On The Theme Of Alienation In The Forsyte Saga

John Galsworthy is an important British realistic writer in the early 20th century. As the rise of modernism in the 20th century, the realism has been neglected for a long time. As a result of it, Galsworthy's works have received unfair evaluation. The Forsyte Saga trilogies which mainly use realistic technique are Galsworthy's masterpieces. The novels mainly depict the British social life from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. They are generally considered to be totally realistic works, and most of the critics only focus on the critical analysis of sociology and neglect the modern elements. The age from the late Victorian era to the post-World War is a transitional period in England. The realism was being transited to the modernism.Galsworthy was an active writer during that time. He was inevitably affected by the modernism, when the alienation was a prevalent theme type. Therefore, the paper focuses on the theme of alienation of the Forsyte Saga. It links the realism and the modernism, and reveals the characters' several states and stages of the alienation, which shows the works' theme of salvation and Galsworthy's differences as a transitional realist from the modern writers and explains the profound significance of the works.