Critical Analysis of Howards End by E.M. Forster

  

Summary of  Howards End by E.M. Forster

 After Helen Schlegel's short sentiment with Paul Wilcox closes gravely, the refined, hopeful Schlegel family figures it they will have nothing further to do with the materialistic, trade fixated Wilcoxes. The Schlegels proceed with their scholarly lives. At a presentation of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, they meet a devastated protection agent named Leonard Bast, who respects them with general doubt when Helen incidentally takes his umbrella. The Schlegels are stunned when the Wilcoxes move from their country bequest of Howards End to a London level inverse their home on Wickham Place in London. Yet, Paul has left to win his fortune in Nigeria, and Helen is traveling with her cousin Frieda in Germany, so there is little peril of a disagreeable scene. Margaret, Helen's more established sister and the top of the family, even gets to know Mrs. Wilcox; they go Christmas shopping together, and Margaret tosses a lunch meeting for the ethereal, caring Mrs. Wilcox. 

At the point when Mrs. Wilcox bites the dust not long a while later, she leaves a written by hand note behind asking that Howards End be given to Margaret. Be that as it may, her even minded spouse, Henry, an unmistakable money manager, and her eager child Charles, a striving financial specialist, decline to follow up on the matter and never notice it to Margaret. One evening, Margaret and Helen run into Henry, and they examine the instance of Leonard Bast; Henry cautions them that Leonard's insurance agency is destined to disappointment, and they encourage him to get another line of work. Yet, helpless Leonard, who connects the Schlegels with everything social and heartfelt - he peruses continually, wanting to better himself- - despises this interruption into his business life and blames them for attempting to benefit from his insight into the protection business. 

Margaret and Henry foster a stopping, progressive companionship. At the point when the rent terminates at Wickham Place, the Schlegels start searching for another house (their property manager needs to follow the overall pattern and supplant their home with a more productive apartment complex). Henry offers to lease them a house he possesses in London, and when he shows it to Margaret, he abruptly proposes to her. She is astonished by her satisfaction, and in the wake of thinking about the proposition, she acknowledges. 

Presently before Margaret and Henry are planned to be hitched, Henry's girl Evie weds a man named Percy Cahill; the wedding is held at a Wilcox bequest close to Wales. After the gathering, which Margaret finds very disagreeable, Helen shows up in a rumpled state, with the Basts close behind. She proclaims irately that Leonard has left his old organization, gotten another line of work, and been immediately terminated; he is presently without a pay. Helen indignantly censures Henry for his badly thought about counsel. Margaret requests that Henry give Leonard a task, yet when he sees Jacky Bast, he understands that he took part in an extramarital entanglements with her 10 years prior, when she was a whore in Cyprus. Margaret pardons him for the rashness - it was before they even met- - however she keeps in touch with Helen that there will be no work for Leonard. 

Helen and the Basts have resigned to an inn around, and after Jacky rests, Helen and Leonard stay up examining Helen's philosophical perceptions about existence. After Margaret's note shows up, a sensation of misfortune slips on their discussion, and they have intercourse - an unwanted advancement for the two of them: Leonard is wracked with blame, and Helen gets pregnant. She leaves for Germany the next morning, and both she and Leonard retreat from Margaret's life. Margaret and Henry are hitched, and plan to construct another home in Sussex. 

After some time passes, nonetheless, Margaret starts to stress over her sister, and with Henry's assistance, she masterminds a plan to amaze her at Howards End, where Helen is going to gather a few books. (The Schlegels' possessions are being put away at Howards End.) Here, Margaret sees Helen's high level pregnancy, and is loaded up with affection and delicacy for her sister. Helen requests to go through the night with Margaret at Howards End, however Henry won't let a "fallen lady" rest in his home. At the point when Margaret brings up that Henry himself has submitted a more awful sexual carelessness than Helen, Henry is shocked, and Margaret makes plans to leave him, getting back to Germany with Helen. 

Meanwhile, Leonard chooses to admit to Margaret what occurred, and he goes to Howards End the morning after Margaret and Helen rest there. At the point when he shows up, he is beaten by Charles Wilcox with the level of a blade, and a shelf falls on him. Leonard has a respiratory failure and bites the dust. After the examination, Charles is accused of murder and condemned to three years in jail. Henry is broken, and comes to Margaret for help. Henry, Margaret, and Helen move into Howards End, where Helen and Henry figure out how to be companions and where Helen's child is conceived. After fourteen months, they are as yet living there joyfully. 

Themes of Howards End by E.M. Forster

Rich versus Poor 

Theme of Rich versus Poor

The theme of rich versus poor, and the obligations of those with money to those without, surfaces over and over again in Howards End. The differences between three families, the Schlegels, the Wilcoxes, and the Basts, demonstrate how money defines three different kinds of lives.

The Schlegels and the Wilcoxes represent two different facets of the English upper class. The Schlegels were born with a certain level of privilege that allows them to live comfortably without working. They each draw a certain amount of money annually from investments. When asked if she is for riches or poverty, Margaret declares. "For riches. Money forever!" She recognizes that "riches" represent freedom, freedom for the Schlegels to do what they want with their time, such as exploring the world of art and culture or traveling. They don't have to worry about rent or where their next meal comes from. Being well-off does not mean Margaret is callous or devoid of compassion. She is an empathetic, thoughtful person who wants to help solve society's ills and who makes an effort to connect with others. However, she does not always fully recognize how extensive and definitive the gap between the rich and the poor really is. 

The Wilcoxes, on the other hand, lack any empathy for the suffering of others. Mr. Wilcox is a self-made businessman. For him and his family, money equals status and power. Their multiple cars and homes broadcast their privilege, but also give them a sense of superiority to others less fortunate. They see other people as predators, plotting to take what they've got or otherwise undermine them, when in fact they are predators themselves: ruthless pragmatists, who assess every person or event to see how it betters or worsens their own circumstances. They are not above manipulating, qualifying their actions, or lying if it serves their best interests. Although their money comes from different sources, it provides both families with what Margaret calls "a golden island," keeping them from the sea of poverty in which so many others struggle. The true cost of poverty to the human spirit is represented in the novel by Mr. Bast, a clerk with aspirations to better himself through music and literature. He leaves his job on the advice of Mr. Wilcox, who tells him, wrongly as it turns out, that the company for which Mr. Bast works will fail. This causes a humiliating descent into abject poverty. This poverty is a trap that that starves Mr. Bast's potential: he simply does not have the time or resources to educate himself, although it is what he wants most. Instead, he struggles to make ends meet and finally comes to believe that he is both beyond help and beyond hope. By the end of the novel, despite the efforts of the Schlegels to help him, Mr. Bast agrees that the divide between rich and poor is inescapable, and it ultimately destroys him.

The question of the responsibility of the rich to the poor is much debated in the novel. The Schlegel and Wilcox families hold opposing positions. The Schlegels see it as their duty to help Mr. Bast where they can, even if only by encouraging him and giving him advice. Helen tries to bail him and his wife Jacky out of financial trouble by buying back their belongings after an eviction, then offers them half of her own fortune. Margaret too is in favor of giving the poor a steady reliable income rather than small handouts, believing it would make them independent, much like herself, although on a smaller scale. Mr. Wilcox, on the other hand believes that the existence of rich and poor is inevitable, and therefore he has no responsibility to change things. He believes that "if wealth was divided up equally, in a few years there would be rich and poor again just the same." In his view, the economy is a meritocracy, and the poor deserve what they get. They are experiencing the reality that "the shoe is bound to pinch in places" as society progresses forward.

Love 

The Theme of Love

The message of Howards End is wrapped up in Margaret's mantra, "Only connect." What, you may ask, does this really mean? It's simple: love. This novel is all about love – all kinds of love: love between siblings, love between husbands and wives, love between kindred spirits, love of home, love for one's country…basically, love for anything and everything. Love may not be all you need (money's pretty important, too – check out another theme, "Wealth"), but it's pretty darn important. The fear that humans don't love each other enough anymore is pressing here, and the novel challenges us to try and love others and ourselves more.

Connections 

The Theme of Connections

Connecting is perhaps the most important theme of the novel, as the words "Only connect" make up its epigraph. Connections are necessary on many levels. Connecting within oneself is highly important, which is seen most clearly in Mr. Wilcox's personal development. Margaret knows Mr. Wilcox could be a better man if he could just connect the prose and the passion inside of himself rather than devoting his life to practicality and business. Forster also demonstrates the importance of connecting with others in a meaningful rather than superficial way. To achieve this, one must penetrate the inner life rather than relying on the outer life. For example, when Leonard Bast speaks with the Schlegels after his all-night walk, he references many authors and books, but the Schlegels are only interested in his personal view of the experience.The Schlegels and Wilcoxes represent different approaches to life, that which celebrates the inner life, and that which celebrates the outer life. The novel works to bring these two concepts together, and finally unites them through Margaret and Mr. Wilcox's marriage and eventual settling at Howards End. The path to this final connection is fraught with drama and tragedy, but the end result is one of peace, happiness, and stability. Thus, in connecting to each other and embracing differences, Margaret, Mr. Wilcox, and Helen are able to find satisfaction. 

Transformation 

The Theme of Transformation

Change is scary. And it's all around us in the world of Howards End, which, as you might imagine, makes said world kind of a scary place. It's funny – while a lot of the novel is concerned with the coziness of domestic life and the comforting beauties of the English countryside, the rest of it is filled with a definite sense of menace; though there are things in everyday life that make living worthwhile, like a freshly-mown field or a leisurely lunch, we get the feeling that all of these things are somehow endangered by the social, economic, political, and even geographical changes facing the world Forster presents. England is faced with urbanization and modernity, and in the moment of the novel, it's about to fall off a precipice into a whole new era.

Inner Life vs. Outer Life 

The Theme of Inner Life vs. Outer Life 

Margaret and Helen Schlegel celebrate the inner life. In their opinion, the inner life is what defines and shapes a person. Therefore, embracing and understanding it is fundamental to developing identity and confidence. Embracing the inner life encompasses a wide variety of things, such as Margaret working to understand Mr. Wilcox, the celebration of grounding oneself in a home as Margaret and Helen do when seeing their furniture unpacked at Howards End, or expressing one's honest opinion as Leonard finally does when noting the sunrise he witnessed was fairly disappointing. Throughout the novel, the outer life is often portrayed as related to "telegrams and anger." The Wilcoxes, especially Charles, embody existences dominated by the outer life. For instance, after a brief romance with Helen, Paul immediately returns to his outer life focus, and regrets allowing his emotions to rule his action. In fact, the entire Wilcox family, except Mrs. Wilcox, is astounded and upset by Paul's impulsive actions. Similarly, when Helen and Margaret see each other after eight months of not speaking, discussion, explanations, and questions fail to reestablish their bond. To reconnect with each other, they must access aspects of their inner life, which they finally do through seeing their furniture unpacked in Howards End and reminiscing over their childhoods.

At the conclusion of the novel, the concepts of inner and outer life are finally united as Mr. Wilcox, Margaret, and Helen live happily in Howards End. Margaret and Helen embrace the new Mr. Wilcox, who develops an appreciation for the inner life, and Helen, once solely focused on an inner existence, begins to understand the importance of the outer life. Margaret, who has always been open to accepting different approaches to life, acts as the unifier between her sister and Mr. Wilcox, who began the novel at different extremes.

Capitalism 

The Theme of Capitalism

As a novel set in turn-of-the-century England, a time of ongoing industrialization and urbanization, Howards End criticizes the capitalist forces behind England’s prosperity. A society solely driven by the free market, purely intent on maximizing profit and opposed to any kind of intervention, promotes cold self-interest and the consolidation of power while producing extreme suffering in the masses. Through the unfortunate fates of Leonard and Jacky Bast, Forster demonstrates how difficult it is for those born into disadvantaged circumstances to attain a better quality of life in an unregulated system where influence and information are hoarded.

Earnest and idealistic Leonard Bast exemplifies the model working-class Londoner striving to secure a modestly comfortable life for himself and his wife. However, without a more sophisticated education, he is unable to advance beyond menial desk work, and left ignorant of the higher forces that control the market and exploit unwitting consumers and workers alike. Leonard’s vulnerability to the greedy heads of business is symbolized by his poor understanding of his own company, the Porphyrion. When Margaret and Helen Schlegel try to help him by passing on Henry’s report that the company may go bankrupt, Leonard cannot judge for himself if the company is truly in danger. Forster writes, “Leonard had no idea […] To him, as to the British public, the Porphyrion was the Porphyrion of the advertisement—a giant.” The majority of people know as little about how the company operates as they do about a mythical being. Forster continues, “A giant was of an impulsive morality—one knew that much […] But his true fighting weight, his antecedents, his amours with other members of the commercial Pantheon—all these were as uncertain to ordinary mortals as were the escapades of Zeus.” The Porphyrion prefers to keep the public in the dark about its affairs as much as possible, in order to profit off of consumers’ ignorance. Better to be seen as abstract and “impulsive” rather than cold and calculating; consumers can’t object to companies’ private interests if they’re not conscious of them.

As an all-too-replaceable worker who has no job security and no social protections to fall back on, Leonard is utterly dependent on the discretion of men of greater means. After various failed attempts to assert control over his own life and change its course—actively switching to a supposedly secure job, and privately studying books to grasp their lessons and values for humanity—Leonard realizes that his volition is ultimately meaningless in the face of the tyrannical authority of those who hold all the money and power. Leonard concludes that developing his own philosophical ideas about life is useless when he has no power to exert his own influence, and instead is entirely subject to the will of others: “Talk as one would, Mr. Wilcox was king of this world, the superman, with his own morality, whose head remained in the clouds.”

Indeed, Henry would rather keep his head in the clouds than acknowledge the terrible suffering of his fellow human beings—or his own part in it. Through willful shortsightedness, he observes only the present instant, declining to identify the source of a problem or to anticipate what may result of his actions: “As Man is to the Universe, so was the mind of Mr. Wilcox to the minds of some men—a concentrated light upon a tiny spot […] He lived for the five minutes that have past, and the five to come; he had the business mind.” The business mind, according to this example, is generally careless, rash, and remorseless. Compared to minds which could encompass “the Universe,” his view is narrowed to his immediate interests.

Henry tellingly exhibits this selective awareness with regards to the foul-smelling mews, or horse stables, that neighbor his London residence. When he is in a position to make a profit by renting his house, he conveniently forgets to mention the mews to a potential renter, but later complains about them freely. Forster writes, “[I]f any one had remarked that the mews must be either there or not, he would have felt annoyed, and afterwards have found some opportunity of stigmatising the speaker as academic. So does my grocer stigmatise me when I complain of the quality of his sultanas […] It is a flaw inherent in the business mind, and Margaret may do well to be tender to it, considering all that the business mind has done for England.” While Forster would appear to conclude that England is greatly indebted to this shrewd “business mind,” likening Henry to a penny-pinching grocer subtly undercuts any impression of his glory. The business-minded are merely hypocrites, deceitful and unconscienced.

Forster shows Henry to be a man who, if he has a conscience at all, easily silences it by attributing the great hardship caused by the country’s ongoing “civilisation” to impersonal, abstract forces rather than the active participation and collusion of private individuals. After Henry gives the Schlegels catastrophically bad advice to share with Leonard, he insists that he is in no way obliged to make amends for the severe disadvantage in which Leonard now finds himself. He declares, “The poor are poor, and one’s sorry for them, but there it is. As civilisation moves forward, the shoe is bound to pinch in places, and it’s absurd to pretend that any one is responsible personally.” The dire perils of homelessness and starvation are hardly equivalent to the “pinch” from a new shoe, as Forster illustrates in Leonard and Jacky’s tragic fates. Ascribing the suffering of the poor to impersonal “civilisation” denies Henry’s complicity in choosing to profit from rather than reform a system of modern industrial capitalism that badly exploits people like Leonard. In a world without true giants and mortals, one can only stay giant by keeping others powerless

Daily Life; the Unseen vs. the Seen

The Theme of Daily Life; the Unseen vs. the Seen

Throughout the novel, Forster describes daily life with the color grey. Especially for Helen, life is flat and boring when there is no romance, passion, or excitement. Mrs. Wilcox, on the other hand, easily finds magic in daily life, preventing the greyness from dominating her existence. She takes pleasure in small things and makes sacrifices where and when she feels she should. As Margaret grows older, both her friendship with Mrs. Wilcox and her relationship with Mr. Wilcox help her learn to embrace daily life as something special and revered. In a letter, Margaret reminds Helen to cherish the seen as well as the unseen. One of Helen's flaws is that she is unsatisfied with the present. To grow as a person, she must learn to live daily life without such constant passion and without isolating so many people. By the end of the novel, Helen has tamed her approach, and begins to understand her sister's advice. In fact, this unification of the seen and the unseen mirrors the theme of combining the inner and outer life.

Colonialism and Imperialism 

The Theme of Colonialism and Imperialism

The Edwardian era (approximately 1901–1910) during which Forster wrote Howards End is widely considered to be the last period of English global supremacy, before the country would be devastated by two world wars and would reluctantly relinquish her authority over her vast overseas colonies. Forster subtly critiques the subjugation of foreign territories and populations that granted England her supposed preeminence, describing the temptation of and justification for imperialism as well as illustrating its inherent flaws.

Margaret, Helen, and Tibby’s father forcefully denounces the zeal for imperialism and colonialism that afflicts the European powers of the day, from his native Germany to his adopted England. “It is the vice of a vulgar mind to be thrilled by bigness, to think that a thousand square miles are a thousand times more wonderful than one square mile, and that a million square miles are almost the same as heaven,” he declares to them as children. Instead of continuing the mad rush to conquer distant territories, he suggests, Germany and England should seek to rekindle the intellectual mastery that once enlightened the world.

The Wilcoxes’ staunchly colonialist ideology could not be more dissimilar. Henry and his sons run the Imperial and West African Rubber Company, an enterprise that Margaret finds impressive despite her father’s beliefs. She greatly admires Paul Wilcox for traveling all the way to Nigeria to work for the sake of the British colony there. She voices her admiration to Tibby: “He doesn’t want the money, it is work he wants, though it is beastly work—dull country, dishonest natives, an eternal fidget over fresh water and food [...] A nation that can produce men of that sort may well be proud. No wonder England has become an Empire.” Margaret has evidently not embraced her father’s convictions to the letter, and lines like this from the heroine of Howards End may startle readers who assume that Forster is voicing his own opinion through his protagonist. However, looking at the book’s overall treatment of imperialism—and of Margaret—makes it clear that Forster characterizes British colonialism as fundamentally unethical and untenable, and Margaret is actually an example of the flawed prevailing mindset that struggles to renounce the belief that British superiority entitles England to hold other people in subjection. Forster writes later, “Imperialism always had been one of [Margaret’s] difficulties.” Her characterization of the colonies as “beastly,” “dull,” and “dishonest” exposes her extremely narrow, racially-prejudiced conception of Africa.

Forster criticizes this racism and objectification on the part of the British towards native populations that justify the profitable system of colonial exploitation. He describes a map hanging on the wall in Henry’s company office “on which the whole continent appeared, looking like a whale marked out for a blubber.” Evoking the bloody slaughter of whales and the foul labor of harvesting their blubber suggests that the work of the British in their African colonies is similarly monstrous. Likening the continent to a dead whale also suggests how the British coldly view Africa and its people as merely another commodity to be mined.

Forster further illustrates how the Wilcoxes and their like conduct their predatory and exploitative colonialism largely outside of the public eye, the better to prevent objections from an informed domestic populace. As Margaret notes, “Henry had implied his business rather than described it, and the formlessness and vagueness that one associates with Africa itself had hitherto brooded over the main sources of his wealth.” While the means by which Henry extracts his enormous fortune from Africa are never spelled out in great detail, he apparently specializes in the trade of rubber, a substance which was known to be harvested by coerced African laborers under extremely brutal conditions. Cultivating an aura of “formlessness and vagueness” rather than acknowledging the cruel conditions under which he reaps his riches allows him to operate free from scrutiny. At the same time, Margaret’s apparent disinterest in piercing the fog surrounding his operations, an indifference that is highly uncharacteristic of a woman so intelligent, perceptive, and reflective, is an indication that she indeed suspects the dark truth but does not want to hear it confirmed. She is unwilling to consider the idea that England’s glory rests upon suffering.

The last word that Forster offers on imperialism prefaces Charles’s fatal assault on Leonard. As the latter walks from the train to Howards End, Charles passes him on the road, driving the short distance to the house from his home nearby. Forster writes, “In [the vehicle] was another type, whom Nature favours—the Imperial. Healthy, ever in motion, it hopes to inherit the earth. It breeds as quickly as the yeoman, and as soundly; strong is the temptation to acclaim it as a super-yeoman, who carries his country’s virtue overseas. But the Imperialist is not what he thinks or seems. He is a destroyer.” Forster unfavorably contrasts “the Imperialist”—Charles—with “the yeoman,” or the self-sufficient farmer Leonard could have possibly become if he had been born in the country instead of the city. Forster idealizes the yeomen of England’s pre-industrial past, those who were firmly connected to the natural world and were content to simply provide for their families. He envisions the original occupants of Howards End to be this type of humble landowner, and he wishes for England to remember this modest spirit and renounce her destructive imperial ambitions. The nation’s colonies enrich a handful of people like the Wilcoxes, at too great a cost to the soul of all who support British imperialism

Proportion 

The Theme of Porportion

Balancing the inner and outer life and the seen and the unseen requires accepting the importance of proportion and compromise over extremism. In an early conversation with Mrs. Wilcox, Margaret mentions that proportion should be embraced only as a last resort, but soon learns that she is incorrect. There are in fact several points in the novel when characters are living in an all-or-nothing way. The characters that end up happy in the end, however, have learned that proportion is a necessary element in life. Margaret has found proportion in her roles as Helen's sister and Mr. Wilcox's wife. Mr. Wilcox has learned to set aside some of his more uptight ideals and finally leave Howards End to his second wife and then her nephew, and Helen has learned that passion is important, but should not dominate one's existence. In contrast, Charles is unable to compromise his views. He never trusts Margaret or Helen, and sees Helen's situation as one that can be rectified with violent revenge. For this extreme behavior and inability to respond proportionately, Charles goes to prison.

 

Identity 

The Theme of Identity

One of the main questions Howards End asks us to consider is this: how can an English person go about being an English person in the England that the novel shows us? That sounds a little crazy, so we'll take a step back. The world of Forster's novel is rife with change and conflict, and each character we encounter is challenged by these changes and conflicts, not only on a political level, but on a personal one as well. It's up to them to decide, then, how best to reconcile their own personal desires and beliefs to the requirements of the society they live in – and it's a real challenge. 

Regional Politics 

The Theme of Regional Politics

Howards End presents an examination of English life shortly before World War I. At the time, England was in the middle of great social change while simultaneously at the height of its global influence. Many have suggested that in writing this novel, Forster was truly trying to answer the question: "Who shall inherit England?" Therefore, in Howards End Forster carefully presents three different classes of English society. The Schlegel family represents the idealistic, literary and cultured upper class, the Wilcox family represents the materialism and excessive intellectualism of certain sections of the upper class, and the Basts represent the lower middle class of English society, struggling to maintain influence and to avoid falling into poverty. At the end of the novel, these three groups are intertwined permanently. Margaret Schlegel marries Henry Wilcox, and Helen Schlegel bears Leonard Bast's child. Margaret, Henry, Helen, and her baby boy end the novel living together peacefully at Howards End. Thus, Forster seems to suggest that all parts of English society must learn to coexist on equal ground.

Dissatisfaction 

The Theme of Dissatisfaction

Nothing is more frustrating than seeing your own limitations and knowing that you can't get past them – and that's exactly what happens to some of the characters in Howards End. Dissatisfaction is a product of many social factors here – class, gender, profession, among other things – and as a result, all of the characters are dissatisfied in some way. The modern world that Forster depicts, with its changing social norms and political conflicts, makes for a whole lot of unresolved personal troubles…some of which can never really be resolved, no matter how hard our characters try 

Class and Culture 

The Theme of Class and Culture

There are cultural differences between them, but both the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes are well off enough to live comfortably and pleasurably. However, this is an impossibility for Leonard Bast. He must struggle to gather enough money to attend a single concert, while the Schlegels have attended so many that they have lost count. Leonard longs desperately to be cultured, and is most happy when having intellectual, culturally centered conversations with the Schlegel women. This disparity between the rich and poor appears many times, and various opinions of how to assist the struggling poor are provided. When Margaret, Helen, and their friends gather for a social occasion, this topic arises in conversation. Margaret says that the less fortunate should be given money - a means to figure out their ideals - rather than have a way of life imposed upon them. Later on, Mr. Wilcox maintains that there will always be rich and poor in the world and that that is not necessarily a bad thing, but simply a way of life. For Helen especially, Leonard humanizes the issue of poverty, and she wants desperately to help him. The novel's conclusion does not provide a final response to if and how the poor should be assisted, as Leonard dies, ironically buried under a pile of books.

 

Wealth 

The Theme of Wealth 

The brutal truth is, money matters. Howards End recognizes this horrible fact, though not all of its characters choose to admit it. The novel constantly demonstrates the need to balance ideals and practical concerns, and the main practical concern here is the acquisition, investment, and dispensation of funds. The problem, however, is the failure of some of the characters to see that worldly issues, like wealth, aren't necessarily incompatible with philosophical ones – the struggle they, and we, face throughout the book is how to reconcile these two sides of life 

Gender Roles; Sexuality 

The Theme of Gender Roles; Sexuality 

The differences between the Wilcoxes, primarily a family of men, and the Schlegels, consisting mostly of women, are undeniable. There is something harsh and unyielding about the former and a certain softness and romance about the latter, which suggest specific differences in gender roles. Undoubtedly, in the novel, women are expected to behave in a certain way. Mrs. Wilcox, though her true pleasure is Howards End, has learned how to put her family first no matter what. Similarly, Margaret plays the role of the 'silly' female when her actions at Oniton are deemed bizarre, and her mistakes are quickly excused.

Throughout the novel, it becomes clear that in 1910 England, women are expected to submit to men. For example, before staying at Howards End with Helen, Margaret must ask her husband's permission. However, even when he denies her use of the house, she rebels against him and stays there anyway. Margaret appears unwilling to accept a lesser place in society as a result of her womanhood. Similarly, Helen bravely bears an illegitimate child in a time and place where such things are unheard of, while Mr. Wilcox is simply chided for his affair with a prostitute. Clearly, men are permitted far greater liberty than women, but the Schlegel sisters are unwilling to submit entirely to society's expectations.

Principles 

The Theme of Principle 

Do you ever get yourself into situations where you know that you're making an argument that's going to come back and bit you in the you-know-where, but you do it anyway, just because you're too proud to admit that you're even a little bit wrong? Of course you have – we all do. And, because they're human, so do almost all the characters in Howards End. The whole novel is basically a long demonstration of the difference between principle and action, and the problems that can come from being inflexible about either of these things. 

Analysis of Characters in Howards End by E.M. Forster

Margaret Schlegel

Aged twenty-nine at the opening of the novel, Margaret is the oldest of the Schlegel children, making her responsible for her younger siblings after the death of their parents. She is a mother figure for her younger brother Tibby, and is her sister Helen's best friend. Margaret is intellectual and cultured, with a passion for discussion. Understanding the importance of having different kinds of people in the world, she has the ability to be practical, but only in order to strengthen her relationships and connections with others.

Helen Schlegel

Margaret's sister, a passionate, flighty girl of 21 who lives for art, literature, and "human relations." Like Margaret, Helen is a representative of the idealistic, cultured Schlegel family, which represents the intellectual aspect of the upper classes. But Helen, who is prettier than Margaret, is also much less grounded and far more prone to excessive and dramatic behavior.

Henry Wilcox

Henry is in his fifties, and he has made a great fortune running the Imperial and West African Rubber Company. He opposes social reform and women’s rights, and believes whole-heartedly in the righteousness of capitalism and colonialism. He looks down on the lower classes and addresses his servants rudely. He distrusts emotion and imagination, and his view of the world is consistently shallow and single-minded. He likes to flaunt his power and is very conscious of his reputation. He demands that his family, especially his wives, be always respectful and deferential to him. A blatant misogynist, he looks down on women, dismissing them as hysterical and incapable of sound judgment. In the early days of his marriage to Ruth, he used to go on business to Cyprus, where he took a mistress, Jacky, and later abandoned her there without any means to support herself. He judges men and women’s sexual transgressions by a strict double standard, refusing to overlook Helen’s affair while expecting his own to be condoned. He shows no true remorse for his mistakes and their disastrous consequences for people like Jacky and Leonard Bast. Only after his firstborn son, Charles, is jailed for his role in Leonard’s death by manslaughter does Henry see the flaws in the narcissistic worldview he promoted and passed down to his children. He rights one of his wrongs by giving Howards End, the house belonging to Ruth, to his second wife, Margaret, as Ruth had always wanted. He even consents to allowing Margaret’s nephew, an illegitimate child, to inherit the home next.

Leonard Bast

Leonard, as the narrator comments at one point, is more an idea than a person. He represents everything that's thwarted by modern life – he's a romantic and relatively intelligent young man who should be leading a healthy and happy life somewhere in the English countryside, but instead, he's trapped in a dead-end job in a dead-end city, London. Leonard is basically a picture of complete frustration; he's intellectually frustrated, sexually frustrated, and economically frustrated. That's a lot of stress for one dude, and it really shows in his prematurely aged demeanor. He's an all-around sad guy, and we have to feel bad for him, even if we don't find him particularly exciting or sympathetic.

Nobody finds Leonard particularly exciting or sympathetic, really – the Schlegels adopt him because of his interesting desires to escape the quiet desperation of his life, but he doesn't really live up to his potential for interest. The thing is, he's never allowed to live up to his potential because he doesn't have the most important ingredient – money. Forster uses Leonard to show us just how destructive poverty can be; being poor is what destroys Leonard's hopes and dreams, and his intellectual ambitions. It is what crushes him so completely, and that, in turn, is what draws Helen to him (it's totally warped, we know). 

Charles Wilcox

Charles Wilcox, Wilcox’s older son, who is sent to prison for beating Leonard Bast. Though Bast dies of a heart attack and not of the injury sustained in the beating, Charles Wilcox is convicted of manslaughter and sent to prison for three years. His son’s trial and conviction break Henry Wilcox’s health.

Ruth Wilcox

Henry's wife, who dies in the first half of the novel. Gentle, selfless, loving, and strangely omniscient, Mrs. Wilcox seems to represent the past of England. Howards End belongs to her, and she attempts to leave it to Margaret when she dies, an attempt which is blocked by Henry and Charles. 

Tibby Schlegel

Tibby is sixteen years old at the beginning of Howards End. Like his sisters, Margaret and Helen, he has a great deal of intelligence and a taste for beautiful art, especially music. However, he lacks his sisters’ compassion and good nature. He isn’t sociable and is happiest when he’s absorbed by his studies. He has no concrete ambition or ideology and is content to live comfortably off of his inherited fortune without ever pursuing a profession. He believes in his own superiority, and he turns away from the ugly side of life. He can’t be bothered with most inconveniences. 

Miss Avery

Miss Avery is more than a little creepy, and we're not sure how firmly she's planted on her rocker. She's the caretaker of Howards End, and was a close childhood friend of Ruth Wilcox's, despite the difference in their social statuses (Miss Avery and her family are of a lower class). She's convinced that Margaret, who she seems to see as the inheritor of her old friend Ruth's legacy, will come to live at Howards End, despite the fact that Margaret keeps denying it, and she goes so far as to set up all of the Schlegel furniture up in the house while it's in storage there. She can clearly see the connection between Margaret and the first Mrs. Wilcox – we're not sure how – and she understands the need for Howards End to stay with someone who loves and cares for it

Jacky Bast

Jacky Bast, Leonard’s wife, an older woman who tricks Bast into an unpleasant marriage. She has an unsavory reputation caused as much as anything by the fact that she drinks too much

Paul Wilcox

The youngest child in the Wilcox family, Paul has a brief, failed romance with Helen Schlegel when she stays at Howards End. He goes to Nigeria to make his fortune off of England’s colony there. When Charles goes to jail, he comes back to England to run the family business in African rubber. He resents giving ownership of Howards End to Margaret Schlegel and treats her rudely.

Evie Wilcox

Evie, a fiercely healthy and athletic young lady, is really just summed up in those three words: fierce, healthy, and athletic. And we're not talking, like, Top Model "fierce" – rather, she's just determined to get her way. Not that Evie wants anything extraordinary…like her brothers, she's extremely conventional in her desires. She just wants to continue being wealthy, socially comfortable, and unembarrassed by anything. Is that too much to ask? In other words, Evie is simply the female equivalent of Charles and Paul – and the exact opposite of Helen Schlegel

Frieda Mosebach  

Frieda Mosebach, or Fraulein Mosebach, a young German woman, is a cousin of the Schlegels on their father’s side. The Schlegels’ English aunt, Juley Munt, mildly disapproves of Frieda’s free spirit. She visits them in England with her fiancé, Bruno Liesecke, or Herr Liesecke. After she marries, she becomes Frau Liesecke. 

 

Aunt Juley

Aunt Juley is the kind of comfortable, uncomplicated character we expect from Forsterian aunts. Aunts play an odd role in general in his novels – they seem to be ever present (often more present than mothers or fathers), and they're either consistently good or consistently annoying. Luckily for the Schlegels, Aunt Juley is the former, rather than the latter. She's a sweet lady, who seems primarily occupied with keeping her nieces and nephew happy, and (in her mind's eye) providing them with sound advice in the absence of their dead parents. 

Aunt Juley doesn't have her own background or her own story; rather, she's just here as support for the Wilcox-Schlegel drama we see unfold in the novel. While she's inadvertently the catalyst for the whole business in the first place – after all, her altercation with Charles at Howards End basically sparks this whole sequence of events – her role after this initial moment is inessential. Really, she's most useful as a kind of cheerleader, both for the Schlegels, and for England. She represents the most predictable kind of old fashioned English national character, the same way that Frieda represents Germany. The England we see in Aunt Juley is comforting, kind, a bit outdated, and, for lack of a better word, auntish.

Setting of Howards End

The various locales represented in Howards End are related to the theme of inheritance and speculation regarding which of England’s landscapes-countryside, city, or suburbs-will claim the future. During the Edwardian era, a great migration from the countryside to the city transpired, mainly because England was shifting from an agrarian nation to an industrialized nation. London, in particular, was growing at an alarming rate, and a great deal of rebuilding and restructuring of the city occurred. New modes of transportation, such as the automobile, tramcars, autobuses, and the subway, allowed people more mobility than ever before. Urban and suburban development, or “sprawl,” followed the subway and tramway lines. The novel is wary of this type of progress and movement, preferring the stability of the country life and homes like Howards End versus the impersonal, chaotic world of London.

The three families in Howards End occupy three different locales: the Schlegels live in London, the Wilcoxes split their time between homes in London and the countryside (easily facilitated by their “motor”), and the Basts live in suburbia. A great deal of movement occurs between country and city, and moving house is a major activity in the novel. For Ruth Wilcox, nothing is worse than being separated from your home. When she hears that the Schlegels’ lease on Wickham Place will expire and they will be forced to move, she is greatly distressed. “To be parted from your house, your father’s house-it oughtn’t to be allowed…. Can what they call civilization be right, if people mayn’t die in the room where they were born?” she says to Margaret.

The use of symbolism, foreshadowed, tone of Howard End by Forster

The use of symbolism  in Howard End by Forster

In Chapter Five, the young man's umbrella serves as a symbol, an emblem of protection against the "elements" of the upper class. As long as he has his umbrella to cover his true self, then he can easily fit into to the upper class role. However, once a member of the upper class has stolen his umbrella, he can be seen for who is—someone who certainly does not fit in. He feels like the only person in a rainstorm without an umbrella, like an easily recognizable fool.

The use of foreshadowed

Howards End symbolizes this unification, which was originally foreshadowed in the description of Mrs. Wilcox's romantic existence in the otherwise highly practical household. 

Tone

Alternately Rhapsodic and Dryly Humorous

Forster's tone is often an odd juxtaposition of highfalutin and quirkily humorous, with very little middle ground in between. Howards End is no exception; its tone alternates between the quite-serious and the quite-silly. Forster manages to express the dire philosophical and social troubles he's trying to communicate here, while all the while maintaining a healthy sense of humor. This makes for a novel that is both difficult and delightful by turns. It manages to encompass a weighty sense of the social troubles at stake, while still maintaining an oddly conversational, almost familial intimacy.