A Love Story in Italy in Forster’s Novel, A Room with A View

In Forster’s novel, A Room with A View, Lucy Honeychurch, a young upper middle class woman, visits Italy with her older cousin Charlotte. At their guesthouse in Florence, they are given rooms that look into the courtyard. Mr. Emerson and his son, George, offer them their rooms; however, Charlotte is offended of their offer due to their lower class. She initially rejects the offer, but later accepts it when Mr. Beebe intervenes in the situation. Later, Lucy runs into two arguing Italian men. One man stabs the other, and she faints, only to be rescued by George. On their return home, he kisses her, and Charlotte tells Lucy to keep this a secret. Once Lucy returns home to her mother and brother, Cecil Vyse, a man she met in Rome, proposes to her to which she accepts. After many encounters that show Cecil’s snobbish nature, Lucy breaks off her engagement that night; and with Mr. Emerson’s encouragement, Lucy discovers that she loves George and marries him. Throughout the novel, the theme of transformation is shown thru the change Lucy and Charlotte go through. This theme is affected by Forster’s “light” and “darkness” throughout the novel because the light and darkness emphasize that Lucy’s forward thinking is desirable over Charlotte’s traditional thinking.

The theme of transformation is affected by Forster’s “light” and “darkness” in the novel because they both emphasize how Lucy’s path in life is more favorable. At the beginning of the story, Forster reveals Lucy’s character when she enters her room with a view: “she opened the window and breathed clean night air, thinking of the kind old man who had enabled her to see the lights dancing in the Arno.” (Forster, pg. 11). This sentence shows that Lucy is excited and open on her trip ...

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...because both highlight how Lucy’s modern attitude of life is desirable over Charlotte’s traditional thinking. Throughout the novel, Forster describes Lucy and George with “light”; this helps to show how falling in love with George is the best decision for her. While Forster uses “light” to describe Lucy’s way of thinking, he uses “darkness” to describe Charlotte’s character. This helps to show that Charlotte will not go against the way of society; however, Charlotte has been hinted in helping George and Lucy get together by arranging Lucy and Mr. Emerson to speak with one another; this would mean that Charlotte could have been able to escape the “darkness” of society and enter the “light”. Because of Forster’s use of “light” and “darkness” in A Room with a View, these transformations that Lucy and Charlotte experience have a much larger impact for readers to enjoy.