Law and Social Justice

Justice
by John Galsworthy
 About the Author
• John Galsworthy (1867–1933)

• Harrow and studied law at New College, Oxford.

• The Forsyte Saga was published between 1906 and 1921 and as a collection in 1922.

• 1932 Nobel Prize in Literature

• victim of rigid law and rigid society, since he was not married to his lover, Ada.

• John Sin john

• the double standard of justice as applied to the upper and lower classes.
 About the play
• John Galsworthy wrote the play Justice in 1910.

• Rigid divorce law, the rigidity of society, solitary confinement, and injustice done to
prisoners.

• The solitary confinement damaged a person’s mental, physical and emotional health in ways
beyond human imagination.

• The playwright has shown the failure of the legal system which gives severe punishments to the
poor without taking into regard the circumstances behind their crimes.
Key points of the play
• The play Justice by John Galsworthy deals with the issues of crime and punishment criticizing the judicial
system of the world where the rich always go scoot free leaving the poor to rot in the prison.

• Highlighting the incident of forgery where the culprit is put behind bars resulting in the triumph of justice.

• Galsworthy wants his readers to realise the circumstances under which the poor man decides to commit this
illegal act; thus, persuading the audience to read and watch the play with a humanitarian eye instead of the
eyes of the worldly law system.
 Principal characters

• Cowley, a cashier
•James How, solicitor

•Walter How, solicitor • Mr. Justice Floyd, a judge

•Robert Cokeson, their managing clerk • Harold Cleaver, an old advocate

•William Falder, their junior clerk • Hector Frome, a young advocate

•Ruth Honeywill, a married woman and lover • Captain Danson, VC, a prison governor

of William Falder • Edward Clement, a prison doctor

•Sweedle, their office-boy • Wooder, a chief warder

•Wister, a detective
Plot Summary
• The play opens in the offices of James How & Sons, solicitors.

• A young woman appears at the door with children, asking to see the junior clerk, William
Falder, on a personal matter.

• She is Ruth Honeywill, Falder's married sweetheart, with whom he is planning to elope to
save her from brutality and possible death at the hands of her drunken husband.

• After Robert Cokeson, the senior clerk, discovers that a cheque he had issued for nine pounds
has been altered to read ninety, Falder confesses to the forgery, pleading a moment of
madness.

• But the senior partner, James How, does not, and he turns Falder over to the police.
Plot Summary
• The opening of the second act takes place in court, at Falder's trial.

• He is defended by a young advocate, Hector Frome, who, while not attempting to deny that his client
did indeed alter the cheque, pleads temporary aberration and argues that Falder was attempting to deal
with a situation in which the woman he loved could obtain no protection from the law: either she had
to stay with her husband, in terror of her life, or she could seek a separation (mere brutality not being
a legal ground for divorce), in which case she would end up in the workhouse or on the streets selling
her body in order to support her children.

• He pleads with the jury not to ruin the young man's life by sending him to prison.

• Falder is convicted and sentenced to three years' penal servitude.

 Plot Summary
• Cokeson visits Falder's prison, asking if Ruth might be allowed to see the prisoner, but receives no sympathy.

• The Governor asks Cokeson about Falder and his past life. Cokeson tells him all the story.

• He says that he loves Ruth very much and wants to help her.

• The governor visits Falder's cell, feels sorry for him and advises him to get accustomed to the prison and tells
him to forget the private affairs which have been afflicting him.
• The governor feels sorry for Falder and he thinks that he is helpless.

• Falder is seen in his solitary confinement in the cell. He is motionless trying to hear something. He springs
suddenly upright as if at a sound and remains perfectly motionless.
• Then, with a heavy sigh, Falder moves to his work.

• Soon he gives up the work and begins pacing up and down the cell. He moves his head like an animal pacing its
cage. He makes some silly gestures and actions.
 Plot Summary
• After Falder release, he meets Ruth.

• Ruth and he appear at the solicitors' offices, and Ruth pleads with the partners to give Falder a chance and to take him
back.

• The partners express their willingness reluctantly, but on the condition that he give up Ruth entirely.

• At this point, horrified, Falder realises that she has managed to survive in his absence only by selling herself.

• A policeman arrives to arrest Falder for failing to report to the authorities as a ticket-of-leave man.

• Overcome by the inexorability of his fate, Falder throws himself out of an upstairs window, falling to his death.

• The play ends with the words of the senior clerk who has tried so hard to help him:

• "No, one'll touch him now! Never again! "He's safe with gentle Jesus!"
 Fault in the justice system
• Every person is aware of how the law acts as the guardian of the rights of the citizens, and how law is the
line which differentiates order from chaos. But the reality speaks an entirely different narrative as was pretty
evident from “Justice”.
• The play portrayed law as a failed attempt to preserve the civilization.
• “The Law is what it is—a majestic edifice, sheltering all of us, each stone of which rests on another. I am
concerned only with its administration.”

• Falder committed a crime, but he committed it for a greater good.

• Though it is true that a right act and a wrong act do not nullify each other, the motive behind the acts must be
considered.

• A petty crime for a moral good attracted an imprisonment sentence of three years.

• There is no way this can be considered protection through law, because a nervous and feeble man committing
a crime for the first time for a greater moral cause does not deserve an imprisonment sentence of three years.
Fault in the Prison system
• It is a proven fact that serving a prison sentence changes the lives of the people entirely.

• They are either converted into cynical criminals who prove to be a liability for the society or in case

of individuals like Falder, it is the end of their life and happiness.

• Either way the life of the person takes a bad turn forever.

• The main conflict that is portrayed in the play Falder is over justice and how, even after it is served,

it is not served.

• There are many criminals who deserve to serve prison time.

• But many times, individuals like Falder also get stuck in the crossfire of the prison system.
 Bad Condition of Women
• In Justice, through the treatment given by a husband (Honey will) to his wife (Ruth)
one can easily understand the condition of women at that time.

• A woman was considered and treated as an inferior thing in a male controlling

culture. She was treated as a slave.

• On the contrary the men had every type of liberty.

• They had a license to drink and beat their wives and treat them wildly.

• Most of the times they became the cause of the demolition of their families.
 Rigid Society
• Cokeson, James How, Walter How, and Sweedle are characters who stick to their firm and professional

principles.

• They are on the side of the law. Some characters like How James reflect themselves as defenders of law and

order.

• To some extent he was correct that being a head of the firm he had to maintain some discipline.

• James neglected the circumstances in which Falder falsified the cheque, committed the blunder.

• He did not pay attention to the intention of Falder why he was doing so and also Falder did not have any

criminal history or criminal background.

• Instead, he considered Falder as habitual swindler and philanderer.

 Solitary Confinement
• From Act 3 we come to know the difficulty of jailbirds. Solitary confinement is an intolerable torture to them.

• The star class Falder also joins in this savage act.Galsworthy feels that it is an injustice to confine prisoners who were

mental patients in solitary cells.

• Solitary confinement only worsens their sickness. According to Galsworthy the main defect in system is that prisoners

are treated inhumanly. Prisoner administrators were not allowing visitors to the prisoners.

• This entire disaster could have been avoided if the rules had been hassle-free and the prisoners permitted to socialize

with one another and allowed to visit their kin.

• Additional injustice done to prisoners is that no actual exertions are taken to reorient these convicts after they are set

free; instead, they are free to report personally to the police station-a treatment most humiliating to self-respecting,

delicate people like Falder.