The Thematic Relevance Of Techniques In Where Angels Fear To Tread

E. M. Forster is a famous English novelist. Where Angels Fear to Tread is his first novel. The novel was published in 1905 when he was twenty-six years old. Though Forster is only famous after the publication of Howards End, yet this novel is also a success. Some well-known critics speak highly of it. Apart from being a famous novelist, E. M. Forster is a talented literary critic as well. In 1927, Forster delivered a series of lectures under the title of Aspects of the Novel, which is his theory of novel both for the novelists and novel-readers. In the book, Forster discusses seven aspects he regards universal to the novel: story, people, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern and rhythm, which rank in sequence from story and form his famous aesthetic ladder with rhythm as the highest grade. In Forster's view, story is the lowest aspect of a novel. It is also the lowest level in his aesthetic ladder because it only appeals to people's curiosity. People is a more interesting aspect and its emphasis is upon values. Plot is a much higher aspect of the novel: it is the novelist's design of the story. Fantasy and prophecy provide a novel with an air of mystery. Pattern gives a novel a sense of pictorial beauty while rhythm gives its musical beauty. This dissertation is a systematic analysis of how Forster's use of these techniques contributes to the themes of Where Angels Fear to Tread. In the novel, Forster's use of most of the techniques in Aspects of the Novel goes intimately with and shows clearly the novel's themes while the author's use of the other techniques is only suggestive of , or, only helps to achieve the novel's certain themes. And in this dissertation all the thematic relevance of the techniques included in Aspects of the Novel is discussed. This is reasonable because"What we see and understand has too much to do with the ways we see and understand."(Gillie, 108) Surely, there are a certain number of writings on the themes of Where Angels Fear to Tread that are connected with the contents of Forster's theory of story, people, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern and rhythm in Aspects of the Novel, yet they are not detailed and systematic study of the novel's themes from the viewpoint of these seven aspects. All together, this dissertation has six chapters. Each chapter deals with one"aspect"of the novel with the exception of the fourth chapter, which discusses two"aspects"—fantasy and prophecy—owing to their alikeness in Aspects of the Novel.In Chapter One, the story in Where Angels Fear to Tread is summarized as the English characters'four travels to Monteriano, an Italian hill town. Forster's use of these four travels to a foreign country, which is also his use of the technique of story, clearly shows the differences between the English civilization and the Italian civilization, which is a major theme of the novel. Besides this, through the travels and the comparison of the two cultures is revealed the undeveloped heart of the English middle class, which is regarded by many critics and readers as Forster's most important theme in Where Angels Fear to Tread.In Chapter Two, four of the characters are discussed. According to Forster's theory of people, Mrs. Herriton and her daughter Harriet are flat characters while Philip and Caroline are round characters. Mrs. Herriton and Harriet are created by Forster as types to symbolize the English middle class and their undeveloped heart. Forster's creation of the character Philip is essential to"the improvement of Philip", which is one of the themes of the novel. Caroline is the character that best illustrates Forster's another theme: life is a journey with possibilities of endless learning.In Chapter Three, Forster's contrivance of the plot—Caroline's spy travel to Monteriano—is discussed. This plot reveals the hypocrisy of Mrs. Herriton, and since Mrs. Herriton is a symbol of the English middle class, the plot of Caroline's spy travel in this sense helps to achieve the writer's theme of the undeveloped heart of the English middle class.In Chapter Four, Forster's employment of the techniques of fantasy and prophecy is discussed. Fantasy and prophecy provide the novel with an intense air of mystery, which, in the novel, is embodied by the baby's tragic and mysterious death. Here, Forster employs these two techniques to give his readers a lesson that life is not always a matter of logic but sometimes a matter of chance, which is a theme of this novel and Forster's other novels as well.In Chapter Five, a circle as a pattern is discerned and discussed. Not only does this pattern give the novel its pictorial beauty but it also identifies the process of Philip's change of attitudes towards Italy and its people and thus helps to illustrate the theme of"the improvement of Philip".In Chapter Six, five rhythms in the novel are listed and discussed. Each of them, in its own way, is helpful to the realization of Forster's subject matter in the novel.So, in Where Angels Fear to Tread, all of the techniques that are discussed in Aspects of the Novel can be found and the use of these techniques, without exceptions, contributes to the novel's themes. Thus this dissertation is meaningful in that it is a systematic study of Where Angels Fear to Tread from the novelist's own literary theories; it discusses the relationship of the novel's themes and the techniques in Aspects of the Novel; it shows Forster's consistency in his theories on novels and his own process of novel creation; and finally it provides another vision to understand both the novel and the theories.