Characters:
There are many characters in this play.
The majors of them are:
John Barth Wick (a wealthy liberal) and his wife Mrs. Barth Wick ,and their son called Jack, Roper their solicitor, Mrs. Jones their charwoman, Marlow their manservant, Wheeler their maidservant, and Jones (the stronger within) their gates, Mrs. Seddon (a landlady),a police Magistrate, a lady from beyond, Snow(a detective), 2 little girls( homeless), Livens their father, a Relieving officer, a Magistrate`s Clerk, an Usher, Policemen, Clerks, and other minor characters.
The author, 1906 (his first play):
John Galsworthy an English novelist and playwright, he is the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932. Galsworthy became known for his portrayal of the British upper middle class and for his social satire. His most famous work is THE FORSYTE SAGA (1906-1921), an English parallel to Thomas Mann's Bud den brooks (1901). Galsworthy was a representative of the literary tradition, which has regarded the novel as an instrument of social debate. He believed that it was the duty of an artist to examine a problem, but not to provide a solution. Before starting his career as a writer, Galsworthy read widely the works of Kipling, Zola, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Flaubert.
"When a Forsyte was engaged, married, or born, the Forsytes were present; when a Forsyte died - but no Forsyte has as yet died; they did not die; death being contrary to their principles, they took precautions against it, the instinctive precautions of highly vitalized persons who resent encroachments on their property." (from The Forsyte Saga)
John Galsworthy was born in Kingston Hill, Surrey, into a upper-middle-class family. His father, John Galsworthy, was a lawyer and director of several companies. Galsworthy's mother, the former Blanche Bartleet, was the daughter of a Midlands manufacturer. Galsworthy studied law Harrow and New College, Oxford. During this period he gained fame as a cricket and football player, but not with his writings. Once he planned to write a study of warm-blooded horses. Galsworthy's favorite authors were Thackeray, Dickens, and Melville, his favorite composer was Beethoven. In 1890 he was called to the bar. However, he never settled into practice, but chose to travel, after an unlucky love affair.
In 1893 Galsworthy met the writer Joseph Conrad while on a South Sea voyage, which he made in part to study maritime law. In a letter he noted: "The first mate is a Pole called Conrad, and is a capital chap though queer to look at; he is a man of travel and experience in many parts of the world, and has a fund of yarns on which I draw freely." This meeting convinced Galsworthy to give up law and devote himself entirely to writing. Years later Galsworthy helped Conrad financially.