Only connect...
Howards End is an English novel by E.M. Forster, published in 1910. It deals with class differences in post-Victorian society. In 1992, it was adapted into a film starring
Emma Thompson,
Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave and
Helena Bonham-Carter.
The two main characters are Margaret and Helen Schlegel, who become involved with the upper-class Wilcox family, who own the eponymous house, and with Leonard and Jacky Bast, who are on the verge of poverty. As the story progresses, the three families intersect in many different ways.
This novel contains examples of the following:
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Margaret is described, more or less, as "the one with the teeth" in the novel; she's just not that attractive. In the film, she's played by Emma Thompson, who is by no means unattractive (and her teeth are perfectly normal!).
- Arc Words: Only connect...
- Butt Monkey: Leonard Bast.
- Chekhov's Gun: The sword mentioned throughout the novel causes the death of Leonard at the end of the novel.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Helen.
- Cool Old Lady: Mrs. Wilcox, in the early chapters.
- Christmas Cake When Margaret reaches twenty-nine, it's considered unlikely that she'll marry which may be why she seizes a viable opportunity when her siblings are against it. Her suitor is a middle-aged widower with grown-up children, though, and such men often married women older than would be considered elligable as first wives.
- Double Standard: Lampshaded by Margaret.
- The Edwardian Era
- Freudian Trio:
- He-Man Woman Hater: Mr. Wilcox.
- Henpecked Husband: Leonard.
- Heroic BSOD
- In Vino Veritas: When Jacky gets drunk, she reveals that she and Henry were lovers.
- Jerk Ass: Charles and, to some extent, Henry Wilcox.
- Little Old Lady Investigates: Mrs. Munt.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Helen's baby is known only as "baby" in the last chapter.
- Poor Communication Kills
- Precious Puppies
- Redemption Equals Death: Leonard.
- Soap Opera Disease
- Twice Told Tale: Zadie Smith's On Beauty, which resets the novel in contemporary academia.
- You Can't Fight Fate
- Your Cheating Heart
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