Karly

Hello again! I feel like I say this every time I didn’t plan my life accordingly to write a post, but this was a bit challenging to write. Not so much because of the content itself, but because I didn’t know how I could end love month and celebrate our thirteenth post on a very high note. So, as I was listening to Taylor Swift’s Daylight, and heard her saying “I wanna be defined by the things I love […]” I realised that my run of posts has been full of things I love, from poetry anthologies to my favourite singers, so I thought I’d really kneel into the lit part of this blog and talk about my favourite novels and since coincidentally that overlaps with one of my favourite things to do (travelling), I bring you a post about E.M. Forster.

E.M. Forster’s novels often use travel not merely as a backdrop, but as a catalyst for character transformation. Among his works, Howards End, Where Angels Fear to Tread, and A Room with a View stand out as my personal favorites, both as novels and in their stunning film adaptations. Their themes of self-discovery, societal constraints, and the power of travel to shape our lives have deeply resonated with me. In fact, A Room with a View inspired me to take a literary pilgrimage to Florence, where I visited the iconic spots from the novel. I walked through the Piazza della Signoria, stood on the Ponte Vecchio, and experienced being in Santa Croce with no Baedeker firsthand, imagining Lucy’s moments of revelation in the Tuscan landscape.I also always say that, as cliché as it may sound, I too was transformed by Italy, especially since it was there where I completely understood what Forster meant when he wrote “Then the pernicious charm of Italy worked on her, and, instead of acquiring information, she began to be happy.” I was just like Lucy, a young girl wandering around the streets of Florence, marveling wide-eyed at the sights, and buying postcards, albeit with more pitstops for pizza and gelato than the ones I recall being mentioned in the book (there are none mentioned in the book, it’s a joke). Being in those locations made the novel feel even more alive, and I gained a deeper appreciation for how Forster used the setting to reflect his characters’ inner transformations.

Travel as a Means of Liberation

In A Room with a View, Lucy Honeychurch’s journey to Italy marked the beginning of her transformation. Initially confined by the strict social codes of Edwardian England, Lucy was thrown into the vibrant and passionate world of Florence. There, she met George Emerson, whose unconventional manner and openness forced her to confront the repressed desires and emotions she had long suppressed. The Italian landscape acted as a symbolic contrast to Lucy’s previously rigid existence in England. The beauty, warmth, and spontaneity of Italy offered her a glimpse into a life of freedom, pushing her to reconsider her own values and desires. Through her travels, Lucy learned that true freedom came not from escaping to a new place, but from embracing the freedom within herself.

Similarly, in Where Angels Fear to Tread, Lilia, a widow from England, embarked on a journey to Italy, a decision that had far-reaching consequences. Unlike Lucy, Lilia’s trip was not motivated by self-exploration but by a search for independence and escape from the constraints of her narrow, conventional life. However, her romantic entanglement with an Italian man exposed her to the complexities of cross-cultural relationships, and ultimately, tragedy ensued. Through Lilia’s experiences, Forster critiqued the British upper classes’ perception of foreign lands and their people. Italy, in this case, was not simply a backdrop for a romance, but a place that disrupted the English sense of superiority, revealing the dangers of idealising foreign cultures without truly understanding them.

A Search for Meaning Beyond Boundaries

In Howards End, the journey was not as much about physical travel as it was about the emotional and intellectual journeys of the characters. However, Forster still used travel as a metaphor for the search for connection. The novel’s famous epigraph, “Only connect,” spoke to the central theme of bridging divides—whether they be social, intellectual, or geographic. The characters of Howards End were divided by class, by region, and by their differing perspectives on life. Yet, through their interactions and personal journeys, they strove to understand one another and build meaningful connections.

Margaret Schlegel’s experiences and her eventual relationship with Henry Wilcox reflected a journey of personal growth and change. Margaret’s travels—both literal and figurative—took her from the intellectual world of London to the rural, more conservative world of Howards End, symbolising her movement between two social and emotional spheres. The novel suggested that true connection was achieved not through geographical movement, but through emotional and intellectual openness, and the ability to transcend the boundaries that separate people.

In A Room with a View, Mr. Emerson also embarked on his own search for meaning. Unlike the other characters, he had already rejected societal constraints and sought truth in personal experience and genuine emotion. His wisdom and unconventional outlook not only influenced George but also played a pivotal role in Lucy’s journey of self-discovery. His belief that love and beauty should be embraced rather than suppressed resonated throughout the novel, reinforcing Forster’s theme of personal freedom and emotional authenticity.

Travel and the Limits of Understanding

Forster’s novels ultimately suggested that while travel offered the promise of liberation, understanding, and connection, it also exposed the limitations of these ideals. In A Room with a View and Where Angels Fear to Tread, travel offered the protagonists opportunities for growth and self-realization, but it also presented them with difficult choices and harsh consequences. Lucy and Lilia’s experiences suggested that the idealized view of travel as a panacea for personal dissatisfaction could be misleading. Forster critiqued the notion that simply changing one’s physical environment could resolve inner conflict or lead to true happiness.

In Howards End, the characters’ emotional journeys reflected the same theme. Travel may have expanded one’s horizons, but true understanding of others and of oneself required more than just a change of scenery. The novel emphasised the importance of emotional depth and intellectual openness, suggesting that real connection came from within, and that it was the ability to engage with the world and people around us that led to personal fulfillment.

Closing Thoughts

E.M. Forster’s novels showed that travel, both literal and metaphorical, was a powerful tool for transformation, but it was not a solution in itself. Whether through the sunlit streets of Florence, the Italian countryside, or the rural serenity of Howards End, travel opened doors to new possibilities, yet it was how we responded to these experiences that defined our journeys. In a world still divided by class, culture, and misunderstanding, Forster’s exploration of travel offered valuable insights into the complexities of human connection and the search for meaning. His works not only shaped my love for literature but also inspired my own travels, proving that fiction could influence the way we see and experience the world.