No-Longer-Young Jolyon at Home explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Aging and Mortality

  Jolyon reflects on the passage of time, the old oak tree's longevity, his father's death, and his own aging, contrasting human transience with the enduring tree.

• Art vs. Materialism

  Jolyon's artistic success and his aesthetic appreciation of Robin Hill coexist with his Forsyte sense of possessive continuity and ownership.

• Family and Duty

  Jolyon's relationships with his children, his role as executor of his father's will, and the visit from Soames highlight familial obligations and connections.

• Individualism vs. Conformity

  Jolyon's bohemian past and artistic individualism contrast with the Forsyte family's conventional property-mindedness, yet he now embodies a blend of both.

Characters to notice

• Young Jolyon Forsyte

  Now a successful watercolorist with a short fair beard, reflecting on time, his father's death, and his ownership of Robin Hill.

• Soames Forsyte

  Visits Robin Hill with his nephew Val Dartie, intending to introduce him to Jolly.

• Val Dartie

  Soames' nephew, about to go up to Oxford, brought to meet Jolly.

• Holly Forsyte

  Jolyon's younger daughter, now eighteen, being painted by her father; described as shy and affectionate.

• June Forsyte

  Jolyon's daughter, manages Robin Hill and has a strong, decided personality; mentioned in context of her relationship with Irene.

• Irene Forsyte

  Recalled by Jolyon in three encounters; beneficiary of old Jolyon's codicil, now independent with her own income.

• Jolly Forsyte

  Jolyon's son, away at Oxford (Christ Church), but expected to meet Val.

• Old Jolyon Forsyte

  Deceased; remembered fondly by Jolyon, who contemplates his father's love for Robin Hill and his peaceful death under the oak tree.

Key passages

• “Trees take little account of time, and the old oak on the upper lawn at Robin Hill looked no day older than when Bosinney sprawled under it and said to Soames: 'Forsyte, I've found the very place for your house.'”

  The ancient oak tree on the lawn at Robin Hill appears unchanged since Bosinney first pointed out the location to Soames.

  Opens the chapter with a meditation on time and continuity, linking past and present.

• “His own fifty years were as nothing to its wood. When the house behind it, which he now owned, was three hundred years of age instead of twelve, that tree might still be standing there, vast and hollow—for who would commit such sacrilege as to cut it down?”

  Jolyon feels his own lifespan is insignificant compared to the oak's; he imagines the tree surviving centuries after the house ages.

  Highlights Jolyon's sense of mortality and the enduring natural world.

• “There was the smack of reverence and ancestor-worship (if only for one ancestor) in his desire to hand this house down to his son and his son's son.”

  Jolyon's wish to pass Robin Hill to future generations combines respect for his father with a Forsyte-like attachment to property.

  Illustrates the blend of aesthetic and possessive impulses in Jolyon.

• “He had, indeed, loved her to the last, for his was an affectionate spirit, but she had become increasingly difficult: jealous of her stepdaughter June, jealous even of her own little daughter Holly, and making ceaseless plaint that he could not love her, ill as she was, and 'useless to everyone, and better dead.'”

  Jolyon genuinely loved his second wife until her death, but her jealousy and complaints made their marriage strained.

  Reveals the emotional complexity of Jolyon's family life and his wife's insecurity.

• “This was but the third time he had seen his cousin Soames' wife—if indeed she was still his wife, of which he was not quite sure.”

  Jolyon has only met Irene three times and is uncertain about her marital status with Soames.

  Introduces the ambiguous legal and emotional state of Irene's marriage.