Class and Art in E. M. Forster’s Howards End

Abstract

Howards End presents a world in flux and mobility in the advent of modernism where art and literature are tested for their ability to save the individual in the context of a quest for an English house, Howards End, which on a symbolic level represents not only the English but all humanity. Forster shows the world of literature and art in a very pessimistic and critical way with an emphasis on the lower-class’ futile striving for art and culture and on the over determination of class differences even for a cultivated upper-class individual with socialist aspirations. The destruction of the lower class, represented by Leonard, by the two upper-class families, the Schlegels, representing the German idealism and the Wilcoxes, the brutal capitalists, shows that appreciation of art does not make the refined mind immune to sharing a common ground with the philistine upper-class. Forster suggests that literature does not have the power to change the society, and that class and gender hierarchy cannot be overcome by literature or art.

Keywords

• feminism,German idealism

References

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