낭만적 이상주의의 끝에서: 포스터의 『하워즈 엔드』

Although its spiritual power does not call so much attention as that of Howards End, Wickham Place is certainly another house in Forster's Howards End that deserves careful examination. The house constitutes the origin of the Schlegels, and the Schlegel sisters' physical separation from the house betokens the novel's disavowal of Romantic idealism associated with the late Mr. Schlegel. In the earlier part of the novel, Helen's critical voice dominates, penetrating the reification of the contemporary British society and recognizing the existence of class struggle. Yet, following the sisters' move out of Wickham Place, the narrator gradually distances himself from Helen's idealistic voice and endorses the view of the novel's ultimate heroine Margaret. As a member of “the rentier class”—those who live mainly on investment income, Margaret chooses to resolve the moral dilemma of her class by reconciling with the industrial capitalists such as the Wilcoxes. In order to achieve a difficult harmony, Margaret invents a symbolistic vision of unity that can replace a reality full of problems and struggles. Thus, Howards End, which represents England as a whole, comes to function as a synecdoche. However, this use of synecdoche displaces the other parts of the whole, while cultivating the particular and polishing the fragment. This inorganic synecdoche reveals Forster's tentative solution to the problems surrounding the relationship between the aesthetic and the practical in the contemporary society.