Title From Opposition to Proportion : An essay on Howards End

Author(s) Kimura, Hidetoshi

Citation 沖縄短大論叢 = OKINAWA TANDAI RONSO, 5(1): 35-46

Issue Date 1991-03-31

URL http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12001/10630

Rights 沖縄大学短期大学部

NOTE From Opposition to Proportion :

An essay on Howards End

Hidetoshi Kimura

At the first glance of Howards End, we may easily perceive that

it consists of various binary opposites : culture and materialism, or

the practical mind ; the earth and the mechanical civilization, or

country life and urban life; the rich and the poor ; the tradition and

modernity ; death and (re) birth; love and money ; the unseen and

the seen, and so forth.

These binary opposites develop in a complicated way through

the relations amongst the three families : the Schlegels, the Wilcoxes,

and the Basts. In this paper I intend to examine how E. M. Forster

describes the various aspects of modern civilization and human

relations through the development of these opposites.

1. Culture and Materialism

It goes without saying that most of the personages in the novel

are characteriz~d, firstly, by their attitudes towards "culture".

The charcters who embody culture in the novel are the Schlegel

sisters, Margaret and Helen. They are liberal consumers of culture,

thanks to their great property. But as they are not satisfied with

merely collecting fragments of culture, they are not caught in a trap

of snobbism. They feel their ultimate aim is to fulfil their inner

lives and personal relations. One of the victories of culture is

described impressively in the scene in which Helen meets Margaret

at Howards End after Helen's long absence from England :

-35-

Explanations and appeals had failed ; they had tried for

common meeting-ground, and had only made each other

unhappy. And all the time their salvation was lying round

them - the past sanctifying the present; the present, with

wild heart-throb, declaring that there would after all be a

future, with laughter and voices of children. Helen, still

smiling, came up to her sister. She said : 'It is always

Meg. ' They looked into each other's eyes. The inner

life had paid. 1

On the other hand, they have an admiration for a great outer life

"in which telegrams and anger count." ( ch. 4 ) This is inevitably

to connect them with the Wilcoxes.

The Wilcoxes are the embodiment of "the real world"; they are,

so to speak, pillars of society, and full of the practical mind ; and

they are not bothered by complicated problems of culture. The

ultimate criterion of value judgements for them is utility and profit.

The episode that they turn the paddock at Howards End, which Mrs

Wilcox has loved very much, into a garage is an example. Forster

shows us some important connections between culture and materi­

alism, by depicting the contrast and relations between the Schlegel

sisters and the Wilcoxes. And this is where the "only connect"

theme is clearly expressed.

Margaret, on the one hand, admits the importance of the practical

mind ; she recognizes the fact that not only art and literature but also

her way of life in which she can appreciate them depends funda­

mentally upon material progress and prosperity. Thus she respects

Henry Wilcox's practical genius for management of his trading com-

-36-

pany, which is one of the reasons she accepts his proposal after

Mrs Wilcox's death. On the other, she knows that this practical

mind lacks some essential human virtues. Hence her task is

defined :

Only connect! That was the whole of her C Margaret's )

sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and

both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its

highest. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and

the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life

to either, will die. ( ch. 22)

But this not an easy task. In Helen's eyes, Henry is one of those

who lack the "I ". She says :

·• Had you thought it, then, that there are two kinds of

people- our kind, who live straight from the middle of

their heads, and the other kind who can't, because their

heads have no middle? They can't say " I ". They

aren't in fact, and so they're supermen.' ( ch. 27 )

Here, the "I " means personal responsibility and the identity of an

individual, which Henry Wilcox has lacked all through his life. This

is clearly shown in the scene in which his past relationship with

Jacky Bast is revealed. When Margaret forgives his past, he thinks

that "the great thing now was to forget his failure, and to send it

the way of other unsuccessful investments." ( ch. 29) To him, his

immoral act in his past equals to the loss of money in his business.

It is only when his son Charles has been sentenced to three years'

-37-

imprisonment for the manslaughter of Leonard Bast that his

"fortress" finally collapses.

Another important figure is Leonard Bast, who is a poor clerk.

He regards culture as a sort of social ladder which may help him

out of his miserable life ; he thinks that he can improve himself

"by means of Literature and Art" ( ch. 6 ) ; and his remark, " I

rather want to get this chapter done, " shows that he treats reading

a book as a kind of task or job. ( ch. 6 ) To him culture is not

something that enables him to connect the inner life and the outer,

or the unseen and the seen, but is rather a means to achieve his

superficial cultivation. The scene of his death, in this sense, is

symbolical when he dies, "Books fell over him in a shower."(ch.41)

One can take this scene either as an ironical tragedy of a man

who seeks culture but is finally killed by it, or as a death celebrated

by the books which are to him more precious than a garland.

The contrastive character to Leonard is Tibby Schlegel, who

IS a brilliant Oxford student and studies and appreciates culture

for its own sake. He has little concern about human relations or

society ; he does not intend to connect things, or has nothing to do

with creation. Thus he is a sort of social parasite. As John Colmer

points out, "Tibby exhibits the limit of culture when not infused

with human passion. " 2

2. Love and Money

All the love relations in Howards End have, more or less, the

tinge of sterility and disconnection. And to them money matters

are deeply related. This is another important sphere where Forster

. develops the " only connect " theme.

-38-

The most miserable relatioship is that of Leonard and Jacky.

It is a relationship totally empty and disconnected. Their repetitious

conversation exhibits this :

' Anyone been round to our place? ' asked Jacky.

'Not that I've seen. I've met Mr Cunningham outside,

and we passed a few remarks. '

'What, not Mr Cunningham ? '

'Yes.'

'Oh, you mean Mr Cunningham. '

' Yes. Mr Cunningham. '

'I've been out to tea at a lady- friend's. ' ( ch. 6 )

This is the relation Margaret calls "the lowest abyss", which "is

not the absence of love, but the absence of coin." ( ch. 7 )

In this we can see the idea that lack of money deprives people of

conversational ability,or their voices, hence the true human relationship.

Although Margaret marries Henry with full knowledge of his

essential human defects, her endeavor to enrich his internal life

does not easily succeed, as we have seen in chapter 1; on the contrary,

their relation almost goes to "the precipice" ; she goes to the length

of saying to him: "'Not any more of this ! You shall see the

connection if it kills you, Henry! .... No one has ever told you what

you are - muddled, criminally muddled.' " (ch. 38 ) It is not until

Charles has been imprisoned that his fortress finally collapses and

he really begins to realize the emptiness of his inner life. Then he

retires from his business and decides to donate all his property to

his children according to Margaret's wish. And with her plan to

diminish her income by half, their income becomes proportionate

-39-

to their life at Howards End. The more proportioned their income

becomes, the more harmonious their life becomes ; or, they cannot

achieve their true relationship until they abondon greedy materialism.

Here again, we can see Forster's idea of proportion.

One more important love relation is that of Helen and Leonard.

One may have the impression that Helen's way of falling love with

him is rather curious and unconvincing. Or, one may doubt whether

or not she loves him out of pity. If it may be true, we cannot

disregard that they have shared the idealism. Therefore, we can

surmise that Helen's decision to bear his child is her sacrifice for

her ideal. The following comment of the narrator may prove this :

Helen forgot people. They were husks that had enclosed

her emotion. She could pity, or sacrifice herself, or have

instincts, but had she ever loved in the noblest way, where

man and woman, having lost themselves in sex, desire to

lose sex itself in comradeship ? ( ch. 40 )

And yet there is another question : Why does Helen offer Leonard

£ 5000 ; does this mean that to Helen "love and money become

intermixed and interchangeable," as Colmer suggests3 ; or, does she

intend to save his inner life by giving him a means of a stable life?

The latter, I think, more plausible, to think of her heroic decision.

To Leonard, his relationship with Helen causes him an immense

weight of guilt, because to him she is the embodiment of "Romance",

or rather a goddess. Therefore, he refuses her offer of money, and

never takes "the anodyne of muddledom ". ( ch. 41 ) And after

suffering from the extremely heavy weight of remorse, he finally

gets a ray of hope. The narrator tells us the awakening of his soul,

-40-

which reading a Ruskin did not give him m former times :

To Leonard, intent on his private sin, there came the

conviction of innate goodness elsewhere. It was not the

optimism which he had been taught at school. Again and

again must the drums tap and the goblins stalk over the

universe before joy can be purged of the superficial. It

was rather paradoxical, and arouse from his sorrow. Death

destroys a man, but the idea of death saves him - that

is the best account of it that, has yet been given. Squalor and

tragedy can beckon to all that is great in us, and strengthen

the wings of love. They can beckon; it is not certain

that they will, for they are not love's servants. But they

can beckon, and the knowledge of this incredible truth

comforted him. ( ch. 41 )

Thus his death might be regarded as amatyrdom for true love. In light of

this it can be said that Helen and Leonard are never to be connected

physically again, but firmly connected spiritually by his or her

supreme sacrifice. In this we see Forster's ascetic view of love ; and

it is, at the same time, an expression of the difficulty of love among

modern people.

3. The Earth and Modern Civilization

An opposition of the earth to modern civilization is vividly

described through a contrast between country life at Howards End

and city life in London in the novel.

In modern civilization even a life filled with culture cannot save

-41-

all the inconsistencies surrounding a human being. Margaret feels

acutely" the sense of flux ", which is nothing but another expression

of alienation of man in the capitalist society. She feels it all the

more as the expiration of the lease of Wickham Place, where she

has lived for nearly thirty years, is drawing near; and even after her

marriage to Henry she does not get rid of "the sense of flux". (ch.

31) The narrator recurrently criticizes the trend of modern civili­

zation :

London was but a foretaste of this normadic civilization

which is altering human nature so profoundly, and throws

upon personal relations a stress greater than they have

ever borne before. Under cosmopolitanism, if it comes,

we shall receive no help from the earth. Trees and meadows

and mountains will only be a spectacle, and the binding

force that they once exercises on character must be entrust­

ed Love alone. May Love be equal to the task ! ( ch. 31)

Nomads have been the target both of persecution and romantic adora­

tion for long, because they enjoy free life, neglecting borders and

indifferent to a settled and stable life. To Forster, "normadic" means

"atomistic" or "disconnected" ; therefore, man's life must be firmly

established on the earth.

Forster also casts a doubt upon the mechanical progress and

science; the narrator simply says : "Science explained people, but

could not understand them." (ch. 13) The symbol of the mechanical

civilization in the novel is a car ; the Wilcoxes loves to drive, but

a drive on a car always makes Margaret uncomfortable. A symbolical

incident occurs when the attendants at Henry's daughter Evie's

-42-

nupitals go to Oniton by cars ; one of the cars runs over a cat.

( ch. 25) Here a car 1s depicted as a horrible machine that is essen­

tially hostile to life. Moreover, as the stage of the novel is 1900's

British society, a car is associated with imperialism. The narrator

describes a car when LeonQ.rd walks to Howards End :

At the chalk-pit a motor passed him [ Leonard]. In it

was another type whom Nature favors -the Imperial.

Healthy, ever in motion, it hopes to inherit the earth

Hut the Imperialist is not what he thinks or seems. He

IS a destroyer. He prepares the way for cosmopolitanism,

and though his ambitions may be fulfilled the earth that

he inherits will be gray. ( ch. 41 )

On the contrary, country life is described as a hopeful substitute

for the I ife of "telegram and anger " :

In these English farms, if anywhere, one might see life

steadily and see it whole, group in one vision its transito­

riness and its eternal youth, connect-- connect without

bitterness until all men are brothers. ( ch. 33 )

And yet this does not mean that Forster denies the mechanical

civilization altogether; he is never an advocate of "Return to

Nature". His fundamental viewpoint is proportioned progress of

civilization. What is more, his idea of proportion has a tinge of

dialectics ; he does not seek proportion for its own sake ; proportion

is, as it were, a result of a conflict between opposites. The following

comment of the narrator may prove this :

-43-

... truth, being alive, was not halfway between anything.

It was only to be found by continuous excursions into

either realm, and though proportion is the final secret, to

espouse it at the outset is to ensure sterility. ( ch. 23 )

Here, we can see that "proportion" does not mean merely an equi­

librium but something created or found by a continuous endeavor

to connect opposites.

4. Tradition

An opposition of the earth to modern civilization is overlapped

on the problem of tradition. In terms of this Mrs Wilcox is the

most important figure in the novel.

In the opening chapter, she is described m Helen's letter :

Trail, trail, went her [ Mrs Wilcox's] long dress over the

sopping grass, and she came back with her hands full of

the hay that was cut yesterday-- I suppose for rabbits

or something, as she kept on smelling it.

This depiction rouses the image of her graceful and supple touch

on the earth. We may take her as an Earth Mother figure.

Although Mrs Wilcox has little concern about culture like the

other members of the family, she has instinctive w:isdom which the

narrator calls "aristocracy". ( ch. 3) The word "aristocracy" means

the essential virtues of the English tradition, which flows continuously

beneath modern society. If we can regard Mrs Wilcox as the symbol

-44-

of tradition, then it is no wonder that one see her shadow all through

the novel just like Mrs Moore in A Passage to India. Margaret

perceives her shadow, and says to Helen :

' I feel that you and I and Henry are only fragments of

that woman's [Mrs Wilcox's ] mind She knows everything.

She is everything. She is the house, and the tree that leans

over it ' ( ch. 40 )

When Mrs Wilcox is alive, Howards End is a spirit to her ; after

her death, she turns to be a spirit living in it Helen also notices

this great spirit, and says to Margaret : " ' Yes, the house

has a surer life than we, even if it was empty .... After all,

Wickham Place was a grave. ' " ( ch. 37 )

Margaret is to inherit Howards End in the end, which is Mrs

Wilcox's dying wish. She chooses Margaret as a "spiritual heir"

for it, because tradition inevitably needs its heir. To think of this

plot, we can take this novel as a modern drama of rebirth:

the harmonious life under the Earth Mother, the chaos after

her death, and the rebirth of her, who brings forth harmony. But

this heir is "sterile" of her own will: Margaret has decided not to

bear any children. In the future Howards End is to be left to

Helen's son. This is the finale of the novel, in which we may see

two meanings Forster leaves open to us. One is that the modern

Earth Mother is not prolific and so it is doubtful that she can save

modern civilization completely. The other is that if we regard Howards

End as the English tradition, those who inherit it would be the

children born as a result of the connection between the rich and the

poor. If this is true, it follows that Forster's pessimistic view of

-45-

modern civilization IS proportioned by his optimistic view of class

reconciliation.

NOTES

E. M. Forster, Howards End, ed. Oliver Stallybrass, (Hammonds­

wurth: Penguin Books, 1984), p. 292. All further references to

this work are indicated in parenthesis by the chapter in which

they appear.

2 John Colmer, E. M. Forster : The Personal Voice. (London &

Boston : Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1975), p. 158.

3 Colmer, p. 162.

REFERENCES

Calvaliero, Glen. A Reading of E. M. Forster. London & Basingstoke:

The Macmillan Press, 1979.

Colmer, John. E. M. Forster: The Personal Voice. London & Boston:

Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975.

Forster, E. M. A passage to India. Ed. Oliver Stallybrass. Hammonds­

wurth: Penguin Books, 1983.

Howards End. Ed. Oliver Stallybrass. Hammondsworth:

Penguin Books, 1984.

Aspects of the No·vel. Hammondsworth: Penguin Books,

1974.

Rosecrance, Barbara. Forster's Narrative ~'ision. Ithaca & London:

Cornell University Press, 1982.

Stone, Wilfred. The Cave and the Mountain: A Study of E. M.

Forster. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1966.

-46-