Howards End

The changes in the social dynamics are evidenced from one generation of characters to the next as well as the broader historical and technological changes represented in the novel. The novel takes place during a time of rapid urbanization, in which London is expanding and a rural working class is being converted into menial clerks, factory workers, and unemployed poor people. Old buildings are torn down with new taller ones erected in their place, and the new technology of the automobile increasingly takes over the roads. Moreover, new debates about ideas like socialism and issues like women’s suffrage indicate the rapidly changing social environment. Forster highlights the possibilities of these changes as well as the dangers that they present to stability and rural beauty.

As an example of the double-edged possibilities of change, Leonard Bast is described as a “grandson to the shepherd or ploughboy whom civilization had sucked into the town” (105), suggesting that he has new opportunities yet must undergo violent processes of being “sucked” into difficult circumstances.

The Wilcox sisters are representative of a liberal and newly politically engaged female generation. They espouse some progressive economic ideas—including some socialist ones—and are in favor of women’s suffrage. This is in stark contrast to the older Mrs. Wilcox, who represents stability and tells Margaret that she does not think about politics at all and is happy that she does not have the right to vote.

Finally, the Wilcoxes, with their rubber business with dealings in British colonies in Africa, are representative of a class of newly rich businessmen with global interests, displacing the old aristocracy made rich by local land holdings. Both Margaret and the Wilcoxes themselves believe that people like them will usher Britain into a new age and keep humanity moving. However, Mr. Wilcox’s wealth and subsequent nonchalance about Leonard’s employer causes him to jeopardize Leonard’s livelihood, suggesting that this new class of people will disrupt any sense of stability that working-class people have.

The novel presents an ambivalent attitude toward the shifting landscape of Britain, and of England in particular, as the central conflict is the question of whether all of these new social types can profitably get along. As one example of this ambivalent attitude, during a car ride of Margaret’s, she notes that although the automobile makes transportation from one place to another quicker, it also makes it more difficult to appreciate the passing landscape. She later jumps out of a car when it hits a cat, suggesting her desire to slow progress when it damages nature even though it represents possibility.

Howards End, as a symbol of the innocent and virtuous simplicity of the countryside, is not representative of this change. The fact that the characters retreat to Howards End at the end of the novel suggests that they fear change. Nevertheless, change is inevitable, as London is shown at the end with rapidly expanding suburbs which are bound to come to Howards End in the coming years.