Explore the Presentation of Different Kinds of Love In a Room With a View and Captain Corelli's Mandolin

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Sumeet Riar

EXPLORE THE PRESENTATION OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF LOVE IN "A ROOM WITH A VIEW" AND "CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN"

     "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" is a successful novel about the impact of WW2 on Greece and relationships that survive or fade away as love is tested to extreme limits. The novel follows Dr Iannis, a single parent who brings humour and history into the novel. His daughter, Pelagia, matures through the harsh reality of young naïve love to love that is forbidden by society. The war is described through the eyes of a homosexual, who conveys ideal love but is only detested by society, which force him to have a future of complete suffering. "A Room with a View" is a social comedy, which concentrates on Lucy a young girl who experiences life and the meaning of love in Italy. She slowly falls for an unconventional George Emerson and learns to follow the power of her own heart.  

    True love is depicted in both novels as a secret shared between the two characters, an enclosed experience from the society's barriers and love that can only be repressed as something forbidden. True love is shared between Lucy and George in "A Room with a View", a love that is repressed because George is of a lower class than Lucy.

     It is wrong for Lucy to fall in love with George, because her cousin Charlotte Bartlett, who epitomizes high class, sees George and his father as, "ill-bred people". She takes one look at their attire and concludes that the only reason the Emersons are being polite to them is, "he was probably trying to become acquainted with them before they got into the swim". Since the Emersons do not look rich or well established, they are quickly judged and categorized as the "ill-bred people".

     Although Lucy is oblivious that her cousin, Charlotte, is being prejudice, she realizes that there is a division of people, "something quite different whose existence she had not realized before". Since Lucy is unable to understand her cousin's actions, she is left feeling confused and vulnerably obeying her cousin's commands.

    Appearance is a good sign whether someone is "clever" in the society that Lucy is being influenced by Charlotte, that is why the Emersons are "left in the cold" since "he and his father did not do". Thus, Lucy has only seen to "despise" the Emerson or "people" like them.

     Lucy and George first communicate when she "takes refuge in her dignity" and joins the Emersons in a tour of a church. Forster shows the beginning of something new when George with "sombre satisfaction led the way" and Lucy already resists what she has seen her cousin do and follows George like a "child in school who had answered a question rightly". Lucy is already breaking the barriers and letting the Emersons enjoy her company especially George.

    A man's death brings George and Lucy closer together it allows them to reach each other over the barriers placed by society. This is portrayed when George "looks across something" when the man died near a fountain, "the cries from the fountain had never ceased", this symbolism of water represents new life as one old life dies, it portrays new beginnings. Since Lucy, "obeyed him" representing again barriers broken since there is no division or class felt amongst these two characters as they "cross some spiritual boundary".

     The realization of how close they have become through the tragic shared experience sinks in Lucy as she begins to get nervous around George's presence, "wings seemed to flutter inside her". Their unity is apparent in the language as "they refused" the taxi driver. Therefore, George comprehends that "it isn't exactly that a man has died", and is aware that they have touched each others souls across the barriers, however Lucy understands something has happened but not understanding denies it. This is shown through their actions as they both lean their elbows against the parapet of the embankment, "there is at times a magic in identity of position; it is one of the things that have suggested to us eternal comradeship. She moved her elbows before saying…". This shared experience takes place near the River Arno, again Forster has shown the link with water and Lucy and George gradually falling in love, which makes George confess that "he wants to live" making Lucy respond by "leaning her elbows on the parapet, she contemplated the River Arno, whose roar was suggesting some unexpected melody to her ears". The use of the word "melody" and Lucy's action of leaning on the parapet, signifies that Lucy is happy and like George has maybe found a reason to live which is a contrast to the Lucy at the start who "desired more" since "nothing" ever happened to her.  

    Lucy and George share their first private kiss in a beautiful countryside. This scene is very descriptive it begins with pastoral and religious imagery. Lucy suddenly falls down a steep slope of violets, "violets ran down in rivulets and streams and cataracts, irrigating the hillside blue". The language expresses the baptism of Lucy emerging from new life as she falls in the violets, which are a metaphor of water "rivulets…streams…cataracts…irrigating…eddying…pools…azure". The religious symbolism of baptism makes the love shared between Lucy and George seem like fate and more meaningful a true love that has no barriers, the natural law seem to be on their side even if the society is not.

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      This scene describes George as the "good man", who sees Lucy amongst the violets and thinks profoundly and at length, "For a moment he contemplated her". This shows his feelings as he describes Lucy as "one who had fallen out of heaven". The love portrayed here is not sexual neither is it about passion and lust but it is exceptionally natural.

     As George is about to kiss Lucy the "the bushes above them closed" this shows that they are enclosed from the outside world and special like their own secret, "he stepped quickly forward ...

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