A Feminist Stylistic Analysis of John Galsworthy's the Man of Property

This research paper applies feminist stylistic analysis to John Galsworthy’s novel The Man of Property. Using the theoretical framework of feminist literary criticism, this study explores how Galsworthy’s language and stylistic choices reinforce themes of possession, gender inequality, and patriarchal control. Through close reading and textual analysis of selected passages, the research focuses on lexical choices, sentence structures, dialogue patterns, and stylistic devices such as metaphor and irony. Drawing on feminist theories of language, this study interprets how the novel critiques the objectification of women, particularly through Soames Forsyte’s obsessive control over his wife, Irene. The findings suggest that Galsworthy’s narrative style and linguistic structures expose and challenge the fixed gender norms of the time, depicting marriage as a form of ownership rather than partnership. Overall, this research contributes to the intersection of feminist theory, linguistic and literary analysis, highlighting the importance of feminist stylistic approaches in revealing gender roles in literary texts.