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Katie Flanders Ms. Tierney-Fife December 12, 2011 AP English Literature Breaking Boundaries How we live is influenced immensely by our location. Even though we may not think about it, our lives are based on the society we are brought up in and live inside each day. Different cultures and ways of thinking effect foreigners and help them to redefine what they feel is normal to society. One may also develop different values than before. If a person is put into a society where their survival is guaranteed, they will focus on other values such as wealth or power. But, when placed in another society where survival is something that should be more intensely focused on, a change in values occurs and wealth or power no longer matters as much. This can relate to E.M. Forster’s A Room With a View, which emphasizes the power culture and location can have over one’s values and emotions. In England, more restraints on society are put into effect and an emphasis on being proper and having etiquette is established, whereas, in Italy, one is able to let go of this life and start over in a new atmosphere based solely on emotion and the human connection. The emotions of the characters in A Room With A View change dramatically with the location and culture of the society because of the vast differences in social norms and values portrayed in both English and Italian settings. The power of the Italian way, much different from that of the English, effects Lucy so much that she is shocked, but later freedom gives her strength to display emotion that has been bottled up inside of her for so long. One of the first instances when she realizes this difference in culture is when she is at the fountain in Italy, watching some Italian men get into a fight over money. This would surely be described as horrid in England, but here, emotion leads its own path and lets one know what is truly important. As the Italian man “bent towards Lucy with a look of interest, as if he had an important message for her”(Forster, 33), Lucy feels the intensity of this moment, one so out of the ordinary, that she faints. To further this impact, before fainting, she sees none other than George Emerson, the man Lucy feels a strong bond with throughout rest of the novel. At this moment, at the fountain, Lucy feels emotion actually go through her which is something she hadn’t felt before. She sees the Italian man die, watching the blood trickle “down his unshaven chin”(Forster, 33) and this power carries through her relationship with George. She watches the Italian man’s eyes and makes a connection with her eyes, a pure connection of feeling, that can then be seen as she wakes up after feinting with George at her side. While Lucy is being enlightened by new concepts she finds outside of her English comfort zone, George does not show any signs of significant change in emotion related to location. George’s character is what it is. He is different in that he doesn’t really have opinions one way or the other, he is simply taught certain concepts and understands them without any influence by society. Part of this he learns from his father who “sees the whole of everything at once”(168). George knows what he wants and Lucy sees this and feels the same way, but she is struck not only by the power of emotion and love, but also by the power of social normality and what would be agreeable for her to do. Though she wants to feel the way George does, she cannot: “Lucy is among the worst of those who use words to obscure experience rather than reveal it: instead of enjoying George’s embraces she carefully laundered (and repressed) accounts of them”(Heath, 33). Later on, though, she is forced to finally set straight what is truly important to her inside. She must choose between what is real and what is simply society taking over. George helps her to see what her true values must be, the values of a real person free from any emotional restraints. Heath gives an intelligent view of this notion, relating their breaking away is also a movement into the universe: “but eventually she and George become global persons by means of their ability to ‘extend’ and ‘reach straight back to the universal’ with no turns or detours into deceit”(35). She is able to break away from England and reach a new location, the universe, for herself emotionally. She is being picked up and brought into a life with new beginnings and scenes that are very much apart from her regular ways. In the end, she finds herself back in Italy with George, living in freedom, apart from a life that could have been with Cecil, hidden in conformity. Cecil, though he is needed to make the book humorous with his “bilingual and etymological puns”(Heath, 31), shows the intense weight Lucy holds on her shoulders because of Victorian society. Cecil is thought of as “the perfect man” for Lucy according to her peers. He is smart and charming in nature, but she does not have the same connection that she has with George. Both George and Cecil compare Lucy to art, but in different concepts. To Cecil, Lucy is a work of art that he owns. He feels himself superior to her instead of having an emotional connection, as Forster says, “he believed women revere men for their manliness”(Forster, 88). Unlike Cecil, George feels men and women to be equal with one another which can be seen by his ability to reach out of conformity and get away from social norms of the time. In England, there are different values and Lucy feels restrained, keeping her feelings to herself rather than reaching out and opening up. As Nestor states, if one is able to branch out, one “gets more of a taste of the pleasures of life, and think less of appearing happy than being so”(Corbin, 30). Lucy feels more inclined to leave how she actually feels and focus on how she looks to others instead. Judgement becomes a huge part of Lucy’s life and her feelings because she thinks, if she acts the way she feels, people will reject her in her society. At the end of the novel, there is a sense that she actually is rejected in society because she has finally said what she feels, a part of her that no one agrees with. When writing of the others reaction to George and Lucy’s marriage, Forster states “the Honeychurches had not forgiven them; they were disgusted at her past hypocrisy; she had alienated Windy Corner, perhaps for ever”(170). Since she made the choice to be with George, living with a free spirit in Italy, rather than with her family, Windy Corner has changed its views of her. This is what Lucy had been trying to avoid by going through all this trouble to keep her relationship with George a secret. Italy, although it may not be as quaint and polite as England, is the place where Lucy can open up. Forster shows this emotion expressed by Lucy also when she plays the piano. She finds that “the kingdom of music in not the kingdom of the world; it will accept those whom breeding and intellect and culture have alike rejected”(Forster, 23). Forster uses this motif of music throughout the story to show how Lucy is reaching out from the restraints of England. Lucy’s feelings in Italy are open, which is also true when she plays. She can see and feel life as it truly is, giving herself a “potential for self-revelation”(Nestor, 3). She is free to experience the world, take in new parts of her life, feel with real emotion, and love George with every ounce of emotion. One can truly see her come out of her shell in Italy, which is where she ends up staying in the end. She is away from rules and etiquette and shows what is actually inside of her, finding herself along the way. This book shows how different cultures can react to one another when brought together. The English and Italian influence given to all the characters shapes the way they think about life concepts. “Victorian obsession with visuality”(Nestor, 1) is morphed into “spasms of courage”(Forster, 59) and “unreasonable joy”(Forster, 59) and the reader can see this happening as the two worlds collide. Stereotypes are seen, but also one finds acceptance of different cultures in the hearts of people such as George and Lucy. When they are able to reach out and enjoy life for what it is, that is what truly matters to them. No longer are they fighting for a way to get through English social norms, but are living life as they want in Italy together, free to have their own feelings.