The Japanese Quince (Characters)

Characters

Mr. Nilson

“The Japanese Quince,” by some definitions, is a character sketch of Mr. Nilson. In a brief scene, Galsworthy paints a fairly complete portrait of a well-to-do man who is out of touch with himself and others. His wealth and class is established in the first sentence: He is “well known in the City” — the financial center of London — and though he right away notices the spring morning, he prefers to contemplate the price of Tintos — stock shares. While looking in an ivory-backed mirror, he is described physically as exhibiting “a reassuring appearance of good health,” despite the aching feeling beneath his fifth rib. His life is rigid and ordered, a fact that can be deduced from the striking of the cuckoo clock that tells him he has exactly a half-hour to breakfast. When he goes out to the square to enjoy the morning, he walks around the circular path two times. He marvels at the blooming quince tree but is also quite concerned about the sensation of “some sweetish liquor in course within him.” This illness suggests a disparity between the appearance of Mr. Nilson’s life — the way it looks from the outside — and the reality of his inner life.

Mr. Nilson’s true character is exposed when he confronts Mr. Tandram, who functions as his counterpart, or doppelganger. Their brief conversation, though their thoughts echo one another’s almost perfectly, leaves Mr. Nilson “unaccountably upset.” The men’s exchange creates the tension between appearance and reality — between the outer world of the City and the inner world of Mr. Nilson’s soul — in various ways. Appearing at times uncertain and at other times resolved, Mr. Nilson moves through the story in a series of stops and starts. Several times he begins to achieve an action or utter a thought, only to halt abruptly before revealing his feelings.

Mr. Tandram

Mr. Tandram functions as a mirror-image of Mr. Nilson. Both men are well-to-do London financiers who are married and live in the same neighborhood. Both men are strolling through the Garden Square with their newspapers before breakfast. Both prefer the song of the blackbird to the thrush. They are also moved in similar ways by the blossoming quince tree. Though he responds to the natural beauty of the morning, the fact that he is not able to give himself over to this world underscores Mr. Nilson’s similar adherence to a safe, familiar, well-ordered, and illness-inducing life.