E.M. Forster's A Room with a View

Readings:

• A Room with a View (RWV), Part 1, Chs. 1–5

Recommended Listening & Viewing:

• Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111
• Giotto, Frescoes at Santa Croce
• Andrea della Robbia, Glazed terra-cotta reliefs of swaddled babies
• Lucy’s postcards:
  • Botticelli, The Birth of Venus
  • Giorgione, The Tempest
  • The Idolino
  • Apoxyomenos
  • Fra Angelico, Coronation of the Virgin
  • Guido Reni, The Madonna Sewing

Topics:

• Lucy Honeychurch
• Art
• George Emerson
• The “Real”

Discussion Questions:

1. Why are both Lucy and Charlotte suspicious of Mr. Emerson’s offer to exchange rooms? What do they fear from his offer?
2. Lucy longs to experience “the true Italy.” How do guides, guidebooks, and fellow travelers help—or hinder—her search?
3. What do we learn about the characters from their responses to art—Giotto’s frescoes, Miss Lavish’s novels, Lucy’s piano playing, and her postcards?
4. What troubles George? Why does Mr. Emerson seek Lucy as a companion for him?
5. How do Lucy and George each respond to the “real event” that takes place in the Piazza?

Readings:

• RWV, Part 1, Chs. 6–7, Part 2, Chs. 8–10
• Theoi Project, Phaethon and Persephone

Topics:

•  Italy & England
• Muddles
• Violets
• The Middle Ages & Chivalry

Discussion Questions:

1. What is the significance of Italy as a setting? How does it function differently from England in the novel?
2. What does it mean to be “muddled”?
3. Compare the scene on the terrace of violets to the earlier scene on the Piazza. What precipitates this encounter between Lucy and George?
4. In what sense is Cecil Vyse “medieval”?
5. Compare Cecil’s and George’s attitudes toward marriage and women. Do they behave “chivalrously” toward Lucy—and should they?

Readings:

• RWV, Part 2, Chs. 11–15

Recommended Listening:

• Schumann, “Warum?”, Fantasiestücke 12
• Gluck, “Plus j’observe ces lieux,” Armide
• Wagner, Flower Maidens, Parsifal

Topics:

• Music
• The Sacred Lake
• Freddy
• Kisses

Discussion Questions:

1. How does Lucy try to justify her engagement to Cecil to herself and her family
2. Why does Lucy refuse to play Beethoven? How does the music she plays instead reveal the state of her mind and heart?
3. How does the bath in the Sacred Lake influence what follows?
4. What role does Freddy play in bringing Lucy and George together?
5. George’s kiss recurs as a motif in the novel. How does this second kiss differ from the first in Florence? From Cecil’s kiss?

Readings:

• RWV, Part 2, Chs. 16–20
• Forster, “A View without a Room,” 1958
• Forster, “What I Believe,” 1938

Recommended Listening:

• Mozart, Piano Sonatas
• Sir Walter Scott, “Lucy Ashton’s Song”

Film Viewing:

• A Room with a View (1985)

Topics:

• Lies & Truth
• Marriage
• Fate
• Endings

Discussion Questions:

1. In what ways does Lucy lie to herself and to others? What finally enables her to tell the truth?
2. Near the end of the novel, both Charlotte and Mr. Beebe act in surprising ways. What accounts for their change of heart?
3. What role does religion play in the novel’s moral vision? Consider the figures of Mr. Beebe, Mr. Eager, and Mr. Emerson.
4. Why must Lucy marry?
5. In what sense is the final chapter “the end of the Middle Ages”? What new “age” is beginning?
6. Consider the coincidences and reversals that bring Lucy and George together. George calls this “Fate.” Is he right? Is the ending convincing? Satisfying?
7.  In 1958, Forster added a postscript to A Room with a View. How does his update change—or challenge—your sense of the novel’s ending? Do you think it possible for Lucy and George to “retain the View” they enjoyed on their honeymoon after their experiences of two world wars? What about today?