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Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

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Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy: 9780451530271 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

In the book, Hardy described the impact of the emerging industrialization and urban civilization on the old, rural Wessex area, exposing the false morality that imprisons people’s thoughts, emphasizes chastity, and represses women’s social status. The tragic fate of Tess reflects the background of the times: economic poverty, the unfair legal system, hypocritical religion, and the hypocritical morality of the bourgeoisie. Tess’s tragedy is the product of society at that time, so Tess’s tragedy is also a social tragedy. The tragedy of Tess, a beautiful girl with a pure heart, is caused by the ugly social reality. As a poor woman with a low social status, Tess was inevitably oppressed and humiliated, both materially (including economic, powerful and physical) and spiritually (including religious, moral and traditional concepts). As a victim of society, Tess is not only hard-working and brave but also pure and kind. She was born poor, but full of beautiful ideals. In order to realize this ideal, she went out three times. But she was alone, and each time she was hit harder and harder. Tess’s tragedy not only has its deep economic and class roots but also has its moral and religious, legal factors.

Tess’s economic and class status decided that she was in a passive position in front of the morality, religion and law that served the bourgeoisie. The tragedy of Tess is that a pure and kind woman was destroyed by the decadent ethics, hypocritical religion and unjust legal system of the bourgeoisie. And Tess’s own bourgeois morality and religious morality consciousness also caused her own tragedy to some extent, because she could not get rid of the shackles of those traditional morality to herself, which was the weak side of her character. In addition, the emerging bourgeoisie represented by Alec d’Urberville was the direct cause of Tess’s misfortune, while the traditional ethics represented by Angel was an invisible and more terrible spiritual persecution. The value of this image of Tess is precisely that she dares to challenge the forces that oppress her. However, in the face of powerful social forces, her resistance inevitably brings tragedy. Her tragic fate seems to be a personal one, but in fact she symbolizes the whole fate of the British farmer at the end of the 19th century. Hardy used Tess’s tragic life to forcefully attack the patriarchal society in the Victorian era.

Women living in this patriarchal society are doomed to be oppressed and controlled, unable to escape the tragic fate. In the eyes of the guardians of the mainstream discourse in the patriarchal society, women are always in the position of dependence and subordination. The innocent victim, Tess, is considered to be the opposite of the mainstream ideology, the patriarchal society and a deviant prostitute and demon girl who is not tolerated by the society. To the destruction and oppression of the patriarchal society, although Tess began to fight and even shouted out the essence of the oppression of the patriarchal society on women, she still failed and could not get rid of the powerful and invisible control network of the patriarchal society in the end and went towards destruction. The application of painting art in the environmental description of Tess of the D ‘Urbervilles, especially the application of color and light, has an important influence on the characterization, atmosphere contrast, theme analysis and readers’ psychological reception of this work. It presents the tragedy of love and marriage in the heroine Tess’s short life in a real and appealing way, which makes readers empathize with this tragic struggle of life.

Although the scenery is based on the scenery from nature, the scenery as a landscape actually no longer exists because they have become a background, reflecting and coordinating the feelings and experiences of the characters. Whether it is a grass, a tree, a flower, a cloud or a field, Hardy reproduces it not in the way a photographer does, but in the way he paints. With the help of color, light, line and other means of painting, the writer tries to explore the color relationship between the sky and the ground, during which there is an invisible contrast effect, reflecting his sensitivity to width and strength. Hardy presents the picturesque rural living environment, lifelike characters and wonderful and moving details to the readers, giving them beauty and enjoyment. At the same time, through the pictures of specific life, he spared no effort to depict the complexity of the characters and reveal the moral theme and tragic theme of the work. In the novel, the description of each scene is to reveal a certain course of the law of Tess’s spiritual development, which also echoes Tess’s character and destiny. Before each appearance of Tess, Hardy spent a great deal of time describing the environment there.

The various stages of Tess’s life, such as the quiet valley of Brie and its surrounding mountains, meadows, valleys, and rivers, the beautiful tablecloth, and the desolate and bitter robin, give the reader a general view. The use of painting art makes the text appear in front of the reader like a picture, which is organically integrated with the characters and plots in the novel. Here, art follows nature, and the artist’s hand involuntarily obeys the eye’s sense. By means of artificial or natural symbols it is possible to reawaken in our imagination images similar to the real things. By means of the art of painting, the essence of a particular aspect of external things is captured, and a certain aspect of human mood is associated with it, which, in the form of words, arouses in the mind of the reader the kind of feeling needed. In this way, Hardy skillfully conceived, combined the changes of natural environment with the ups and downs of characters’ fate, and used special environment description to render the relationship between people, between man and nature, and between man and society, which constituted the incomparable peculiar charm of the novel. The emotions of the characters and the changes in the mood and color of the environment constitute an inseparable whole. The environment portends to reflect the character’s fate and emotion, and the character’s emotional fate endows the environment with more spirit and vitality. The emotional appeal of the environment and the soul of the character form a whole, and complement each other.

-Coreen C.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library.

Authors We Love: Edward Morgan Forster

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E.M. Forster | Biography, Books, & Facts | Britannica

Forster’s eyes were sharp when he looked down to diagnose industrial-age Englishmen, and he saw signs of illness, but when he looked up to give directions to his fellow-patients, the prescriptions were never right. The direction he seeks is always out of history and reality, so the mismatch between diagnosis and prescription is inevitable. In fact, the other culture did not allow Forster, who had a dual cultural identity and consciousness, to truly wander between the different cultures and face the panic and emptiness in the heart of the British middle class as a man who lived safely on the edge of cultural transition. He could only view the world from the perspective of bourgeois freedom and humanism. The internal contradiction of cultural identity forced him to violate the logic of life and culture and turned the connection into a diagram of his subjective desire, so the internal rupture of his works was difficult to be dispelled. As the representative of the traveling class, Forster took the British culture as the reference point and starting point, and looked at the countries and people he visited with some kind of overlooking eye. The imprint of British-centralism spreads with the extension of his vision as a British, and also with his anxiety about the future and destiny of the British empire. Forster did not oppose the humanism spirit rooted in the core of European culture for thousands of years since ancient Greece and Rome. From the standpoint of the cultural elite of the middle class, he hoped to transform the cultural tradition and make it elegant and interesting, to express the spiritual needs and tastes of the cultural elite of the middle class and reflect their voices. Forster represented the life of the British middle class in his works of art with great expressiveness and insight.

He was not concerned with countries or politics or economics, but with the friendship between people, the value of people, the perfection of human nature and the communication between different cultures. In other words, he was interested in the relationship between people and the conflict, estrangement, divergence and difference that these relationships reflect. Forster called on people to abandon the blind adherence to British moral concepts and social traditional customs, to eliminate individual, gender, class and race prejudice and estrangement, and to find common ground among human beings. Forster advocates an infinite and inclusive love in a multicultural world, regardless of nationality, religion, class or belief. At the same time that he made the appeal for connection, he was always aware of the difficulty of connection. The awkwardness and failure of the east-west cultural connection in A Passage to India caused Forster to have doubts and confusion about the reality of integration. These doubts and perplexities are also reflected in the creation of novels. For example, the marriage between Margaret and Henry in Howard’s Divorce has no credibility. These doubts and perplexities are also reflected in the creation of novels. For example, the marriage between Margaret and Henry in Howards End has no credibility. Margaret chose Henry as her connection object out of the need of the plot of the novel. The focus of the novel’s narration originally lies in the expression of profound estrangement. Another example is the mental state of the characters under colonial rule in A Passage to India. Aziz’s attitude towards the Indians is mixed with several states of gallantry in humiliation, helplessness in hatred and awakening in anesthesia.

Fielding is the continuation of Forster’s desire to connect, the embodiment of the ideal. Therefore, in the novel texts, readers often feel the contradictions and entanglements between Forster’s idealism complex and his actions of knowing the connection is not feasible. As a famous English critic and theorist, Forster plays an important role in the history of Western literature, which is inevitably influenced by the special social and cultural conditions at that time. Forster’s unique life experience and implicit homosexuality, as well as his deep feelings towards the east-west antagonistic background after his three trips to India, made him construct the utopian dream of connecting different nationalities, countries and classes with the good wishes of the world. Forster’s novels are famous for their complex, obscure and confusing themes. A general survey of Forster’s novels reveals that their themes are not clear and single, and it can even be said that their features are mixed. Therefore, in the process of reading, they can constantly provide readers with the stimulation of new reading horizons, and at the same time bring them more confusion about the content and significance of the works. About Adela’s experience in the cave, the author is no longer omnipotent and omniscient, but just as in the dark as the reader. The mystery of prophecy is not to be solved, but to be marveled at. This narrative method leaves readers a great imagination space, and also effectively reflects the multi-level theme of the work. The theory of intertextuality coincides with his purpose of writing. By exploring the intertextuality in his novels, it opens up a new way for his research.

In this way, a thorough exploration of his novels reveals that the seemingly chaotic theme actually contains the same meaning, that is, the response to the intellectual’s mental dilemma in the Edwardian period of England, trying to find a new standard of ethics and morality and explore the way to the realm of perfection. When Forster was writing novels, he inherited the social moral theme of 19th century realistic writers such as Jane Austen and Dickens. His novels reflect the social reality at that time, with a strong sense of social responsibility. Through A Passage to India, Forster mercilessly exposed the colonial rule of Britain and strongly criticized the racism of white supremacy. In A Room with A View, it criticizes the marriage based on property and praises the love of choosing partners from the angle of humanity and compatibility. In Where Angels Fear to Tread, Forster criticizes the conservative, isolated and selfish British culture and praises the open and enthusiastic Italian culture by comparing the British and Italian cultures. Reading Forster’s novels, we can feel the author’s deep concern for people. An important theme running through all of Forster’s works is to expose the banal and false moral concepts and social norms of the British middle class, and to expose the traditional prejudices that restrict people’s minds and hearts. In Forster’s novels, we can see the contrast technique commonly used in the traditional English creation. Forster is good at expressing his views through the contrast between characters and scenes.

For example, in A Room with A View, Forster cleverly compared Italy and Britain through the arrangement of scenes to show the differences and conflicts between the two cultures. He also made full use of the contrast between George and Cecil to show the conflicts between the two cultures and concepts. Cecil is a person who refuses to admit and tries to hide his natural and sacred feelings. He is immature in his feelings. He is a disparaging character in Forster’s works. In stark contrast to him was the straightforward, bold, passionate George. Like his father, he never hides his opinions and feelings. In his works, Forster used symbolism a great deal, and reached the point of proficiency. Among Forster’s six novels, the titles of four novels have obvious symbolic significance. A Passage to India takes its title from the poem of the same name by Walt Whitman. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1902 greatly shortened the journey time from England to India. The poet praised the progress of human science and technology linking different countries together. Whitman’s poem is full of light romantic, optimistic and positive emotions. But Forster chose A Passage To India as the title of his novel, which has an ironic meaning. Forster borrowed the term “rhythm” from music and successfully applied it to his novels. Forster’s major novels all have different complex rhythms, just as different music has different rhythms. For example, Ansell painted circles within circles and streams in The Longest Journey, the image of water in A Room with A View, the archetype of fire and the image of wasps in A Passage to India. The recurring, repetition and changes of the key words “moon”, “flower”, “mending” and “ghost” in Howards End make the novel coherent, rhythmic and musical. Forster emphasized the relationship between people and the value and integrity of people. Some of his characters, such as Lucy in A Room with a View, the Schlegel sisters in Howards End and Fielding and Adela in A Passage To India, were spokesmen for Forster’s values. In A Room with a View, Lucy abandoned the bargaining chip of property and chose her lover from the emotional perspective of human nature and mutual affection between men and women. Her choice represents a middle-class yearning for freedom. Through these descriptions, Forster’s humanistic thought of eliminating prejudice has fully demonstrated that his novels have complete story plots and rich characters, and a large number of artistic creation techniques such as comparison and satire rooted in the tradition of English literature.

-Coreen C.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

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Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: 9780307386885 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

In Mansfield Park, Jane Austen skillfully combined the Cinderella theme with the fairy tale of the abandoned princess. Cinderella Fanny was brought up by an unworthy father, but without losing her natural goodness and gentleness. Fanny’s good qualities were in stark contrast to her shabby and dirty home in Puss. In Austen’s first several novels, the heroine’s moral standard is always higher than the traditional social concept, so that she can marry a good man. It is a reward for their good qualities, or compensation for their troubles and sufferings, and such heroines themselves are the yardstick of good judgment and good feelings. But Fanny Price, the heroine of Mansfield Park, succumbed to the virtues of those around her, such as Sir Thomas, the only father of Austen’s novels to be praised, and Edmund.

Fanny sought the traditional virtues of good manners and religious feeling, and she became an ardent supporter of the traditional moral standards. The book also catered to the praise of many traditionalist critics at the time. In the novel, Austen used the gentle words and deeds of Fanny to express her moral educator’s idea that moral perfection is difficult to achieve and needs to be achieved at the cost of self-restraint and sacrifice. The female voice is required to be static, so her eyes become the most effective agent. Because in the spiritual life of England in the 19th century, the moral sense was very strong. The church and its moral precepts, which dominated people’s lives, evoked not a desire to save souls but a sense of duty.

Therefore, in Mansfield Park, Austen strictly rejected the vigorous spirit of the immoral Mary Crawford, and blindly affirmed the weakness of the holy Fanny who believed in Christianity. This strange and abnormal likes and dislikes are the core of the intention of this novel. Austen made this frightened little daughter from a poor family conquer all people with virtue and finally became the mistress of Mansfield Manor. It shows holiness and greatness, emphasizes the close connection between happiness and virtue, and firmly believes that a good person has the right to develop and fulfill herself according to her own nature and good deeds.

Book Review: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

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Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: 9780307386878 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

Austen made a highly realistic discussion of women’s issues at that time. She examines the heroines in the patriarchal society at that time. In that society, the value of a person is based on the ownership of property. Since generations of property went to male heirs, they were at a disadvantage from the start and could only be subordinated to men. As a result, these types of characters appear again and again in Austen’s writings: the assertive father; a mother who is obsessed with her social status and does everything possible to marry off her daughter, well-equipped young men, whose cynicism reflects their superior social position, and marriageable daughters, from the elegant headless girl to the sensible or emotional young woman.

How can a heroine achieve personal happiness through marriage in such a stern, demanding and often hostile world? Austen’s admonition was to use reason to control emotion She argues that emotions are often a dangerous guide to female behaviour. If a man of superior condition, but not of unrequited affections, is to be wooed, the consequences are often disastrous. Either because of his personal preference or because of parental disapproval, the man chooses a better match. These views of Austen are most evident in this first novel. The whole beginning of Sense and Sensibility revolved around the question of fortune in Dashwood’s will, and the want of avarice of Mrs. John Dashwood, who had an annual income of ten thousand pounds.

In the process of dividing up the estate, Austen makes no bones about the opposite characteristics of the two Dashwood sisters. Elinor was a very sensible, calm woman who, though only nineteen, was a good mother’s adviser. She was wonderfully kind and affectionate, but she knew how to hold back her feelings. It was a subject which her mother had yet to learn, and which one of her sisters had stubbornly refused to learn. Her sister Marianne’s talent was in many respects equal to her sister’s. She was inordinate in sorrow or joy. All is well but no discretion. That is to say, Marianne allowed her feelings to dominate her actions, while Elinor would not be swayed by such impulses.

Austen’s intention is very clear. She simply changed the original title of Elinor and Marianne to Sense and Sensibility to emphasize her theme. In this book, Austen shows the contrast between the characters of the two sisters. She narrates most of the stories from the perspective of Elinor’s outlook on life, ethics and social society, thus shaping a reasonable mortal. This is her ideal woman. When they learned that Willoughby had made full use of his superior social position, played with Marianne’s earnest love, abandoned the poor girl Eliza, and finally married the rich Miss Gray, Marianne was fully convinced of her folly, and her mother admitted that her admiration of Willoughby had been imprudent. Reason thus prevailed in both sisters. Austen arranged a happy ending for them. The book begins with comedy, and there is a disturbance in the middle. Marian almost becomes a tragedy, which ends in comedy.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

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Great Expectations (Dover Thrift Editions): Charles Dickens: 9780486415864: Amazon.com: Books

With sympathetic and nuanced prose, the book portrays Joe, Pip and Biddy as unpretentious little men of kindness. Pip lives in his sister’s family, living a hard life, his dream is to be a blacksmith like his brother-in-law; he did not want to be a gentleman. Then he wanted to be a gentleman because of a change in circumstances. The theme of love runs through the story of Great Expectations. Pip’s unwavering love for Estella, Pip’s brotherly love for Herbert, Magwitch’s misshapen but deeply hidden love for Pip are all described in detail. But what moves us most is Jonah’s unselfish, unsentimental love, and Dickens’s most intimate description of the relationship between Pip and Joe. Then, when Pip’s hopes of inheritance were so completely dashed, and he fell seriously ill, it was Joe again, who not only gave him great moral support, but quietly helped him to pay off his debts. This kind of love leads Pip to return to conscience gradually in the constant inner struggle between right and wrong. In Great Expectations, the happy life of Joe and his wife Biddy contrasts sharply with Pip’s pursuit of a gentlemanly life. In them, we can see the writer’s praise for the valuable quality and sincere feelings of the ordinary people at the bottom of the society. Dickens’s characterization of people is not just a description of their appearance, but a detailed analysis of people through his unique humor and exaggerated language. He not only depicts the characters from the external environment, but also depicts the characters with the help of the detailed description of the characters’ movements, behaviors, gestures, expressions and so on. In the novel Great Expectations, the author Dickens portrays Pip as the first person perspective in the form of autobiographical in order to be able to express Pip’s psychological activities and action language in detail in the work.

Hard Times by Charles Dickens

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Hard Times - Kindle edition by Dickens, Charles . Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

Hard Times is a novel by Charles Dickens, published in 1854. It describes life in an industrial town. Dickens was now 42 years old. The setting for this book is a time of intense industrial tensions in British society. Josiah Bounderby, a banker and textile mill owner, was friends with Thomas Gradgrind, a retired hardware wholesaler, Congressman and educator. Together they controlled the town’s economic system and educational institutions. They are materialistic and unsentimental, pretentious, and live by the principle of utilitarianism. Bounderby was attended by the widow Mrs. Sparsit. He taught his children to be practical and down-to-earth. When they learned to walk, they were put into classrooms and spent their days dealing with numbers. They were not allowed to read poetry or stories. Gradgrind marries his young daughter Louisa to the much older Bounderby, and the widow Mrs. Sparsit, jealous of her, inflicts pain on her, leading to the breakup of her marriage. At Gradgrind’s own educational initiative, his son Tom was forced to help Bounderby with his work. He led a dissolute life and was heavily in debt. He stole money from The Bounderby Bank and ran away, hiding in the circus and playing the role of a clown. After a series of painful lessons and the influence of Sissy Jupe, a circus girl, he gradually changed his attitude towards life and was sent to America by his father. Bounderby liked to boast of his self-made wealth, and to accuse workers of being dissatisfied with their delusions of luxury. Five years later Bounderby died of a stroke on the streets of Cookstown, and Louisa remarried.

Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens

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Dombey and Son (Cronos Classics) eBook by Charles Dickens - 9782378073671 | Rakuten Kobo Greece

In this work the author presents his views on the relationship between money and human nature. Dombey was haughty, imperious, and cruel when he had a great deal of money. After he went bankrupt, he confessed to his daughter and became both weak and kind. Florence and Gay took him in, and old Dombey, loving his grandson, lived a quiet and happy old age. Dombey and Son also truly reflects the development of industrial capitalism in Britain in the 1830s and 1840s, especially the development of the railway industry occupies an obvious place in the novel.

The work describes the vanity and hypocrisy of small citizens and the evil of the marriage system in Victorian England. The author tries to show the great corrosive and destructive effect of money on family relations (mainly father-son relations and husband-wife relations), which reflects the social reality that family relations have been reduced to the naked money relations in capitalist society. Paul’s premature death and Florence’s failure to seek her father’s love powerfully reveal the dominance of money and the fact that money is doomed to failure when it competes with emotion.

However, while criticizing the money relationship, the author tries to counter the money relationship with emotional education and moral influence. In fact, the root cause of Dombey’s transformation was his subsequent change in rank, and not the result of his daughter’s warmth. It must also be pointed out that it is obviously one-sided and inadequate for the author to attribute the monetization of family relations only to the conflict between money and emotion, which reflects the limitations of the author’s world view. Dombey and Son is a tightly structured novel created by Dickens, which is quite different from the loose structure in his earlier works.

The appearance of all the characters, and the development of the story, is arranged around the development of Mr. Dombey’s destiny, and the events are organically bound together, and the story is very lively and interesting. The artistic techniques Dickens used in his novels are varied. There are biting sarcasm, humor with a smile, objective descriptions, deliberate exaggerations, direct and simple statements, and also witty metaphors. Dickens’s characters are all alive. They have their own unique character, but also their own unique language. Even a dog, a parrot, a pair of tongs, and a curtain sometimes give vivid expression to their thoughts and feelings.

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

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NICHOLAS NICKLEBY (complete, unabridged and with all the original illustrations from first publication) - Kindle edition by DICKENS, CHARLES. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

Nicholas Nickleby is a boarding school teacher, an ambitious young man who is left penniless by the death of his father. His usury uncle not only refused to extend his hand to help, but uses his sister’s beauty for his own profit. He was upright and kind, and fled back to London to help abused schoolchildren. After many trials and tribulations, he fought with bad guys and exposed his uncle’s plot. Finally, he succeeded and married the girl he loved. Through his experience, the author reveals that at that time, the so-called poor run schools were actually profit-making places, the students suffered from hunger all day long, and whipping became the most important means of education.

Like most of Dickens’ works, Nicholas Nickleby is set in a contemporary setting. Most of the action takes place in London, with some episodes in Portsmouth and some in Yorkshire and Devon. This work satirizes social injustice in the form of irony. In the subject matter of this book, the main one is the education at that time. Dickens strongly criticized the education system at that time. He believes it is a serious crime that the British education system allows poorly functioning boarding schools to abuse children. Kindness and compassion are the main themes of this book. Noggs also plays the role of guardian angel because he is kind and upright. The friendship between Smike and Nicklyby further shows Dickens’ pity for some unfortunate people.

Greed is also an important theme of the novel. All characters make others suffer for their own financial gain. Most of their mistakes are caused by the love of money. Just as the Bible says: Money is the root of all evil. The book also deals with sexism and the passage of teenagers into adulthood. The book tells the story in the third person. Sometimes, the feelings of the characters are directly written out, and sometimes the feelings or thoughts of the characters are indirectly expressed through some small actions or facial expressions. When Dickens describes the abused children in chapter 8, he employs different rhetorical devices such as exaggeration, metaphor, alliteration and personification to leave readers with images of those children.

Agnes Gray by Anne Brontë

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Agnes Grey, by Anne Bronte. I had rather low expectations for this lesser-known Bronte novel, but it definitely exceed… | Agnes grey, Anne bronte, Old movie posters

Agnes met the honorable curate Weston. Although both of them are equally poor, they have the good feelings of the world, and enjoy the beautiful things of nature together in helping each other. She and Weston lived an unflashy, truth-seeking life. In the face of ignorant and cruel students, selfish and hypocritical employers, Agnes showed integrity and patience. She never gave up her efforts and pursuit. She sympathizes with the weak and often visits and helps the poor. In this, Weston has done even better. In them, goodness is reflected. Compared with Agnes Gray and Weston, the ignorance, coldness, selfishness, and hypocrisy of the young ladies and gentlemen of the bourgeoisie are obvious. Standing on the progressive standpoint of that era, the author reveals the social inequality and unreasonableness.

Agnes Gray not only reflects the personal experience of a governess in the first half of the 19th century, but also highlights the characteristics of ignorance, callousness, selfishness and hypocrisy of the aristocracy and bourgeoisie in the rising stage of the British society at that time. Although they have accumulated a lot of material wealth and gained a high social status and power, readers can feel the dark side hidden behind all these grand appearances from the perspective of the author’s narration. These lords and ladies seemed to have fine manners and fine conversation, but their spiritual and material lives were far from balanced. If we cast aside that superficial appearance and go deep into their hearts, the reader will find that they are very poor in spirit.

Mr. Murray does nothing but drink and abuse, Uncle Robson is devious and takes pleasure in killing animals and insulting people, and Lord Ashby eats and drinks excessively. Even the Reverend Hatfield, the spiritual guide of these upper men, was no gentleman. From the pulpit he was eloquent, discerning and guiding, and presenting himself as the spokesman of the savior of mankind. As soon as he stepped off the pulpit, he showed his true colors. He tends to the ladies of the rich family. He is witty and talkative on the surface, but in reality he is a buffoon and a smooth talker. When he failed to court Miss Murray, he went out of his way to threaten her, and all the dignity and grace of the preacher was gone. In contrast to them were Agnes Gray, the governess, and the curate, Weston.

They all looked ordinary and came from poor families. They are indeed poor in material things, but they do not feel inferior to take the breath of the rich. They live a very full life within themselves, live by their own rules faithfully, and believe in the greatness of human love. They are striving for a balanced life, and if they have no ambition to make the world a better place, at least they want to perfect themselves. While seeking respect and love, they never forget to respect and love others. They live a life free from vanity and in pursuit of truth, which is not only their honesty to others and to themselves, but also their attitude towards life as a whole. They love knowledge and true friendship, as well as the plants and trees of nature.

They are intellectually, morally, and mentally superb to their employers or superiors. Because of their spiritual superiority, they face difficulties, grievances and injustices without deceiving themselves or feeling uneasy, and always accept the gifts of life with open arms. In this respect, the author seems to be saying that Agnes Gray and Weston’s acceptance of life is deeper and broader than that of property owners. It should be noted that in Agnes Gray and Weston, there is indeed a certain religious feeling. It is easy for the reader to relate much of the work, especially the personalities and experiences of the two men, to this background. It is true that the author measures a man’s character by the piety of his religious feelings.

The author distinguishes Agnes Gray from her employer by her faith in God and her love for humanity. But what is presented directly to the reader is Gray’s endurance, her efforts, and her pursuits in concrete life. So in this sense, religious background is only a superficial means to distinguish between the two, not the essence.

Howards End by E. M. Forster

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Howards End - (Illustrated) - Kindle edition by Forster, E. M.. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

Howards End is a humanist work with female protagonists to explore the themes of connection and freedom. It explores the political, economic, class, gender and cultural issues of British society in the early 20th century. It has its specific character depiction, besides paying attention to the emotions of the Schlegel sisters, it pays more attention to the family and the view of money and interests, revealing the huge social inequality caused by the widening gap between the rich and the poor. This novel describes the relationships and entanglements between three families from different social levels, showing the status of class struggle in Britain at that time.

The Schlegel sisters, who represent the spirit and culture of the upper middle class in Britain, and the Wilcox family, who represent the same class in their practical, imaginative and arrogant ways, as well as the complex relationship between the upper middle class and the lower middle class in Britain. No matter the main characters’ detailed psychological narration or the few words of minor characters, Forster vividly depicts the mentality of all kinds of characters under the social conditions at that time. The Wilkes family from the upper classes was cold and hypocritical; the Bast family from the lower classes struggled to make ends meet and could not pursue their own ideals.

The middle class Schlegel sisters were privileged, but were deeply influenced by the democratic and liberal ideas of the time. Among them, the elder Margaret hoped that understanding and tolerance would bring people from all walks of life together. Her sister Helen, on the other hand, was full of sympathy for the lower classes and made no secret of her disdain for the upper classes. Howards End is the country home of Henry Wilcox, the hero of the novel. Henry’s ex-wife, Ruth, often talks about the home she loves to Margaret Schlegel, their accidental friend.

She even wrote a note to give it to Margaret before she died, and the Henry family, surprised and hurt by this, tore it up. Margaret then missed out on Howards End several times. Helen had an affair with Leonard Bast, and the children of a man and woman from different classes, equally despised by the upper classes, inherited Howards End and represented a new force in England. In Howards End, the protagonist Margaret reflects the social ideal of the author Forster. By means of symbolism, the author proposes that spiritual and material things should be connected.

Only by joining together, the symbol of The United Kingdom, “Howards End” can be saved. Howards End is a symbol of family, and Margaret’s visit to Howards end is also a cultural journey to find her roots. Howards End presents all kinds of social contradictions faced by the British society under the impact of industrialization and mechanical civilization in the early 20th century. The novel revolves around the complex relationship between the Howard manor and three characters of different classes, realizing the unity of material ecology and spiritual ecology.

In his novels, Forster praised nature, reflected on the relationship between man and nature, and expressed the survival thoughts of integrating into nature and returning to nature. This reflects the author’s creative and forward-looking green thinking, humanistic spirit and modernist spirit, and has some enlightening significance to the goal of building a harmonious society. The narrative modes and techniques used in the novel also influenced the modernist novels and inspired the writers of modernist novels to continue their pursuit and exploration of artistic truth. Through Howards End, Forster arouses the British people’s thinking about modern civilization and traditional culture, and urges them to re-examine the conflict and integration of different cultural identities and different classes.