"The building of the rainbow bridge that should connect the prose in us with the passion."
"Death destroys a man, but the idea of death saves him."
"Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die."
The idea of connection exists throughout the novel. However, it is an abstract form of connection, a form that begs for a deep understanding of, and link to, the clarity and wisdom within us all. It is our obtuseness which blinds us to that wisdom. Until we connect, we are all Margaret's charity cases, EM Forster's charity cases, the charity cases of those who see the stain of obtuseness that abstracts our view. Howard's End is beautiful because it viciously swipes at the stain that so easily distracts us to what lies before us.
I would like to bring up an interesting debate that was prompted by our own Ms. Soble and her lovely family. Margaret. At the end of the novel she is living at Howard's End with her sister and husband, Henry. Is she there because she has made peace and accepted Henry's "obtuseness," or is she there because she had the clarity to realize that he had in fact changed and that she was at peace there? Therefore, is Margaret weak or is she strong for staying with Henry at Howard's End?
But let us not forget Leonard.
When the rich struggle, it is the poor who suffer. I was reminded of The Great Gatsby. Life resumes for the wealthy, who remain seemingly indifferent to the deaths of the down-and-out. And so it made me angry when Leonard was slain and seemingly forgotten by those partially responsible, as Gatsby was by Tom and Daisy.
Perhaps it is wisdom, not indifference, however, in this case that guides our friends. It is not the concealment of a wrong, but the painful discharge of a truth. Why should society dictate proper feelings and behavior? It is Margaret who realizes this. She realizes that "Others go farther still, and move outside humanity altogether... Don't you see that all this leads to comfort in the end? It's all part of the battle against sameness. Differences-eternal differences, planted by God in a single family, so that there may always be colour; sorrow perhaps, but colour in the daily grey." And she begs Helen to forget Leonard: "Don't drag in the personal when it will not come. Forget him." Is it clarity and wisdom that dictates her words? Isn't trying feel that which does not exist more wrong than ignoring that which does? And if nothing does exist, then why create it for the satisfaction of an idea, at the cost of one's individuality and true nature. At the cost of a color against the daily gray.
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On another note, I plan to write a series of short stories which I will post in a separate blog. I am really excited to begin this project and hope you will follow along! I hope to have a story out by the end of February. The URL is solomonabrams.blogspot.com. Hope to see you there! Thanks for reading!
