Abstract

  John Galsworthy is one of the most important English critical realistic writers in the 20th century. The Apple Tree, one of his best stories, tells a love tragedy under the apple tree. This paper aims to analyze and appreciate the symbols regarding the animals, plants and characters in The Apple Tree and ends with the conclusion that the use of symbols in The Apple Tree contributes to the manifestation of the theme of the short story— living environment, social position and educational background are the inevitable reasons for this love tragedy.

Key words: The Apple Tree, symbol, love, tragedy

摘要

  《苹果树》是二十世纪英国批判现实主义作家高尔斯华绥自认为最好的小说之一，讲述的是苹果树下的爱情故事。本文旨在赏析《苹果树》中有关动物、植物以及人物的象征，从而得出结论：《苹果树》中象征手法的应用有助于深刻揭示主题—生活环境、社会地位、文化教养是这幕爱情悲剧发生的必然原因。

关键词：苹果树；象征；爱情；悲剧

1. Introduction
John Galsworthy was born in a wealthy bourgeois family in Kingston Hill, England. He was educated in Harrow and New College, Oxford and was trained for the law. However, John Galsworthy was not interested in it. He chose to travel abroad to look after the family’s shipping business interests. During these travels he met Joseph Conrad and soon these two great writers became close friends. John Galsworthy began to write in 1895. In 1897, his first short story From the Four Winds was published. In 1906, he began to win success after he published his first play—The Silver Box. In 1932, one year before he died, he won The Nobel Prize in Literature for The Forsyte Sage( The Man of Property, In Chancery, To Let). In all his life, he produced 20 novels, 27 plays, 3 collections of poetry, 173 short stories, 5 collections of essays, 700 letters, and many sketches and miscellaneous works. He took the English background in a certain period from the late 19th century to the 20th as his setting, dissecting the moral and social problems by using naturalism as his writing method. In John Galsworthy’s works, he not only described the normal life of the upper class, but also revealed their mental outlook. He also showed great pity to the poor people.