4 reactions
I feel tricked by Howards End. Do we think this was the author's intent? SPOILERS
The narrator in *Howards End* rather explicitly tells us that there will be some climactic disaster at the end of the novel. But the way it is foreshadowed pretty heavily implied, to me, that it would be something bad that happens to Margaret, or maybe Helen. For example, Margaret falling in love with the Oniton estate, envisioning her future there, and then the narrator telling us she would never see it again as she drives away. I imagined she would die, or at least her marriage would fall apart.
So when the ending arrived, I had this feeling of "oh, well, that wasn't so bad!" Helen and Margaret maintain a good relationship, as do Margaret and Henry. Margaret ends up owning Howards End.
But of course, Leonard's life was ruined and then he died, while the people of means lived on happily. Upon meditating on this a little I realized that my reaction to the ending was because the tragedy didn't befall the main characters, and then I was struck by the idea that Forster intended the reader to have this experience, to make a statement about society not caring about tragedies that befall minor characters, that is to say, people without means. He sort of tricked me into being exactly the sort of person he's decrying.
I was wondering if anyone else had the same experience reading this book, and whether you think this was the intent.
#entertainment
source
The narrator in *Howards End* rather explicitly tells us that there will be some climactic disaster at the end of the novel. But the way it is foreshadowed pretty heavily implied, to me, that it would be something bad that happens to Margaret, or maybe Helen. For example, Margaret falling in love with the Oniton estate, envisioning her future there, and then the narrator telling us she would never see it again as she drives away. I imagined she would die, or at least her marriage would fall apart.
So when the ending arrived, I had this feeling of "oh, well, that wasn't so bad!" Helen and Margaret maintain a good relationship, as do Margaret and Henry. Margaret ends up owning Howards End.
But of course, Leonard's life was ruined and then he died, while the people of means lived on happily. Upon meditating on this a little I realized that my reaction to the ending was because the tragedy didn't befall the main characters, and then I was struck by the idea that Forster intended the reader to have this experience, to make a statement about society not caring about tragedies that befall minor characters, that is to say, people without means. He sort of tricked me into being exactly the sort of person he's decrying.
I was wondering if anyone else had the same experience reading this book, and whether you think this was the intent.
#entertainment
source
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