The Subtle Heroine in "A Room with a View" by E.M. Forster Essay

     Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is a coming-of-age story about an unconventional woman's development within a society of strict rules and expectations. At pivotal moments in Jane's life, she makes choices which are influenced by her emotions and/or her reason. Through the results of those choices, Jane learns to balance passion and practicality to achieve true happiness.

In this coming of age novel Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid, a story is told of a young girl named Lucy as her life in America changes from what it was in the West Indies. Lucy struggles throughout the novel to find what exactly she desires. Drifting further and further from being similar to her mother. Lucy and her development throughout the novel are shown through her virginity, heterosexuality, and love as Kincaid forces questioning upon what is sexual normality. How one can feel trapped under sexual norms and feels lost.

     A Room with a View, by Edward Morgan Forster, presents the story of Lucy Honeychurch, a young woman belonging to English “high society.'; Foster places this young maiden in a state of conflict between the snobbery of her class, the “suitable and traditional'; views and advice offered by various family members and friends, and her true heart’s desire. This conflict “forces Lucy Honeychurch to choose between convention and passion (Bantam Intro-back cover),'; and throws her into a state of internal struggle, as she must sift through the elements of her “social conditioning'; and discern them from her true emotions and desires. Foster develops and utilizes Lucy’s internal struggle as a means of transforming her from

Although the isolation that defines much of Jane Eyre’s life seems only alienating, it also proves to be enriching, for Jane uses that isolation as a basis to truly appreciate the love she discovers when her family is revealed to her after she gains a large inheritance from a distant relative. She would not have been able to truly find and value the love in her family if not for the despair experienced early in life, as that despair led her to her family. She uses her loneliness to gather strength when it is most needed, allowing her to totally heal from the trauma of the red-room and enjoy the eternal warmth her new loving life

     Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth is an affront to the false social values of fashionable New York society.  The heroine is Lily Bart, a woman who is destroyed by the very society that produces her.  Lily is well-born but poor.  The story traces the decline of Lily as she moves through a series of living residences, from houses to hotel lodgings.  Lily lives in a New York society where appearances are all.  Women have a decorative function in such an environment, and even her name, Lily, suggests she is a flower of femininity, i.e. an object of decoration as well as of desirability to the male element.  We see this is very true once Lily's bloom fades, as it were, a time when she

With all her suffering, Lucy was awakened to all the glories of living to which we remain unaware of so much of the time. Lucy also exhibits a sensible, mature understanding of her father. She realizes he left her alone during her terrifying and traumatizing treatments with a completely heartless and hateful physician only because of his own inability to deal with and accept the type of pain his own daughter was experiencing. Through these extraordinary events, the family, overwhelmed by shock and shame, abandoned Lucy emotionally.

Within the novel A Room with a View, E. M. Forster explores the differences between 2 social classes. A young woman of upper class by the name of Lucy Honeychurch has traveled from a luxury estate in England to Italy where she will unlock new characteristics of herself. What Lucy did not know was that on her trip her world would take a complete 180-degree turn towards a perspective that is distinctly different than what she is taught to believe. Italy allows Lucy to meet impactful and influential people, such as the Emersons and Mrs. Lavish, who encourage to explore her mind and question her preconceived notions regarding both her place in society and individual desires for happiness.

Both Eliza and Vivian go through a dramatic change, going from poverty to high class. Only because of the men that come into their lives and completely change them, almost looking down upon the girls as an object. The men making bets on a woman or just to having the woman as an escort. While both Vivian and Eliza evolve, the effects on the men are different. Edward accepts the change in his life with Vivian around and ends up falling in love with her.

Even in her state of anger she cannot help but once again be the restrained and subdued one in their relationship. Despite all of the happiness she has found with Rochester she still cannot bring herself to stay in a relationship in which she sacrifices part of herself, because she doesn’t know how to reconcile her need feel like she belongs and is taken care of while at the same time remaining uncorrupted.

A Room with a View by E.D. Forster explores the struggle between the expectations of a conventional lady of the British upper class and pursuing the heart. Miss Lucy Honeychurch must choose between class concerns and personal desires.

Lucy Honeychurch is an attention-grabbing character in E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View, because she can also be “an example of the conflict of conventionality and reality of the century [where man and women were not equal at all]” (Kennard 24). She is a young and immature girl who tries to fit in the world while she is growing up and developing the abilities she has. She has not got her own thoughts or view; she relies on people around her and tries to make the best decisions for herself. When something serious comes which she cannot face, she just commits some rebellious acts as a response to deal with problems.

Clarissa is trying to arrange a party to celebrate the fact that Richard has won a literary award, but is getting little help from Richard's ex-lover, Louis. As she labors to help Richard through another day, he wonders if his life is worth the unending struggle. In the end, it is the individual who must determine their own destiny.

Jane Eyre is a novel written by Charlotte Brontë. It is distinctly a female Bildungsroman, as it follows the progress and growth of Jane’s character on her quest for selfhood and independence in a society that tries its best to impress upon her the roles and expectations of women in the Victorian era (which is neatly packaged in the figure of the ‘Angel-in-the-house’.) This is something with which this essay seeks to engage by looking at female figures which feature prominently in Jane’s life, how those who embrace the figure of ‘Angel-in-the-house’ are treated and viewed, versus those who do not. Furthermore, important male figures will also be looked at in order to understand Jane’s own feelings to the ‘Angel-in-the-house’ figure and how she approaches it, as well as how the Byronic hero might relate – if it even does.

Lucy experiences inner conflict as she tries to reject Mariah; the pain sparked by the memory of her mother is too much to bear while simultaneously, a connection is established with Mariah who in a way replaces her mother. Lucy’s

“Little Girls with dreams become women with vision” (unknown). This quote expresses Jane’s entire life in the novel Jane Eyre written by the author Charlotte Brontë. The main character that is discussed in this book is Jane Eyre and she is trying to find herself despite being recognized as less than everyone else solely based on her gender and her poor place in nineteenth-century’s social class. Gender inequality is world wide problem with no end, dating back to the civil rights period to the present day. Mrs. Reed, John Reed, Mr Brocklehurst and Ms. Blanche Ingram, as well as many others are a prime example for this issue. For the reason being that they allow others’ mainly her son to not only treat her with disrespect but also torment Jane as well.