The Forsyte Saga · Chapter
Bosinney's Departure explained
Following Bosinney's death, the Forsyte family grapples with the implications.
What happens
Following Bosinney's death, the Forsyte family grapples with the implications. Young Jolyon reflects on the blow to the family's sense of property. Old Jolyon, having confessed to June, confronts James about the Robin Hill house, seeking to buy it at a fair price. The chapter culminates in the identification of Bosinney's body at the mortuary, with the three Forsytes—Old Jolyon, James, and Soames—each confronting their own private emotions.
Themes in this chapter
Possessiveness and the Sense of Property
Bosinney's death is seen as a threat to the Forsytes' possessions—the pocket and the hearth—and the family's tree is described as withered by the same flash that struck him down.
Family and Duty
The Forsytes close ranks in mutual defence, with Old Jolyon, James, and Soames united in their visit to the mortuary, despite private fears and suspicions.
Aging and Mortality
Old Jolyon reflects on his life and the fragility of the family tree; the chapter confronts the finality of Bosinney's death and its impact on the older generation.
Characters to notice
- Young Jolyon Forsyte
Reflects on Bosinney's death as a blow to the Forsyte family's sense of property, and rejects the theory of suicide.
- Old Jolyon Forsyte
Informs June of Bosinney's death, negotiates with James about the Robin Hill house, and identifies the body at the mortuary.
- James Forsyte
Anxious about the implications of Bosinney's death and the financial loss; discusses the house with Old Jolyon.
- Soames Forsyte
Present at the mortuary identification, taciturn and immovable; his home is envisioned as stripped bare by Bosinney's death.
- June Forsyte
Informed by Old Jolyon of Bosinney's death; her distress prompts Old Jolyon to act regarding the house.
Key passages
“The stroke had indeed slipped past their defences into the very wood of their tree. They might flourish to all appearance as before, preserving a brave show before the eyes of London, but the trunk was dead, withered by the same flash that had stricken down Bosinney.”
Bosinney's death had penetrated the Forsyte family's core, leaving them outwardly intact but inwardly damaged.
Young Jolyon's metaphor for the family's hidden decay.
“In their hearts they would even feel it an intervention of Providence, a retribution—had not Bosinney endangered their two most priceless possessions, the pocket and the hearth?”
The Forsytes would privately see Bosinney's death as divine punishment for threatening their money and home.
Reflects the family's possessive values.
“The streak of lightning had flashed its clear uncanny gleam on bare bones with grinning spaces between, the disguising flesh was gone.”
Bosinney's death had exposed the stark, ugly truth beneath the Forsytes' comfortable facade.
Young Jolyon's vision of Soames' home stripped of illusion.