An Interpretation Of E. M. Forster's Where Angels Fear To Tread With Sartre's View Of Freedom

Edward Morgan Forster(1879~1970)is a famous novelist in the Edwardian period of England,and at the same time,he is also a distinguished proser.Where Angels Fear to Tread is Forster's first novel,the storyline is the love story between a middle-class English woman Lilia and an Italian young man Gino,in spite of various obstructions,they still get married,but it ends in tragedy.However,under the storyline,it's a long journey for the main characters Philip and Caroline to transform themselves and find the life meaning.As with Forster's other full-length novels,Where Angels Fear to Tread reflects the spiritual barrenness of the British upper middle class,and the main characters try to acquire individual liberation by making different free choices and taking the corresponding responsibilities,so that they can get ride of the restraints from the society and traditional customs.This paper is trying to elaborate the changing reason,process and the consequence of the main characters from the perspective of Sartre's view of freedom.From the original free choice to the final responsibility,they finally can face all the challenges with a light heart.This paper will adopt the method of one-to-one correspondence between the circumstance,free choice,responsibility in Sartre's view of freedom and the circumstances,the characters in the novel.So that through the analysis of the perspective of the existential philosophy,maybe we can understand this novel better and comprehend the novel's deep seated charm.This paper is divided into six chapters.The first chapter introduces E.M.Forster's life experiences and academic achievements,the main point of the Where Angels Fear to Tread,the research actuality and the meaning of this paper.The second chapter mainly talks about Sartre's view of freedom,including circumstance,free choice and responsibility.They are closely connected and interacted.The third chapter is devoted to Caroline and Philip's actions for the death of Lilia and her baby.The author puts the main characters in some special circumstances so that they have to make choices,change the course of their life,and then find the true self.The fourth chapter is to analyze the free choices of Caroline and Philip respectively,through the independent choices,learning and feeling,they finally get ride of the constraints and perfect their characters.The fifth chapter is an introduction of how Caroline and Philip change themselves and take the responsibilities.They eventually understand the true meaning of love.With the new overlooks on the world,life and values,Caroline decides to stay at the Swaston,while Philip chooses to go to London and starts new life there.The sixth chapter is a conclusion of the research,through making constant choices in different circumstances,the protagonists finally get free,finding the meaning of existing and the life value.The novel also shows that Forster firmly believes the phenomenon of the spiritual barrenness of the British upper middle class can be changed.