Analysis Quality by John
Galsworthy
1. ABDUL ROZAK HASBULLAH
NIM : 202011610008
2. DIFA AMANDA PUTRI
NIM : 202021610001
Plot
The plot is not easy to predict. At first, I thought with the perseverance and ability of the
Gessler brothers who are so adept at making high-quality boots, it would become a big
success one day. But it felt like being slapped by reality, it was not that easy for the
Gessler brothers to raise their name because they were eroded by competition from big
firms that could produce good products and much cheaper.
Theme
Dedication and passion. because Mr. Gessler appears to spend all his time working and
dedicating all of his life to making art (Boots). And he was a passionate artist who neither
gave up nor compromised with the quality of his work.
Characters of the story
Gessler Brothers: Mr.Gessler (Younger brother) is the central character (protagonist) in
the story. He stands for a high degree of passion in his art of shoemaking. Both the
brothers died due to financial loss in the business.
First person perspective (The Narrator): The narrator is a very loyal customer and fan of
Mr Gessler’s shoemaking. There is deep bonding between Mr Gessler (Younger brother)
and the narrator. The story unfolds to the readers through the narrator’s action in the story.
The Englishman: The Englishman took over Mr.Gessler’s shop who told the narrator
about Mr Gessler’s struggle and his failure due to lack of advertisement, ultimately his
death due to starvation.
Symbols
In literature, symbols are often characters, settings, images, or other motifs that stand in for bigger ideas.
Authors often use symbols (or “symbolism”) to give their work with more meaning and to make a story
be about more than the events it describes.
The Boots: a key symbol of their artistic talent. The narrator describes them in a flattering tone, praising
the Gessler brother’s high quality product; for example, the narrator explains how the shoes are so well
made that they never look worn: "they're better than ever. One can't wear them."
Gessler's shop: a symbol of small business, with owners who work hard to create high quality products.
In this story, Gessler struggles to survive in a capitalist economic climate, with his younger brother
eventually starving to death before the shop closes for good. Store closures are symbolic of the imminent
doom of small businesses, which Galsworthy predicts in this story.
The death of the brothers: symbolizes the decline of small business as a result of large companies and a
lack of customers. The eldest brother explains to the narrator that business and demand have declined in
recent years, as customers flock to large companies. In addition, the brothers make high-quality shoes,
which means they last longer. As a result, customers don't often buy shoes from them. Due to these two
reasons, the brothers struggle to make ends meet, and eventually both die due to financial depravity.
Setting
The setting of the story Quality by John Galsworthy is in London, West End.
‘in a small by-street--now no more, but then most fashionably placed in the West End.’
‘People won't wait. He lost everybody. And there he'd sit, goin' on and on--I will say that
for him—not a man in London made a better boot! But look at the competition!
Moral
Throughout the entire story, the Gessler brothers remained true to themselves and their
work, despite suffering heavy losses. Even if they suffered in the end, the Gessler
Brothers made the best boots in London. Mr Gessler says that for him shoe making is an
art and he does his job with dedication. Their shoes are of such great quality that one
cannot easily wear them. One had to work with dedication and passion, so that even if
they died, someday, their names like the Gessler Brothers would remain.
"For to make boots-such boots as he made-seemed to me then, and still seems to me,
mysterious and wonderful."
Figurative Language (if any)
Pondering over (metaphor)
The narrator tells the story of Mr. Gessler and his brother with notes of sadness and melancholy. Only when the brothers
had died, the narrator returned in memory to those days when they have been yet alive, but only after the death of Mr.
Gessler, he, the narrator, ponders over the troubles and hardships of the shoe master. “These thoughts came to me later”,
after Mr. Gessler’s death, as the narrator assumes, but he remembers that “some inkling of the dignity of himself and
brother haunted” him all the time, for to make boots, “such boots as he made - seemed to me then, and still seems to me,
mysterious and wonderful.”
The atmosphere of the shop (metaphor, simile)
The narrator of the story remembers in details the shop and its atmosphere. He explains that the Gesslers’ shop was not
that busy place one might think of, but it was always empty, and entering this shop might seem as if “entering the
church and sitting on the single wooden chair”. The visitor has to wait awhile inhaling the “soothing smell of leather,
which formed the shop”, before the face of Mr. Gessler or his brother “peer down … as if awakened from some dream
of boots, or like an owl surprised in daylight and annoyed at this interruption”
Dreadful tone (metaphor)
The narrator dared once to enter the Mr. Gessler’s shop wearing the shoes which he had bought elsewhere. Mr. Gessler
told that those shoes were not his with the “tone not one of anger, nor of sorrow, not even of contempt, but there was in
it something quiet that froze the blood”.
