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A Room with a View

A Room with a View. Resolution (Chap 20) and Review. Overview of Chap 20. Title: ‘ The End of the Middle Ages ’ Setting shift: back in Italy, at the Pension Bertolini, in Lucy ’ s old room (Mr Emerson ’ s room – the one with a view)

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A Room with a View

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  1. A Room with a View Resolution (Chap 20) and Review

  2. Overview of Chap 20 • Title: ‘The End of the Middle Ages’ • Setting shift: back in Italy, at the Pension Bertolini, in Lucy’s old room (Mr Emerson’s room – the one with a view) • Lucy and George now married, but at the moment the Honeychurches + Mr Beebe are estranged from them • Reflection over unlikely events that led to their union – and possibly Charlotte’s secret support at the end • Reflection over key themes in novel: passion, truth, self-awareness/ clarity of perception of self + others

  3. Chap 16-20 • Series of ‘Lying’ chapters (16-19) • Parallelism of titles (ie parallel phrases/clauses) • 2 constants across 4 chap titles: Lying + Lucy • Suggests that more than lying to others, Lucy is essentially lying to herself • Muddle increases with every chapter (16-19) • Followed by final chapter (Ch 20)

  4. Narrative Structure • Novel adopts fairly conventional narrative structure overall • ‘Narrativestructure’: • refers to construction of a narrative with identifiable beginning, middle and end • 4-part structure in A Room with a View: • Exposition (introduction) • Development (problem / complication) • Climax • Resolution – denouement in A Room with a View

  5. Narrative Structure • Denouement of the novel: • series of happenings or events that FOLLOW the climax of a story • bringing resolution and a sense of normalcy to the characters or situation in a story. • Tying up of loose ends occurs in Chap 20 • Actual climax of the novel – chap 19 – where the muddle is finally fully exposed and challenged

  6. Chap 19: The climax • Conversation with Mr Emerson addresses key themes of the novel: 1. Battle against self-imposed muddle  L’s self-deception 2. Clash between Passion and Propriety (Beauty vs Delicacy): i. Call to ignore convention: propriety and repression are the enemies of passion + truth

  7. Chap 19: The climax ii. Embracing the body and passion for a full life iii. ‘love is eternal,’‘you can never pull it out of you’ (Mr E, Ch19, pg 189) 3. Challenging organised religion (Tension between Mr Emerson and Mr Eager over George not being baptised)

  8. Chap 19: The climax 4.Truth: i. Self-awareness: perception (NOT perspective!!) ii. Being truthful to oneself: We fight for more than Love or Pleasure: there is Truth. Truth counts, Truth does count.(note repetition  undeniability of Truth)

  9. Chap 19: The climax iii. Motif of darkness + veils‘as he spoke, the darkness was withdrawn, veil after veil, and she saw to the bottom of her soul’ch19, pg 189; iv. “Give George my love – once only. Tell him ‘Muddle.’” The she arranged her veil, while the tears poured over her cheeks inside. Pg 189-190

  10. Chap 20 • The return to Italy • Why the shift in setting? • Novel comes full circle - but characters now reborn into new life • Leaving behind the Gothic, sterility / severity (social censure eg Beebe in Chap 19 pg 190 – suddenly inhuman, a long black column)

  11. Chap 20 Title: "The End of the Middle Ages." • With the end of the Middle Ages comes the beginning of the Renaissance (new knowledge, growth, beauty, flowering of arts culture + passion) • Italy  the heart of the Renaissance. • Reflects Lucy’s growth as well: bildungsroman novel achieves completion with L’s new maturity ‘it was she who remembered the past, she into whose soul the iron had entered..’ ch 20, pg 193

  12. Chap 20 • Note: similarity of "Muddle" and "Middle“! • Season is now SPRING: symbolic of new life • G + L united, narrative closes suggesting the years of growth, love, and learning that lies ahead of them. • Recasting of the word ‘mystery’: • They were conscious of a love more mysterious pg 196 • The word ‘mystery’ regained from Cecil’s label/ ownership (‘a woman’s power and charm reside in mystery’ pg 93 ch 9)

  13. But…! • Problematic resolution? • Exaggeratedly idealised domestic scene? • Lucy darning sock for George • G kneeling before Lucy – childlike? • George remains infantile • Lucy more maternal than lover-like? • ‘an anxious boy’ in chap 4; now Lucy addresses him as ‘a baby’ and calls him ‘so silly’Ch20, pg 192 • Echoed by narrator – ‘He was a boy, after all’pg 193

  14. Revision pointers • Focus on ANALYSIS + STYLE • Eg ‘Discuss Forster’s presentation of women in the novel’ • Emphasis NOT on characterisation • Focus on broader thematic issues and HOW they are conveyed through techniques • Eg Presentation of women in order to: • critique English society • dramatise the clash between conventionality and passion

  15. Next: HOW does Forster suggest the clash between conventionality and passion through the presentation of women? • Lucy’s shift from becoming aware of passion  contrast presented between L + CB in Ch 7 • presentation of parallel scenes to suggest Lucy becoming more like CB when she rejects passion and embraces conventional suppression of emotion: • In ch 7: CB shuts doors and calls L away from the window • In ch 17: it is now L who directs Cecil to shut the window and draw the curtain • Both women now unable to see, lacking perception of self or others

  16. Associating Lucy and CB with motifs of darkness: • In ch 7, CB associated with shadows • In ch 17, Lucy ‘peers into a slit of darkness’ and she is the one who ‘put out the lamp’ • This suggests similarity between both women rejecting passion and embracing a life of conventionality

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