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What Is Lucy In A Room With A View

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In Forster’s novel, A Room with A View, Lucy Honeychurch, a young upper middle class woman, visits Italy with her older cousin Charlotte. At their guesthouse in Florence, they are given rooms that look into the courtyard. Mr. Emerson and his son, George, offer them their rooms; however, Charlotte is offended of their offer due to their lower class. She initially rejects the offer, but later accepts it when Mr. Beebe intervenes in the situation. Later, Lucy runs into two arguing Italian men. One man stabs the other, and she faints, only to be rescued by George. On their return home, he kisses her, and Charlotte tells Lucy to keep this a secret. Once Lucy returns home to her mother and brother, Cecil Vyse, a man she met in Rome, proposes to …show more content…

99). Forster is further emphasizing here how Lucy is acting against society but making the best decision for herself by falling in love with George. She herself falls into darkness when she tries to deny George’s love after she breaks off her engagement: “Lucy entered this army when she pretended to George that she did not love him, and pretended to Cecil that she loved no one.” (Forster, pg.266). This quote shows that Lucy is denying herself the freedom to love George, and because she is rejecting this truth about herself, she can no longer see the “light” to free her from society’s restrictions, a fact that shows the reason why she has entered this army of darkness. This is until Mr. Emerson, another character that Forster uses light to describe, persuades her to surrender herself to let her fulfil her true desires even though it would go against society’s approval. From the help of other characters that Forster uses light to describe, Lucy is able to transform to an independent woman who wishes to do as she pleases despite society’s opinion. The theme of transformation is affected by Forster’s “light” and “darkness” because of how they both show that Charlotte’s attitude of life is undesirable. While Forster uses light to help describe Lucy’s character, he uses darkness to describe Charlotte’s character. Although Lucy is happy to be in Italy, Charlotte instead “fastened the

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