Student Question
What are the opposed forces in "The Japanese Quince" and how does it relate to the protagonist and antagonist?
Quick answer:
The story opens with Mr. Nilson, a middle-aged Swede, in his house outside of town (not named). He is standing at the open window thinking about how he has been living in the same place for years and that he has never traveled or had an adventure. But now, he finds himself listening for a visitor: Mr. Tandram, who lives nearby but does not visit Nilson often. Mr. Tandram lives in a large house and is well off; Nilson thinks that he must have made some kind of "deal" or "swindling." For all of this, neither man respects the other—Nilson thinks Mr. Tandram is crass while Mr.
Mr. Nilson is very much the story's protagonist, even though he doesn't do all that much. By the same token, his neighbor, Mr. Tandram, is the story's antagonist. That's not to say that he's particularly unpleasant or does anything harmful to Mr. Nilson in any way. It's just that he makes Mr. Nilson feel rather uncomfortable by inadvertently telling him a lot about himself that he'd rather not know.
For in Mr. Tandram, Nilson sees something of himself and the boring, monotonous existence he leads. Seeing Mr. Tandram standing there outside this house on a beautiful spring morning is like looking into a mirror, and Nilson doesn't like what he sees.
And therein lies the conflict. The fact that Messrs Nilson and Tandram are so deeply embarrassed by their brief, awkward encounter would suggest that both of them are driven by self-conflict and that they are as thoroughly ill at ease with themselves, just as they are with each other.
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