Howards End

As we learn early on in Howards End “Esprit de classe,” or class solidarity, is among the most important concerns for many of the characters in the novel and seems to be high on Forster’s own agenda as he continues to base central conflicts, relationships, and actions on it. Forster’s work seems to also highlight the importance of place, with particular regard to the aforementioned preoccupation with class and social standing, questions of national identity, as the German Schlegels are contrasted with the English Wilcoxes, and finally the modernist concerns of technology and industrialization.
Thacker describes modernity “with its characteristics of movement, speed and the furious restructuring of spaces” (47). Forster’s novel embodies all three completely, firmly situating Howards End as a modernist work. Movement occurs at both the national and domestic level as Helen Schlegel and Paul Wilcox leave England for Germany and Nigeria, respectively. There is also an emphasis on movement for the reader as the initial action finds Mrs. Monk traveling by train then by car to visit Helen. Of the two types of movement found in Howards End the movement of the narrative and the speed with which readers must often reorient themselves most closely parallels the domestic disruption found throughout the novel. Andrew Thacker asserts, “People move house repeatedly in Howards End, emphasizing how modernity disrupts a stable sense of place” (55). This can be seen in Helen’s return to the city, in Mrs. Wilcox’s move to the city, in the pending relocation of the Schlegel family as Wickham Place is to be sub-divided into several flats.
Aside from the incorporation of movement, particularly domestic spaces, Forster’s use of technology, discussion of gender and gender roles, albeit in an indirect way, illustrates ways in which his work signals to readers that it is in fact modern. For example, Mr. Wilcox is “taking up his work—rubber—it is a big business” (78). Also, Mr. Wilcox explains the need to rent Howards End because he doubts his son Charles would ever move in. He confesses, “If Charles ever wanted it—But he won’t. Dolly is so dependent on modern conveniences” (100). Another way in which to position the text as modern is Forster’s use of the motorcar. This point is brought up by Thacker who states, “By focusing upon the motorcar’s role in Howards End we can further situate the novel within a spatial history of modernity” (62).
Less obvious to the narrative’s overall focus on modernism are the depictions of gender and gender appropriate behavior that lie couched in sibling spats and pithy banter. Margaret and Helen’s brother Tibby is called in passing “Auntie Tibby” for his lack of what his sisters feel is proper male behavior. Paradoxically, Helen’s misidentification stems from Margaret’s desire to have “a real boy in the house—the kind of boy who cares for men” (33). Despite the many themes listed here, technology, space, domesticity, movement, gender norms, and class, it is the latter which ties the novel together and superseded all other concerns which these characters may have. Other conflicts arise, other action takes place, but it seems that in one way or another, all roads lead back to class. The novel clearly situates characters as haves, the Wilcoxes and the Schlegels, and have-nots, the Basts. However, it is in the interactions between the classes so distinctly separate in Forster’s book that class distinguishes itself from the lengthy list of themes in Howards End. This main and lasting conflict is set up very early in the work as Mrs. Monk and Mr. Wilcox debate which family is better: “Schlegels were better than Wilcoxes, Wilcoxes better than Schlegels” (18). It appears that class and money are incorrectly equated in Forster’s novel. At one point Miss Schlegel announces, “Money pads the edges of things.” She continues, in a vain effort to seem caring, “God help those who have none” (46). The focus on class and money and their relation to space and place or location is not unique to Howards End. I am reminded of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and the conflicts arising between those in East Egg and West Egg, but Forster seems to weave the discussion of class and status seamlessly into a more complete story, one that seems to be even more concerned with where one lives than who one is, or possibly for Forster, like his characters, there is no such distinction.