Forster, E. M.: 1879-1970
A Room with a View, 1908 - Lucy
- Character
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Lucy begins the novel as a typical, naïve upper-middle-class English girl—well-meaning but stifled, repressed by social codes and propriety.
Her lack of a “view” in the Pension Bertolini (literal and symbolic) reflects her constrained perspective on life and self.
She parrots conventional opinions, often shaped by Charlotte Bartlett or Cecil Vyse, not her own intuition or emotion: "I do so always hope that people will be nice."
“She had a starched convention inside her, which she could not explain to herself.”
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Lucy begins the novel as a typical, naïve upper-middle-class English girl—well-meaning but stifled, repressed by social codes and propriety.
- Italy as Catalyst
- Florence (and later the countryside around it) becomes a place of transformation. Italy represents passion, freedom, and authenticity—contrasting with the rigidity of Surrey.
The kiss in the violets with George Emerson is a symbolic rupture. It triggers confusion but also awakens her emotional and sexual consciousness.
Forster frames Lucy’s internal conflict not as a love triangle but a war between social performance and inner truth.
- Florence (and later the countryside around it) becomes a place of transformation. Italy represents passion, freedom, and authenticity—contrasting with the rigidity of Surrey.
- Regression via Cecil
- Returning to England, Lucy attempts to suppress the Italian experience by accepting Cecil’s proposal.
Cecil, described as “medieval”, is comically unsuited to Lucy:
He treats her like a decorative object.
He “chooses” her like one would curate art, not partner with a person.Through him, Forster satirizes the pretensions of aesthetes and intellectuals who disconnect thought from life.
"He does not love me, but he wants to love me."
- Returning to England, Lucy attempts to suppress the Italian experience by accepting Cecil’s proposal.
- Turning Point: Moral Courage
- Lucy finally breaks the engagement, not just out of dislike for Cecil, but because she realizes she’s been dishonest with herself.
She resists both Cecil and Charlotte’s manipulations and rejects societal pressure—even if that means exile or scandal.
Her decision to elope with George, a “radical” choice, enables her to live independently.
- Lucy finally breaks the engagement, not just out of dislike for Cecil, but because she realizes she’s been dishonest with herself.
- In the final chapter, Lucy elopes to Florence with George, and they stay again at the Pension Bertolini where Lucy had stayed at the beginning of the novel. At the start, she had been dissatisfied with the lack of a view, which symbolized her constrained, conventional life. By the end, she and George are in "a room with a view," symbolizing freedom, love, and a life chosen by passion rather than societal expectations.