A Room with a View

1
A Room with a View

• The Lying Chapters
• Chap 16 - 19

2
Overview of chapters

• Chap 16 Lucy sends off George, lies that she
  loves Cecil
• Chap 17 Lucy sends off Cecil, lies that she
  doesnt love anyone else
• Chap 18 Lucy wants to escape to Greece, pretends
  to all that she doesnt have any emotional
  attachments
• Chap 19 Lucy lies to Mr Emerson that she doesnt
  love George

3
Forsters methods

• Rhythm and Patterns
• Chapter titles paired/grouped chapters
• Motifs
• Contrasts

4
Chapter titles

• Used to group chapters, establish mirroring or
  contrasting effects
• 412 Fourth Chapter / Twelfth Chapter
• 14 15 How L faced the External Situation
  Bravely / The Disaster Within
• 16-19 The Lying chapters

5
Chapter titles

• 412 Fourth Chapter / Twelfth chapter
• Key turning point chapters
• Yet seemingly insignificant ? ironic effect
• Reflecting reality major moments in life also
  coming similarly unannounced
• 14 15 How L faced the External Situation
  Bravely / The Disaster Within
• External vs internal, bravery v disaster
• Highlighting tension between external façade
  inner life, emotions
• Critiques English convention of suppressing
  emotion (cf Mr Beebes advice to niece in Chap 10
  on the proper way to behave Like Lucys quiet
  reaction when confronted with news of Emersons
  taking Miss Alans place pg 105)

6
Truth

• 16 19 the Lying chapters
• Contrasts with novels emphasis on need for truth
  clarity of perception
• Muddle comic confusion of Chapters 16-19
• Reflecting Lucys gradual process of realisation
  of truth and clarity
• What kind of truth?
• Lucys first aim was to defeat herself
• the contest between.. the real and the pretended
  (Ch 15, p150)
• her brain clouded over.. the views grew dim..
  falsehood wrought out of darkness..hides a man
  not only from others but from his own soul
• being true to oneself to others, clarity of
  perception (of self and others)
• Note motifs interwoven
• Darkness, dimness vs views

7
Truth

• Contrast Lucys desire to be truthful after the
  kiss Chap 7 pg 67 I want to be truthful.. It is
  so hard to be absolutely truthful
• Lucys realisation of being true to oneself
  completed in final chapter 20 pg 194 If we act
  the truth, the people who love us are sure to
  come back to us in the long run

8
Chapter titles 16-19

• Presented as a series of lies
• Cumulative effect
• Lying to George / Lying to Cecil
• Lying to Mr Beebe, Mrs Honeychurch, Freddy and
  the Servants
• individual ? listing whole group
• Why is Lying to Mr Emerson presented last?
• Presented as Climax resolution of the muddle
• Represents most clearly truth clarity from the
  start of the novel
• Ch 1 p8 Mr Beebe He has the merit if it is one
  of saying exactly what he means it is so
  difficult ..to understand people who speak the
  truth
• Ch 19 p189 as he spoke the darkness was
  withdrawn, veil after veil, and she saw to the
  bottom of her soul
• Ch 19 p191 There is Truth. Truth counts, Truth
  does count

9
Motifs

• Nature
• Autumn vs summer
• She was aware of autumn. Summer was ending (Ch 16
  p156)
• darkness vs light
• The earth was hastening to re-enter darkness, and
  the shadows of those trees to creep over Windy
  Corner p156
• (Lucy) The night received her, as it had received
  Miss Bartlett 30 years before (p163) She put out
  the lamp Ch 17 p162
• (George) all the world is glorious water and
  sun p155
• Muddle throughout Chap 16-19
• Lucy Ch 19 p 189 Give George my love only
  only. Tell him Muddle

10
Motifs

• Sight / seeing, vision/views
• The scales fell from Lucys eyes p157
• (Lucy) There are days when one sees clearly. I
  see clearly. I must speak. Thats all p159
• Fittingly it is Mr Emerson who finally shows Lucy
  the truth
• Ch 19 P191 he had made her see the whole of
  everything at once

11
Concrete Imagery

• Eg Miss Alans going to Athens, Greece
• Athens is a plunge, and the doctor has ordered
  her special digestive bread. It is only getting
  first into a steamer and then into a train.
• Eg Cecils thoughts on the Honeychurches and
  Windy Corner
• Eggs, boilers, hydrangeas, maids of such were
  their lives compact. Ch13 p131
• Features Listing of images Irony also
• He could almost visualise the motor-vans..
  arriving.. and depositing this chair, those
  varnished book-cases, that writing table Ch 8,
  p84

12
Concrete Imagery

• Significance?
• Lack of imagination, inability to see beyond the
  visible world
• Tension between the 2 worlds suggested repeatedly
• Egthe visible world faded away, and memories and
  emotions alone seemed real ch 13 p130
• Contrast abstract and often intangible / surreal
  imagery to signify the world of emotions
• Eg Lucy hears the roaring of the waters in her
  ears when Mr Emerson confronts her with her love
  of George Ch 19 p188