John can’t face who he truly is. He says: “ Grace’s father was a smooth, confident manner of a man who had lived all his life among people who were rich and sure of themselves.” He is far too jealous of Grace’s family and he desires to have something else, something different from what he had before. He wants a rich and a powerful family. John’s father notices the son’s uneasiness from his presence. As a loving parent he swallows his pride and shadows out of existence with a meditative expression on his face. A picture is better than a thousand words; a second that crossed the eyes of a father and the son writes volumes on disappointments and forgiveness: “As his father’s blue, calm eyes stared steadily over the glasses, there was an instant when their glasses have met.” In the case of the snob, a son who doesn’t want to recognize his father, a loving, gentle and intellectual man that speaks and projects his thoughts just with a look, louder than shouting match. John is a snob. He struggles because of that and greatly comprehends the situation: “John’s shame grew, and then humiliation sickened him as he waited and did nothing.” He is willing to give up his father for a new style based only on class and money. Conflict between John and his father ends in a final “good bye”. John Harcourt jr. was too young to know better or either too stupid to want to know and understand!
John Harcourt jr. puts his blame on the other character, Grace. He accuses her of being a “snob” (a person that believes to be above the rest), but the reality shows an intelligent, carrying human being, who is really interested in John’s feelings and fears. “ What makes you so impatient? There is nothing but old books on that counter.” Grace seemed to have known the relationship between John and his father and she was probably more than welcome and happy to meet his father, because she insisted on staying in the bookstore, in the line up close to John’s father and refusing to except any excuses for Harcourt junior to leave the place. The uneasiness of John picks up Grace’s curiosity and interests, she tries hard to figure out what makes him uncomfortable. She gets upset only when she fails to understand John’s problems and pathetic accusations. Against all insinuations Grace gives up and says: “I think I better leave you right here.” It’s only that, John has the fear of loosing her and that is why he posses himself on his knees and begs her to stay. John is much more of a snob than Grace is. John continuously brings up the subject and fights with Grace about social status. John is the one who is ashamed of the way his father dresses and the ultimate insult is when he sees his father at the bookstore and ignores him completely. “Why does he dress as he never owned a descent suit in his life?” John is doing all the talking through the story, while Grace says only one word back at him. Although he betrays his father and chooses the path that he wants to be on, at the end, he still feels “wretched” and wondering about his father walking without his head turning.
The most evident conflict in “Quartet” is between Alice and Behrens. Alice is a spoiled lady, living beyond her expectations. A fish out of water (a person from absolutely other environment), her fortunes by marriage locked her training in eye class society, a little girl form Massachusetts married a count, an officer of cavalry in Napoli, Italia. In a state of dream, Behrens lands in Naples. In his heart he pictures a loving a beautiful Alice. He looks around the strange city, full of sounds and fabulous sceneries, like the Bay of Naples, the smoking Volcano, the island of Capri and he images Alice as a part of this natural beauty: “ All of this is perfectly natural to Alice. By now none of these things look strange to her. This is her home and she’s absolutely used to it. Loves it. I suppose.” He sees her as Alice in Wonderland, but he is disturbed by the change that he sees in her. Later he sees her as a bitter woman, betrayed by her husband and portrayed as a possession: “Of course, you were the only one I ever loved, David. You seemed so commonplace, so uninteresting beside him…and now-if you only knew- how beautiful you look to me, sitting there.” Behrens wasn’t as rich, as the man Alice had married and he felt that his education was very limited for not being able to speak French or Italian. Alice created a set up to get a revenge on her husband and Behrens was a perfect tool for that purpose, an unwilling participant in the dreadful situation. “For God’s sake, be careful!”-he said. Behrens was against the way Alice treated Rombarra and worried about the situation. “Behrens was afraid of Alice, afraid of what she would say next. She seemed capable of anything.” Alice takes a leave of absence from the reality and for a brief moment she wants to forget the present and mentally stays with Behrens in the past, wondering what life would have been like if she had married David. Alice seems delighted to cheat on her husband right in front of his eyes. Behrens is shocked and leaves the house while Alice has to deal with an unhappy marriage full of false acts.
There is conflict between Behrens and himself; he can’t believe what he sees. At the beginning of the story, all that Behrens could talk about was Alice and how beautiful she was six years ago. He had such love and passion for her before, but she wouldn’t take him serious and treat him only as a friend. He came over to Naples to find out how she was doing and he is confused by what he sees and hears in the mansion of Gaetano Rombarra. Behrens was shocked and bewildered by Alice’s words regarding her daughter: “Her name is Felicite (happiness). She was born in the first year of our marriage or, you may be sure, I should never have called her that.” Behrens had suffered so much because of Alice in the past. He had come to Naples feeling that that was over, but it’s not! Alice insults Rombarra in front of David: “He looks clever, doesn’t he? But he is only clever at lovemaking.” A new picture of Alice appeared in Behrens’s mind: “ This was not the Alice he had known. He was afraid of her and longed to be away.” David was put right into the Lion’s Den, where his life was in danger; fully dressed soldier verses a stockbroker, therefore Alice created a conflict between Rombarra and Behrens. David is confused and he deals with his confusion by going away, leaving his memories behind.
The final conflict in “Quartet” is between Alice and David vs. Felicite. Little, sweet, innocent girl accepts the flowers and bounces off the knees, offering a guarantee of peace. She prevents her mother making a move on David. She plays the main role of the story; she is “the glue”, the savior of her family. She was playful to the maximum, but alerted by her mother’s behavior: “If Rombarra felt nothing strange in the atmosphere of the room, the child certainly did.” She felt that something was not right and that caused her to reject the violence, by throwing violets on the floor and stamping all over them. Felicite inflated her father’s pride and defused a potential violent situation. Her innocence allowed her to send a clear message to Behrens: “You better leave now; you are destroying my family”. Alice agrees that Felicite is the only thing keeping her and Rombarra together. Behrens didn’t have the ability to handle this conflict, so he just walks away “hidden from their view now by a row of tall palms.” Felicite was making a circle of love and calmness fusing her parents together.
Success is what you have to live with. John was born in educated, carrying family, which loved him very much and he should have accepted that, deal with the truth, be happy with what he has. He should have admired his father for what he has given him. As ten noble truths state: “Don’t desire what other people have.” He didn’t want to agree with this statement ending up hurting his family and suffer, choosing pleasure and popularity. Alice wanted wealth, power and money and by luck she ended up being a wife of a count in Italy. She ended up being spoiled, reckless, different and careless about nobody, but her self. Although unhappy by her husband’s deception, Alice is rather to stay with her husband then go back and live in the old country. John jr. and Alice portray the non-adjusted, wanting more and willing to hurt anyone that gets on their way.
