“The Japanese Quince”

The story “The Japanese Quince” by John Galsworthy demonstrates the quote, “We are all serving a life sentence in the dungeon of self,” through the character Mr. Nilson. To begin, Mr. Nilson’s strict routine demonstrates his captivity in life. Even on a morning he calls perfect, Mr. Nilson refuses to enter the downstairs part of his house without first adorning himself with his black frock coat. He wears his coat like a suit of armor. In an attempt to keep the world from him, Mr. Nilson wears a tight restricting garment that reflects the tight restricting parameters of his prison. In Mr. Nilson’s prison, he greets the world with a precisely placed newspaper on the kitchen table, and he anxiously waits to eat breakfast in thirty minutes. Everyday the same routine and the same cell he wakes up to greet. Can sacrificing a mere thirty minutes to eat breakfast matter that much to Mr. Nilson? Actually, he cannot conceive of breaking his ritual an...