A House Divided Cannot Stand Essay

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A House Divided Cannot Stand
The novel Where Angels Fear To Tread by E.M. Forster focuses on the cultural differences between the English and the Italians in the setting of Italy, with a constant balance between symbols of beauty and symbols of death. This is shown most acutely in the character of Lilia, a the young naïve English woman, beautiful yet tragic. At the start of the novel, Mrs. Herriton states, "When a man is neither well bred, nor well connected, nor handsome, nor clever, nor rich, even Lilia may discard him in time" (Forster 8). This not only makes Lilia seem shallow, but also desperate, which begs the question if these qualities are due to an English upbringing or a character flaw. Lilia is not very good at being an English woman: "she (is) a bad housekeeper", and she lets her child stay away from school, she is not very wealthy by English standards, and she is a widow (Forster 7). It is not surprising that Lilia was "so
Italians take risks and are able to be themselves, unlike the reserved nature held by the English. The house they live in, for example, has Italian charms on the outside, but Lilia wants to make it more English on the inside. Lilia is also at a disadvantage, because she is not in her home country, and the expectations are very different. English culture is based on tradition and image, while Italian culture is based on celebration and animation. Italian's are emotional and alive, they take the bad with the good and make the best of it. Lilia's beauty is part of why Gino married her, but her beauty can't save her when she becomes ill and dies so young, a theme that reoccurs in the novel. In creating this exaggerated work, Forster is attempting to reveal reality for how ridiculous and unpredictable it really is, in contrast to how people would like it to

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