Howards End Analysis

The idea of "home" is a major, major problem here. For the most part, our characters are uprooted and drifting – whether by choice or not. For some, like Henry Wilcox, houses have no sentimen...

The big thing to notice with regards to setting here is the HUGE difference between city life and country life. The novel moves between urban and rural (and increasingly suburban) settings, and exp...

For about 99.9% of Howards End, the narrative voice appears to be a somewhat sassy third person narrator, who can see into the hearts and minds of all of the characters (some more than others). The...

While the genre of Howards End can certainly be said to be a family drama on a small scale – as in, it's about two very different families, the Wilcoxes and the Schlegels, and their difficult...

Forster's tone is often an odd juxtaposition of highfalutin and quirkily humorous, with very little middle ground in between. Howards End is no exception; its tone alternates between the quite-seri...

Forster's style is just so characteristically…Forster. His distinctive voice is unmistakable in its directness and ambition; we can practically see him straining to get across the philosophic...

This name, though seemingly rather puzzling upon first glance, is actually thankfully straightforward: Howards End is a house. Not just any house, a very special house, that provides both the geogr...

"Only connect…"This phrase, a quote from the novel itself, is the guiding principle of its main character, Margaret (Schlegel) Wilcox. She longs for people to be able to reach out to each oth...

The ending of Howards End contains multitudes – it seems incredibly simple in some ways (a family reunion, a plan for the future, a new hope – sounds almost like Star Wars when you put...

Wilcoxes vs. Schlegels: round one.The tension between the two families begins right away, with Helen's brief and dramatic affair with Paul. Immediately, we see the Wilcoxes and Schlegels in conflic...

OK, this seems like a stretch, but just go with us…The Schlegels and the Wilcoxes begin their odd relationship.It's simple – when conservative Wilcoxes meet liberal Schlegels, conflict...

Chapter 1-23. The Schlegel-Wilcox opposition is set up, and then cemented when Margaret decides to marry Henry; Helen comes out and says that she is breaking off from them.Chapter 24-41. This act e...

The film version of Howards End won three Oscars, after being nominated for a whopping nine awards. (Source)

Sex is definitely present here – after all, a baby arrives on the scene, and its conception is definitely not immaculate – but it's always well hidden in the shadows. We gather that Jac...

Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations (2.13)Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (4.12)Immanuel Kant (4.12)Algernon Charles Swinburne (5.44)Dante Gabriel Rossetti (5.44)George Meredith (5.44)John...