The Future of the Past: Cosmopolitanism, Nature, and History

While Margaret Schlegel is contemplating Henry’s comfort with an instability and flux of life which she associates with London, Forster’s narrator makes an aside, stating that “under cosmopolitanism, if it comes, we shall receive no more help from the earth. Trees and meadows and mountains will only be a spectacle, and the binding force that they once exercised on character must be entrusted to Love alone. May Love be equal to the task (222)!” For the narrator, the unique natural surroundings of a particular nation which in the past was the prime influence on the individual are losing their power, replaced by large urban centers with a strong international element. The cosmopolitan city, which tends to have more in common with foreign cities than the rural areas of its own nation, is posited here as determining factor in the future of society.

The waning of nature and the nation’s power to shape individuals is reflected by the novel in the fate of Ruth Wilcox and her house at Howards End. Ruth is, early on, depicted as deriving her character and personality from the nature represented by her estate of Howards End, with the narrator noting that Margaret “discerned that Mrs. Wilcox, though a loving wife and mother, had only one passion in her life- her house (73),” identifying Ruth’s attachment to her natural surrounds, by way of her home, as the primary influence on her personality, with her attachment to others (her position as wife, mother) being secondary. More than love, the natural world of Howards End makes Ruth who she is.

This attachment of Ruth’s is easily contrasted in the attitude towards Howards End manifested by the rest of the Wilcox family after Ruth’s death, when it is revealed that Ruth wanted the house to pass to Margaret instead of staying in the Wilcox family. The narrator voices the family’s disbelief, asking “was there to be no compensation for the garage and other improvements that they had made under the assumption that all would be theirs someday (85)?” The Wilcoxes are not bothered by the potential loss of Howards End due to any sentimental attachment to the property, but are instead concerned at the prospect of not gaining their expected return on an investment. The property is thought of by the Wilcoxes in terms of monetary value, far removed from the sense of personal attachment felt by Ruth. The Wilcoxes are less worried about the loss of Howards End itself, and more so with the loss of the house’s monetary value. Unlike Ruth, the rest of the Wilcoxes have little or no identification with the natural world of Howards End.

What is perhaps less obvious, but still operative is what this coming of cosmopolitanism as dramatized by the novel means for the notion of the past. With her connection with the natural world by way of Howards End, Ruth would seem to find her identity, including her class position, given her by her connection with the past. Howards End, a remnant of her heritage, directs Ruth in how to think of herself. Henry, however, would seem to eschew any sort of identification with his past, as is alluded to by his refusal to think about or deal with his involvement with Jacky Bast, would seem to couple his disconnection from nature with a disconnection with the past. While it will be noted that Henry is not himself thoroughly cosmopolitan, in the sense that he tends to identify with a rather aggressive nationalism, his disconnection from the natural world would seem to position him as a sort of quasi-cosmopolitan. This degree of cosmopolitanism would seem accompanied by a disregard for the past.

The question is then: what is the future of the past? If, as is stated in the novel, cosmopolitanism is slowly diminishing the importance of nature to the individual, then what is to become the importance of the past, which is shown as carried in nature, to the individual? It would seem that Howards End, in alluding to a world in which the natural is in the past, no longer as important as it once was, also alludes to a world in which the past itself is increasingly past, diminishing in importance to the individuals occupying an increasingly cosmopolitan world.