion. There was a certain aloofness mixed with his shyness. The way he looked people up and down through his monocle made them uneasy. His deep silence, his perfect self-control, dignified reserve and modesty earned him a reputation for coldness. 

John Galsworthy was a lover of beauty. He loved beauty of every kind and had a keen eye for it. He had inherited the love of Nature from his parents. He had very delicate feelings towards womanhood. He was obsessed with his wife's miserable life with her first husband. He championed the cause of unhappily married women. He felt that their economic dependence- was the cause of their slavery. He hated those men who regarded women as a their property. He was of the view that if a woman was not happy with her husband she should be granted divorce. 

John Galsworthy was a great social reformer and humanitarian. He loved every living being. His heart was full of the milk of human kindness. He was a champion of the poor and the weak. His heart melted at the suffering of the poor section of society. He was very fond of wandering about at night in the poorer districts, listening to the conversation of the people. His knowledge of the miseries of the poor was personal. He often visited the slums to collect rent for his father who owned substantial property there. Yet some critics allege that he did not understand the problemis of the poor as he did those of his own class. But this is not true. He drew the attention of the people towards the injustice that was being done to the poor. Galsworthy did not clearly express his religious views in his writings. But he did not believed in orthodox Christianity. All dogmatic theorising hateful to him. He believed in humanity. 

John Galsworthy is regarded and manners which he shared with other Englishmen. He loved England and believed in English instinct for fair play. He accepted his responsibility: English citizen. During the First World War he donated all his earnings from writing to national war fund. He tried to write as much as he could do so that he could donate more money. He also undertook some hospital work with his wife to serve the soldiers. Wherever he lived or wrote he wrote of English people. Yet Hernmon Onld does not agree that Galsworthy English. He thinks that Galsworthy's personality was "unique". His patriotism was not of a narrow variety. He gave the Nobel Prize money to P.E.N. It still flourishes, and its objects are still those so dear to Galsworthy's heart: "to promote the friendly co-operation of writers in every country in the interests of literature, freedom of experience and international goodwill." 

John Galsworthy lived the quiet life of a successful man of letters. He and Ada travelled very widely about the world. No other person could have easily given so much time to so many social causes besides writing and travelling so much. He deeply believed in life. "Life is good enough in itself even if it leads to nothing", he said. Courage was the virtue he admired most. The working creed of his life is summed up in the following lines by Adam Lindsay Gordon that he often liked to quote: 

'Life is mostly froth and bubble, 

Two things stand like stone: 

Kindness in another's trouble, 

Courage in your own.'