Property and the urban/rural binary function as markers of
class and class mobility in both Howards
End and The Way We Live Now. In TWWLN,
the weight of one’s class position rests firmly in the country estate that
comes with a title. However, as the fate
of Georgina Longestaffe demonstrates, the city becomes all-meaningful in
maintaining one’s position—or, for Melmotte, in attempting to surpass one’s
position. Without the city, there are no
means for making connections, both marital and financial. Still, in TWWLN,
the distinct separation between the rural and urban continues and the
impossibility of certain characters to cross that boundary successfully
presents in Ruby Ruggles and Felix Carbury.
Moving ahead half a century, in Howards End, the lines between the rural and urban have already
begun to meld. The countryside, after
all, is now a quick jaunt by the fully-established and regular train
service. Further, though, the border
between country and city now vanishes: “‘All
the same, London’s creeping.’ [Helen]
pointed over the meadow—over eight or nine meadows, but at the end of them was
a red rust” (289; ch. 44). No, the
city’s takeover is not accomplished quickly—the city “creeps” like the ivy
slowly overtaking Howards End. This slow
emigration of cityscape into country, in fact, happens slowly enough that the
threat may not even be noticeable to those less mindful of such matters than
the Schlegels. And as the narrator
suggests, this creeping city changes the vibrancy of the landscape into “rust.”
As Cristy also notes, Margaret, beholden like Mrs. Wilcox to
the past, hopes against this shift:
“Because a thing is going strong now, it need not go strong for ever”
(290; ch. 44). But, of course, Margaret
hopes from her bourgeois position. She
does not know that, as Leonard Bast has told Helen, the “shameful” attitude of
the current lower class toward its past as it has moved toward its own center
of hope: urban mobility (202; ch.
27). In Leonard’s shame concerning his
grandparents’ position as “agricultural laborers and that sort,” Forster
underscores the city’s promise to both the lower and middle classes the
opportunity to escape an imposed status.
In the age of industry, capital, speculation, and automated motion, the
city now spreads its arms wider and wider to catch any who would wish to
advance.
This is a really interesting comment. I'm especially interested in your sense that Forster recognizing -- and values? -- the possibility of social mobility offered by the city. Do you think he approves?
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