MovieChat Forums > The Forsyte Saga (1969) Discussion > So many unpleasant main characters!

So many unpleasant main characters!

posted 11 years ago by Sphinxara
8 replies | jump to latest

I'm all for characters being flawed and multi-layered, but YOWZA - the actions of most of the main characters in this story were repellent!

Let's start with Jo (Jolyon Jr.). We're introduced to him as a free thinking artist, which is all well and good, but within the first episode we learn he is cheating on his wife (which is apparently fine, because he doesn't like her) and then goes on to abandon his daughter because he thinks his mistress and the children he'll have with her are more important. Later, after his second wife has died, he quite happily concedes to Irene that he doesn't grieve for her, because 'like love, grief dies, too'. He then marries Irene, presumably not caring that she had once stolen his (abandoned) daughter's fiancee (without any guilt, of course).

To dwell for a second on the mistress-cum-second wife - she is constantly whining, crying and rebuffing every friendly move made by June and Old Jolyon. No matter how pleasant they are, she will boldly proclaim that she refuses to believe their friendliness and knows that they really hate her (who wouldn't?). I believe they later ascribe her hysterical awfulness to a malady of the brain, which excuses Jo's second wife, not his third...

Which leads us to Irene. She marries without love, openly despises her husband and leaves him for an affair with her best friend's fiancee. She is never apologetic about anything (quite the contrary) but seems to continue being loved and adored by all anyway. She then marries the father of the best friend whose fiancee she had stolen.

Then there is Bosinney himself. A smug, self-important architect who happily cheats on his fiancee with the wife of his employer. Not only that, but even whilst he's seducing said employer's wife, he's still screwing the employer out of ever more money and doing it with the utmost arrogance.

Soames himself. Ironically, apart from one monstrous action, he is probably more likeable (and certainly more pitiful) than the rest of this motley crew. Still, he is a cold fish who is obsessed with money and having a son, and manages to marry a second wife with as much respect for marriage as the first!

The only likeable characters are Winifred (shackled to a thieving, spendthrift adulterer), her mother, Old Jolyon and the batty old aunts! Still, a terrific show in spite of (or because of?) the sheer horribleness of the actions of our protagonists...

Okay, make a sentence out of the following words: Face. Sodding. Your. Shut.

[–] sapphiremyst 11 years ago

"Then there is Bosinney himself. A smug, self-important architect who happily cheats on his fiancee with the wife of his employer. Not only that, but even whilst he's seducing said employer's wife, he's still screwing the employer out of ever more money and doing it with the utmost arrogance."

Bosinney is the only character, out of those you mentioned, that I just can't seem to find any sympathy for. (It's hard with some of the others, but I somehow manage to eke out a bit.) It's one thing to be self-confident, but until you actually make a name for yourself, i.e. build a house or two, you shouldn't expect to command top dollar, regardless of how rich your employer is. Anyway, he was the one who suggested the initial price when he and Soames were looking at the property. He was also rude and disrespectful. And the way he treated June.....

I, too, like Winifred and the old aunts, especially Aunt Juley, who was always putting her foot in her mouth, usually where Soames was concerned.

[–] Sphinxara 11 years ago

Thanks for the reply! I really liked Winifred (can't believe Margaret Tyzack also played the cold and patrician mother of Claudius - what an actress!) but can't quite remember the names of the individual aunts. The one I particularly liked was the one who adopted the little dog, much to her sisters' chagrin. It did seem like the older generation of Forsytes were much nicer than their descendants....

One thing I really couldn't stand about Jo (Kenneth More) was his constant whining and blaming every mistake he made or fault he had on "being a Forsyte". I'm cheating on my wife? It's this damn Forsyte blood! I've abandoned my young daughter? DAMN THIS FORSYTE NAME! His inability to take any responsibility for his own actions got very old very quickly!

Okay, make a sentence out of the following words: Face. Sodding. Your. Shut.

[–] sapphiremyst 11 years ago

Aunt Juley was the aunt that had the little dog. There was something rather child-like about her, so when she said inappropriate things at the worst possible times, it wasn't done with any malice. It was funny how her sister Hester was always trying to hush her up or change the subject.

I guess Jo didn't bother me that much. When he started in on the Forsyte stuff, I tended to tune him out, as I did some of the others.

Winifred really needed to be a strong person to put up with Monty. That was another one of those marriages that never should have taken place. Fortunately, she had the added support of her family. Soames was never going to win any husband of the year awards, but I did think he and Winifred had a very close relationship throughout the whole series.

I didn't grow up. I just got taller.

[–] Furienna (3377) 4 years ago

Indeed, Jolyon whined a lot about his family in his monologues.
But I guess that he was just sick of the "Forsyte ways" and wished to be different from his uptight relatives.
Also, I don't really blame him for falling in love with Helene and wanting a divorce.
After all, it is not like there was any affection left between him and Frances.

[–] shoolaroon-9-43507 10 years ago

I tend to agree with you. While I find Jolyon to be personally pleasant, I don't agree with his life choices either. The person I find most intolerable is Irene, whom as beautiful as she is, I think is really nasty to Soames. I'm much more sympathetic to Soames - he's a stick, of course, but if Irene had given him half a chance, he would have made an excellent husband. So many women would have loved to be married to a Soames. He's not bad looking, he's intelligent, hard worker, loyal, sober, and obviously loves her almost to the point of insanity. He'd do anything for Irene, give her anything - if only she'd come part way with him. He's also wealthy and will do even better undoubtedly. I guess maybe I'm a bit of a stick myself to think so well of him (and it's a tribute to Porter's performance), but Irene seems like more of a cold fish to me than Soames does. As for Bosinney, just another Bohemian rebel type, rather tiresome, but I guess the Irenes and Bosinney's of this world are made for each other.

[–] Furienna (3377) 4 years ago

Soames only was a stalker and a manipulator and a rapist.
But yeah, let's hate on Irene because she couldn't love him back.

[–] Furienna (3377) 8 years ago

What you seem to miss is that Jolyon and Irene both were stuck in an unhappy marriage.
Let's not forget that Frances refused to have sex with Jolyon and still denied him a divorce out of spite.
And that Soames stalked and betrayed and raped Irene and never cared about her well-being.
So it hardly is fair to blame Jolyon or Irene for finding love elsewhere.

[–] marktayloruk (2590) 3 years ago

The.one I liked most was Swithin.