A Feminist Approach To Forster's Novels

E. M. Forster is one of the famous 20th century novelists and critics. In all his novels, he makes in-depth explorations of various social, economical and political issues in British society from the late Victorian era to the postwar period. He has also created many vivid characters. This thesis is inspired by feminism and analyzes the characters in A Room with a View, Howards End and A Passage to India from the feminist perspective.Foster creates some females, who are conscious of their restriction and are struggling for selfhood and freedom. Although feminist movement has achieved a lot in the Edwardian society described by Forster, women belong to a subordinate class. Patriarchy is still in existence, men dominate women overwhelmingly. Besides, sometimes women get lost when they encounter different cultures. The existence of discrimination between classes, arrogant men and cultural conflicts are the obstacles for those fighting women to overcome. However, these women Forster has created finally realize their self-salvation respectively.There are three parts in this paper. Part One tries to analyze the female images. Lucy in A Room with a View grows into a woman from a naive girl, choosing to follow the true instincts of love over the tedious falsities perpetuated by pretentious upper class society. Margaret in Howard End, who is a real lady, successfully humanizes her husband with her empressement and tolerant love. As to Adela in A Passage to India, she is regarded as a brave woman by her Indian friends.Part Two deals with women's dilemma. Firstly, Lucy and Margaret belong to the middle class people. But different from other arrogant middle class people, they want to connect with people from different classes. But their actions are not accepted by other middle class people. Secondly, they all have a subordinate place in the society. Lucy's husband is a supporter of patriarchy; Margaret compromises with her husband before and after her marriage; Adela is not only mocked by her native people but also by people of the colony. Finally, the British culture accepted by Lucy is contradictory to the wonderful experience she goes through in Italy. The rural culture admired by Margaret is contradictory to the newly-appearing urban culture. Western culture accepted by Adela is contradictory to the mystic eastern cultural of the colony.Part Three describes how these women realize self-salvation with their endeavor. Lucy learns to trust the wholeness of her instinct towards George rather than the attractive aestheticism of Cecil. Her choice implies her successful achievement of selfhood. In the process of humanizing Henry, Margaret humanizes and improves herself:she has gradually grown and formed the mature inclusive humanist view, the view of wholeness, balance and harmony. Adela finally realizes that a woman cannot be saved by marriage but by her independence. Therefore, she breaks off her engagement to Ronny and makes up her mind that after she returns to England.By the analysis of Forster's novels, we can find that women's identities are not defined by men or by the society. Women have their own ideas. They should be respected. What more important is that women can prove their existence, won their identities and gain their recognitions by their own actions.