Reply to comment

I don’t find the majority of the characters in Howard’s End to be ‘moral’. Maybe the problem is that they all have different ideas about morality and none is moral in the eyes of another. Henry’s lack of morality comes from his lack of emotionality and his inability to clearly see. Margaret says he is “eternally tired. He has worked very hard all his life, and noticed nothing. Those are the people who collapse when they do notice a thing.” I think Henry has been blind to what is right and wrong, and living a somewhat scripted life. He only realizes that he has been immoral after Margaret spells it out for him, and he becomes ‘eternally tired.’

Leonard Bask suffers so much in this novel that maybe he is meant to be the only one experiencing true morality. Morality is a concern for right and wrong behavior and he is always chewing on some idea of right and wrong. Leonard ascribes moral weight to class placements; his failure in class position becomes a moral failure that he can’t free himself from. He is certainly upset by his own affair, more so than anyone in the upper classes is concerned with their affairs. The upper classes are more concerned with actions of others than with their own actions. Henry cannot see the similarity of his situation to that of Helen’s. Charles is so angered by Leonard’s lack of morality that he kills Leonard.

“Only connect…” may be Forster’s way of urging us to recognize one another with compassion before passing judgment. I would argue that Helen is more of a moralist than Margaret as she doesn’t sway from her desire to help people and it is from her that we get the idea that ‘personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever’ (181).

For Leonard, the only way to come clear of his immorality was to confess. I found it interesting that the only place religion is mentioned it is also said to be “un-English,” and the desire to confess is “proof of a weakened nature,” though ‘Leonard has a right to decide upon it” (334). This desire to be moral and see Margaret to confess is what gets Leonard killed.

…still thinking…

Danielle