Comment on the greatest suffers in Strife are women
Galsworthy's Strife deals with the problems of the industrial world. The struggle and confrontation between Labour and Capital is almost always there. Everywhere, Trenartha Tin Plate Works can also not be an exception to the omnipresent phenomenon. Many factories may not have as unbending persons as Anthony and Roberts. They are representatives of capital and labour respectively.
The strike has been going on for over four months. The Company has suffered a loss of fifty thousand pounds which is not easy for it to make up. On the contrary, the workers have spent almost every penny they possess, and their wives and children are on the point of starvation.
None of the two leaders, however, still wish to come to any compromise. Come what may they are not in a mood to bow down the least. Anthony will not concede any demand of the workmen because he knows if their one demand is conceded, they will raise six. Workers should be ruled with an iron hand, he says. Moreover, then the directors and shareholders will come to the workmen's state.
On the contrary, Roberts is adamant in getting every demand of the workers conceded. He will not do without a single demand. He can't bear that the capitalists roll in wealth without doing anything.
If Anthony can be saved by simply raising his finger he (Roberts) would not do that. Harness, the Trade Union leader comes in midway. He stands for compromise. From the very beginning, he has been striving to bring both the groups to a common talk but none listens to him. This makes both the parties suffer mentally and physically.
No doubt Chairman Anthony and his wife are passing through great tension but the greatest sufferers are the workmen, especially their women and children. The dramatist does not bring children on the stage but women are very many-Seven-Enid, Annie, Madge, Mrs. Rous, Mrs. Bulgin, Mrs. Yeo and a Parlourmaid. It is through the conversation of most of them that the real impact of the strike comes to light.
The play opens with the meeting of the Directors, Anthony (76), being in the chair. After the arrival of Harness, the negotiations start. The hot exchanges of words between Anthony and Roberts mar the whole scene. It is manifest that the workers are suffering immensely. About the women, particularly, we know nothing. It is only in the Second Act that we come across the sufferings of labourers.
The first Scene of the Second Act is laid in the kitchen of Mrs. Roberts. There we are face-to-face with several women. Roberts, a thin and dark-haired woman about thirty-five, with patient eyes.' Mrs Yeo, a broad-faced person'; Mrs. (Henry) Rous, 'with silver hair'; Mrs Bulgin, a little pale, pinched-up woman, Madge Thomas, a good-looking girl of twenty-two, with high cheekbones, deep-set eyes and dark untidy hair. All are in a free mood and giving vent to their woes.
Mrs. Yeo breaks the ice saying that in a week, for the first time, she has seen a six pence. The trouble is that her children are school-going and 'it's the goin' to school that makes em, 'ungry'. The condition of her home is pitiable that she keeps Mr Yeo busy in one thing or the other thereby keeping him away from 'broodin' about the house.
Mrs. Rous is 'ashen white', has nothing in her house to eat, and is 'shivering'. Her father died of getting 'a poisoned leg' in a company. (There was no Compensation Act then). She has not enough clothes to keep her warm so she wants to "go and get to bed; (because) it is warmer there than anywhere." She is too weak to move unhelped.
Mrs Bulgin's condition is not better. For some time she has been searching for a job but in vain. Her children are the greatest sufferers. In Bulgin's own 'matter-of-fact voice', "I keep'em in bed they don't get to hungry when they're not running about; but they're that restless in bed they worry your life out."
The young Madge Thomas (22) is also not without the impact of hartal. She is in love with George Rous's son, of Henry Rous, but it seems this strike will lead them nowhere. Her younger brother Jan (10) has nothing to eat. He puts on the clothes of the elders. George is blindly following Roberts but Madge has asked him to leave the beader. It is she who, out of sheer despondence rebukes Enid, daughter of Chairman Anthony, and informs Roberts about Annie's death that turns the whole story.
But the greatest silent sufferer is Annie Roberts. Her heart is weak and she is ill. There is nothing in her house, cloth, coal, medicine, milk whatever. Roberts is completely lost in the strike, having contributed even his own savings. She is too docile to say any word against anybody least of all against Roberts.
She is happy in whatever Roberts is happy in. She refuses the help of Enid only because of her husband, Francis Underwood, Manager of the Company. When Enid wishes to send a Doctor to her she politely refuses saying that there is only the weakness! Roberts comes to her simply to go back. She says, "The women may die for all you care." And she passes away, hungry, shivering, unattended but without the least complaint. She is very innocent and large-hearted.
Labourers, too, suffer being men they are capable of bearing all these odds. Moreover, if they suffer, it is on account of their own doing. The ladies, suffer without the least fault of theirs. The play-goer has the fullest sympathy with them. They create a scene of pity, no doubt. Coats rightly remarks, "The more human aspect of the struggle appears when the women folk appear on the scene."
