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Bill Chun Wai Hung

Professor Arca

English 1B

28 May 2004

 

Lucy Honeychurch – A girl with a passionate nature

 

Lucy Honeychurch is the main character in E. M. Forster’s novel A Room with a View. The passionate nature of Lucy is an important character trait that shapes the contour of the whole story. This nature of mind consists of both the positive and the negative side of Lucy’s passion towards various things. The positive side of Lucy’s passionate nature drives her to understand literature, to appreciate work of art, to devote to music, and to love her lover passionately. The negative side of the character trait leads Lucy’s into a crime scene of a murder, and turns Lucy to be an unconventional person despised by her culture in the long run.

 

The passionate nature within Lucy builds up her interest for literature works. When Lucy heard that Miss Lavish was writing a book about modern Italy, Lucy was amazed and asked “‘Is it true,’ continued Lucy in awestruck tones, ‘that Miss Lavish is writing a book?’” (Forster 30) One does not appreciate literature without a passion for the magic of words. Obviously, Lucy expressed her passionate nature in the form of admiration towards Miss Lavish’s talent in writing. The passionate nature of Lucy will probably guide her to be a knowledgeable woman.

           

Lucy’s passionate nature has reinforced her artistic interest against social pressure. Generally, it is odd for a man to buy a picture of a naked girl in a public shop, and it is even odder for a girl to purchase one in such places. In Chapter IV of Part I, Lucy went to Alinari’s shop and “there she brought a photograph of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.” (Forster38) Birth of Venus is based on a classical myth of Greek and Roman, which featured a beautiful lady in nude wafted to the shore as a gift from Heaven. In the novel, tourists were most likely to stare at Lucy, who was walking down the street with a big picture frame of the naked Venus. Realizing such an embarrassing moment, Lucy’s cousin Miss Bartlett “had persuaded her (Lucy) to do without it (the photograph of Birth of Venus)” (Forster38), but Lucy stubbornly decided to buy such an eye-catching piece of Art. Lucy’s action clearly indicates her strong passionate nature at work. This can be considered Lucy’s small rebellion against the social convention.

 

Lucy’s passionate nature can be best illustrated by her passion for music. In Chapter III of Part I, it was written, “I (Lucy) liked my own playing better than anyone’s. “ (Forster 30) It is this kind of passion that makes Lucy wants something big – like a real adventure. Lucy’s passion was so strong that she did not fear the danger of traveling in the dark. This eventually drives her to make a trip around the town of Florence, Italy. During the night walk, Lucy and George Emerson witnessed a murder, and Lucy fainted. Despite the negative effect caused by Lucy’s passionate nature (for which will be discussed later in this essay), the frightening experience, as a by-product of Lucy’s passion for music, unintentionally brought the relationship between George and Lucy closer to each other. This is all because George has looked after Lucy during the dangerous scene of murder. This new development of relationship will eventually determine the ending of the novel.

 

When George kissed Lucy for the first time in the middle of the wood (Forster 63), he stirred up feelings in Lucy. At that moment, it is the passionate nature of Lucy that makes her feeling uncontrollable. The internal struggle of Lucy’s love towards George was painful, and it has caused many tears pouring out from Lucy’s heart (Forster 189). This is because Lucy’s love for George is not conventional to her society. At the end of the novel, Lucy finally made her bold decision to embrace her passion. She chose to elope with George without her mother’s consent. It is reasonable to argue that Lucy’s love for George has urged Lucy to unleash her passionate nature, and ultimately pave the path for her sweet relationship with George (Forster 192).

 

Continuing from the earlier portion of this essay, Lucy’s passionate nature expressed in music has its negative effect. It has put Lucy into a dangerous situation. In Chapter III of Part I, Lucy went out for a walk in town after hearing the music of Beethoven. (Foster 37) In the middle of the walk, Lucy witnessed the murder of an Italian man. Witnessing a murdering scene is not something desirable in a walk around Italy. Lucy reacted extremely that she fainted at the sight of the murder. One can call such situation “a life-threatening situation”, in which someone was actually killed in front of you. It is possible that Lucy would be in much more trouble if George Emerson was not there when the stabbing took place. The life-threatening situation is one of the unexpected negative effects of Lucy’s strong character trait.

 

Contrasting to all the other positive effects of Lucy’s strong passionate nature, such a character trait has led Lucy to a terrible social position. At the time of the novel (around early 1900s), it was unconventional for ladies, especially British ladies, to express their passion explicitly. Ladies at that time have very strong ideas about the need to repress passion and control the behavior of young girls. Under such social pressure, Lucy has grown up into a lady who constantly fights against her own desire. She forces herself to repress her passionate nature, because it is unconventional to express her passionate nature of the mind. This in turn means that the society must abandon Lucy for her decision to elope with George (Forster 192). Lucy has to be labeled as a social outcast in order to preserve her passionate nature.

 

Throughout the novel, Forster put many thoughts on the subject of repressed passion and social restraints. The passionate nature of Lucy symbolized the key battle of the novel – the battle between passion and social convention. One may see that, Lucy chose to embrace her passionate nature represents not only a victory for passion, but also the victory for woman self-awareness - the awareness of the need of love, the need of pleasure, and the need of independence for woman. Through the internal struggle between love and social expectation, Lucy learned to express her passionate nature honestly. Lucy also decided to preserve her passionate nature without repressing it. By accepting the positively and negative effects of her strong passionate nature, Lucy brought happiness to herself and her lover.


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Work Cited

Forster, Edward Morgan. A Room with a View. New York: Penguin Group, 2000.