Written in the early years of the twentieth century E. M. Forster’s Howards End is set in 1910s England as it’s coming out of the Victorian age and into the Edwardian age. Connecting is the most important theme of the novel, as the epigraph states "Only connect". Howards End examines English life a few years before World War I. In the early 1900s England was in the middle of social change. In writing this novel, Forster was trying to answer the question by critic Lionel Trilling: "Who shall inherit England?" In Howards End the author presents the different classes of English society with Howards End, the house representing England. Forster ingrains his novel with the concerns of the Edwardian period, like the relentless urban expansion that claims the Schlegel’s home, Wickham Place, and the financial struggles of Leonard Bast who works hard as a clerk, trying to hold onto his middle class status.
The novel is about people who are predestined for a life of wealth or the lack of it. The Schlegel family represents the intellectual, literary and cultured upper class, the Wilcox family represents the materialism of the upper class, and the Basts represent the lower middle class of English society. The underlying theme is about developing human connections and embracing differences.
The novel also deals with gender roles, as the Schlegel sisters do not submit completely to the expectations of their society. The Schlegels and Wilcoxes are well educated being born into a world full of privilege and wealth. The sisters have limited but respectable means, while the Wilcoxes are very rich due to selling properties after Ruth’s death. There is the inner life that is valued by the Schlegel sisters and there is the outer life that is valued ...
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... Avery, Ruth’s childhood friend and housekeeper of Howards End, who unpacks the Schlegels’ old furniture in full expectation of their future residence there: “You think you won’t come back to live here, Mrs. Wilcox, but you will.” (Forster, p. 253) Fourteen months later, Margaret, Mr. Wilcox, Helen and her baby are still living at Howards End and have become a family. The novel ends with Margaret’s revelation that Ruth Wilcox wanted her to have Howards End.
Through the novel Forster suggests that all classes of English society must learn to coexist on equal ground. By the end, these three social groups are permanently connected, “In the revised Howards End manuscripts one pattern becomes apparent: Forster inserts hundreds of personal pronouns, underscoring in a concrete grammatical way one theme of the novel - the importance of personal relationships.” (I p. 237)
But I think this book is more for those people who aren’t that aware of social class, or for the ones who feel that we live in a society that is classless, rather than the actual people who have realized the consequences that class really has on someone’s life. Many people can relate to what stories are told in the book; if not, they know of a person that can relate to these stories. As a person that grew up in the lower class, I can definitely relate to most of the stories told in this book. From experience, there is a big difference in this country between the rich, middle class, and the poorest that we see daily. Even those in the so-called working class have to make continuous sacrifices and live very differently from those positioned firmly in the middle class.
The novel’s use of contrast between East Egg, West Egg, and the Valley of Ashes begins to explore the differences between social classes. East Egg houses the most wealthy and aristocratic members of the nearby area. It contains many “white palaces” (Fitzgerald 10) that are quite “fashionable” (Fitzgerald 10). This description paints an image of purity and untouched standards of wealth that are translated into the book’s time period. Due to the pristineness of the village, the homes “[glitter] along the water,” (10) further supporting the idyllic qualities East Egg appears to have. West Egg, on the contrary, is home to people of near equal affluence, but of less social establishment. It is described by the narrator as “less fashionable,” (Fitzgerald
The story also focuses in on Ruth Younger the wife of Walter Lee, it shows the place she holds in the house and the position she holds to her husband. Walter looks at Ruth as though he is her superior; he only goes to her for help when he wants to sweet talk his mama into giving him the money. Mama on the other hand holds power over her son and doesn’t allow him to treat her or any women like the way he tries to with Ruth. Women in this story show progress in women equality, but when reading you can tell there isn’t much hope and support in their fight. For example Beneatha is going to college to become a doctor and she is often doubted in succeeding all due to the fact that she is black African American woman, her going to college in general was odd in most people’s eyes at the time “a waste of money” they would say, at least that’s what her brother would say. Another example where Beneatha is degraded is when she’s with her boyfriend George Murchison whom merely just looks at her as arm
First of all, emphasis is placed on the daily struggles endured on a daily basis by the middle-class. Much like George and Lennie, they worry about having enough money to survive, for shelter and for clothing. Also, there seems to be the fear of loneliness that seems to surface throughout the novel. Despite the on going quarrels between George and Lennie, the two men are afraid of being alone on their own. In addition, it seems the two main characters find themselves in positions that are beyond their control. These are the conflicts one finds in this novel.
Within Tennessee Williams's story about love and abuse within marriage and challenging familial ties, there lie three very different characters that all see the world in vastly different ways. These members of a family that operate completely outside of our generation’s norms, are constantly unsure of themselves and their station within the binary not only of their familial unit, but within the gender binary that is established for them to follow. Throughout the story of the strange family, each character goes through a different arch that changes them irrevocably whether it is able to be perceived or not by those around them. The only male, Stanley is initially the macho force in the home who controls everything without question. He has no consequences for his actions against his wife and is never held accountable for treating the people around him poorly; this lasts until Blanche arrives. Blanche is an outwardly demure, but spirited young woman who after experiencing untold misfortune breaks mentally and decides to no longer care what others may think of her. She lives her life lavishly and foolishly by having dalliances with younger or richer men who shower her with gifts and attention to get sex from her all too willing form. Her effect on Stanley is one of temptation and challenge; she continually tries to convince her sister that she is too good for the man and in turn fosters a resentment for her in him. Stella acts as the antithesis of Stanley and Blanche’s extreme personalities. She is innocence and purity where they are the darkness that threatens to overtake her life. Throughout, Stella is a pawn that they both try to use against the other to no real avail as she is determined to make the best choice for herself. In th...
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print
The description of the house is a good example of how unsocial many families were during this time because all anybody, who was "anybody", wanted was to show how wealthy they were, and to climb the social ladder. I shall now talk about the characters themselves. Mr. Birling is described as being, "a heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech. " He is a prosperous factory owner and is "a self made man". He follows all the capitalist traits of the time and works heavily under the capitalist business mentality, "build them cheap, sell them expensive".
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
... their positions and their stand in society. Material privileges and money distinguish the upper class people from the harder working lower class, and with this we can see how morals play an important role in their life. Arrogance and vanity control the lives of those with all the money, and modesty and inner happiness is what lower class people strive for. In Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier is able to glorify a phenomenon that takes the main character life from the bottom of the sea to a cruise ship sailing the seven seas. The narrator goes through the different social classes but keeps her own mind and morals; she is not over taken by all the riches and material privileges that come with such a life, but on the contrary, she remains true to her self and makes sure that the only thing that matters is the she and Maxim De Winter share and carry on with their lives.
The focus of everyday life in the Victorian Age gives an idea of what the people, in that particular time, had to deal with. Men and women alike walked the streets of London to complete their daily tasks set before them, “Hundreds of thousands of men and women drawn from all classes and ranks of society pack the streets of London” (Engels 1591). This kind of picture of everyday life shows us a realistic picture of Victorian London; it was crowded with people from all social lives. Although the Victorian Age did mention social class, it did not focus on it like the Romantic Period did. The Romantic Period tended to focus on the struggles of the poor, how they interacted with the rich, and how love, imagination, or determination overcame social class, as in “The Mortal Immortal”. In the realistic view of the Victorian Age, the poor stayed poor most of the time and did not socialize with the rich outsid...
Austen’s novel focuses on the social class known as the rural landowning gentry, and the people whose education or family connections enable them to associate with the gentry. Austen uses Marianne Dashwood to represent the "sensible and clever; but eager in everything; her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation, she was everything but prudent" counterpart to her sister Elinor Dashwood who had "strength of understanding and coolness of judgment," neither of whom belong to the land gentry any longer. Austen juxtaposes the two sisters journeys as a way to shed light on the corruptness and instability of the social class system. By surrounding Marianne and Elinor with social climbing characters such as John Willoughby, John Dashwood and Edward Ferrars, Austen illuminates the ruthlessness that surrounds the sisters. The three men are too preoccupied with either getting...
The Bildungsroman genre entails a character’s formative years and his or her development from childhood. The characters from this type of novel recall, in detail, past relationships and experiences that impacted the characters growth, maturity, and exemplar for their relationships with other characters. An important component to Bildungsroman novels is the concentration on the characters childhood (Gottfried & Miles, 122). In Jane Eyre and David Copperfield, both characters childhoods were despondent. Both characters experience the loss of a parent: Jane is a literal orphan; David’s loss is metaphorical, then literal. When Jane Eyre begins, Jane has already lost both parents and is under the guardianship of her aunt, Sarah Reed. Reed and her children, Jane’s cousins, are abusive to Jane and never accept Jane as family. Jane has lost both parents and with the death of her uncle, Sarah’s husband and an advocate for Jane, Jane is without any caring relationship. In addition to being without affection, Jane must endure torment. It is this lack of adoration that leads Jane to seek acceptance throughout her life, while attempting t...
...udice in the social ladder. The Bennet family, although wealthy, was looked down upon, is relation to their social status. They were seen as low on the social ladder, because they had "new money." Lady Catherine, is another example of pride and prejudice displayed through social status, "Now and then they were honoured with a call from her ladyship, and nothing escaped her observation…" Lady Catherine noticed flaws in everyone and used her position and title of "Lady" to rise above everyone and make herself seem superior to them. Her position gives her pride and she flaunts it in a negative way.
The author Jane Austen was writing in the most transformative eras of British history. Austen experienced the beginning of industrialization in England. The movie shows concerns over property, money and status that highlight’s the social scale of the eighteenth and early ninetieth-century England. The film shows the broad social class that included those who owned land as well as the professional classes (Lawyers, doctors, and clergy). Throughout this time there were strict inheritance laws. The law for owning property was that it would go to male children or male relatives rather than breaking it up ...
...y a set of expectations and values that are established on mannerisms and conduct challenged by Elizabeth. From this novel, it is evident that the author wrote it with awareness of the class issues that affect different societies. Her annotations on the fixed social structure are important in giving a solution to the current social issues; that even the class distinctions and restrictions can be negotiated when an individual turns down bogus first impression s.