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The Forsyte Saga, which is a series of three novels and two interludes, was created by John Galsworthy, a Nobel Laureate for literature, between 1906 and 1921. They chronicle the vicissitudes of the leading members of an upper class British family, similar to Galsworthy's own. Only a few generations removed from their farmer ancestors, the family members are keenly aware of their status as "new money". Likewise, The Forsyte Saga also witnesses the ups and downs of family during the course of human history. In addition, it has become vehicles for themes of duty versus desire, generation and change.
This long tale is also an intimate incarnation of the disturbance that Beauty effects in the lives of men. Galsworthy applied a variety of family members for different kinds of characters to show the upper-middle class in Victorian England vividly. All the stories were presented from the angle of the Forsyte family. Soames Forsyte, who comes from the extremely arrogant Forsyte family, is an elite and a man of property. He desires to own everything he wants, including his beautiful wife, Irene Forsyte. In order to take completely possession of Irene, he concocts a plan to build a house in Robin Hill and move her to the countryside so she could far away from everyone she knows and cares about. However, the tragedy begins when Irene falls in love with the architect Philip Bosinney who is fiancé of her friend June Forsyte, Soames’ cousin and has been engaged to build Soames’ house. Finally, Irene leaves Soames and Bosinney dies under the wheels of a cab.
After Irene’s betrayal, Soames meets a French woman who he wants to marry. He falsely accused Irene and Young Jolyon of having an affair aiming to porce without any compensation. Young Jolyon and Irene admit that they have had an affair, which leads to their marriage and the birth of their son Jolyon Jon Forsyte. Soames’ young daughter, Fleur Forsyte unexpectedly falls in love with Jon disregarding their parents’ past troubles, indiscretions and misdeeds. Ultimately, their love comes to nothing. Fleur marries the one she doesn’t love at all. Soames is separated from his only daughter whom he loves selflessly. Jon’s family leaves for Canada. And the representative of Forsyte family, the house at Robin Hill, is sold by auction.
Regarding the two spiritual themes of two novels, in Chinese culture, Taoism refers to compassion, moderation, and humility in religion and philosophy. Taoism is all about Wu Wei, spontaneity, transformation and omnipotence aiming to achieve harmonious relation between people and nature. In Moment in Peking, under such kind of grand and tragic context, transcendence of Taoism stands out and becomes the spirit of this novel. Forsytism takes the family’s noun form directly as its spirit, which refers to a common sense of the upper-middle class which is all about the sense of property and possession, and the desire for hunting money. John Galsworthy gives reader a vivid and incisive description of Forsytism from the angle of the whole Forsyte family.
People always consider a family is a basic unit of the society, which is an epitome of the society. Family consciousness and family’s human relation would be analyzed to state their distinctions and resemblances of Chinese and Western family culture. It comes to a conclusion that the west takes inpidual value, but China favors family’s overall benefit. The ethics of a family cannot be partly treated which should be built by integrating freedom and duty into families to achieve peace and harmony of the society.
Finally, the differences and similarities of the two novels’ family history could be summarized. As for the similarities, firstly, a trilogy is applied in both of the two novels to reflect an era which presents the flows of ages (Bough, 1967: 1553). Secondly, the flux of history is embodied by the ups and downs of families. Discussing about the differences, to begin with, Lin Yutang mainly used three families while Galsworthy only chose to describe one single family with a spectrum of characters in their social settings. Then, the methods to present the family development are alos different. Last but not least, there comes up is the different attitudes towards a family’s fall. Finally, the inherent consistency of both two masterpieces has been shown from multiple perspectives.