The first chapter of A Room with a View opens at the Pension Bertolini, an inn for English travellers, where the young innocent Lucy Honeychurch and her cousin and chaperone, Miss Charlotte Bartlett, have taken temporary residence. Upon arriving at the pension, Lucy is vastly disappointed; the entire decor and atmosphere of it is so English that ‘it might be London’. The young Miss had, unlike most of the other English tourists, wanted to take in the sights of the land but is weighed down by her spinsterly chaperone, Miss Bartlett. Next, the two upper middle class women discover something unacceptable; their room has no view. They are in mid-discussion over this issue when an uncouth man, Mr Emerson, interrupts, exclaiming “I have a view, I have a view!” as he offers to exchange his room and that of his son George for the ladies’. The superior classed Miss Bartlett is shocked at this outbreak, so lacking in tact and propriety, refusing immediately as she peers down at the man’s imperfect and telling clothes; however, after some convincing from the character of Mr Beebe, Miss Bartlett finally agrees to the switch.
The story is told through an omniscient narrator – meaning that Forster is outside restrictions and is free to comment upon events and characters as he wishes. Forster uses this opportunity to express his opinions of different social classes, ridiculing and criticising them shamelessly. It is clear that he has distinct views on the class divides that were present during his time. George and Lucy, it seems, are the only two that are not in some way ridiculed or made fun of; this is probably because the character of Lucy was based upon Forster himself (or so many critics believe), and that she and George are his interpretations of how society should be. The couple give in to their feelings despite the opinions of others and despite society’s standards and unwritten traditions, which prohibit people from acting out their emotions as it is seen as unacceptable by peers and others;
“It is not that the Englishman can't feel -- it is that he is afraid to feel. He has been taught at his public school that feeling is bad form. He must not express great joy or sorrow, or even open his mouth too wide when he talks -- his pipe might fall out if he did.” ~ E. M. Forster
George Emerson is described as a “classic melancholic depressed by too much knowledge”. When he is introduced during the first chapter he appears as a man who is depressed by something, as if he yearns for and understands something that the others of the class do not, that he is waiting for an opportunity to follow through on his feelings daring to take the chance that others aren’t. He scoffs at a society that wants to bar him from kissing a woman when he wants to and ‘running through suburbia naked.
Many critics believe that A Room With a View was originally intended to be a homosexual love story, particularly because Forster himself was a homosexual and as it is fabled among critics that the story itself may be partially based upon a romance that he had encountered whilst on holiday; however, Forster had had to adjust it for the novel to be published as society at the time would not have allowed it otherwise. It is observed by critic James Buzzard in ‘Forster’s Trespasses: Tourism and Cultural Politics’ that Forster shapes A Room with a View by cutting down many lengthy passages of observations to ‘mere passing jokes’ and bringing the story to centre on Lucy’s personal development. During the author’s time homosexuality was a punishable offence; illegal. The story is altered so that the lead is a young naïve woman, not a man, called Lucy Honeychurch.
There are hints at homosexual content present throughout the book, the most famous of which is undoubtedly the forest scene, Sacred Lake; in which several male characters, including Mr. Beebe and Freddy, Lucy’s brother, bathe together in a wood.
“The Miss Allens who stood for good breeding” is yet another example of what young ladies of the Edwardian era should be, and what Lucy should become if she follows the example set by her cousin (Miss Bartlett). Though it appears that Miss Allens has chosen independence within society, remaining single she sees herself as more adventurous; she is, however, in actuality a dull person who, despite travelling the world and learning about it, does not live and experience it for herself. She cannot be passionate about life, instead she must be ladylike; staid and demure, the “English tourist”. Another class of people is ridiculed in the form of the cockney Signora. She is the hostess of the Pension Bertolini but, rather than being native to Florence she is a typical English cockney, with a distinct accent, conveniently matching the English Bertolini; it is as if the tourists may as well have stayed in England.
There are however two distinct characters that appear in a very un-stereotypical light; these are George Emerson and his father Mr. Emerson, who has a distinct view which frees him from answering to a specific social order or mechanic clique. Unlike the stiff Miss Bartlett and the unreal Signora, they neither pretend to be someone they are not, nor do they strive to please others by becoming unreal or untrue to themselves. For example, a person of the Honeychurch’s class would have never even considered interfering as boldly as Mr. Emerson did upon hearing of the room problem – Forster himself humours over this, quote;
“Generally at a pension people looked them over for a day or two before speaking, and often did not find out that they would ‘do’ till they had gone.” ~ A Room with a View, Chapter I
In conclusion, Forster uses humour in A Room with a View by subtly, and not so subtly, criticising the different character distinctions between people in different social classes. He uses this method and freedom as omniscient narrator to express his views, where in real life he would have neither the means or courage to do so.
Bibliography:
‘Forster’s Trespasses: Tourism and Cultural Politics’ – James Buzzard, critic
