This blog post examines how Howards End visually reconstructs the ‘Only connect’ ethic of the original novel through mise-en-scène and character placement.
About the Author ― Progressive Liberal Writer E. M. Forster
E. M. Forster was born in London and participated in liberal groups at Cambridge University during his studies. Rebelling against Victorian morality and values, he became deeply captivated by ancient Greek civilization. This gathering of like-minded individuals later evolved into the ‘Bloomsbury Group,’ becoming the most influential cultural salon and intellectual hub in British society at the time.
After graduating, Forster traveled to Italy to continue his creative work, publishing ‘Where Angels Fear to Tread’ (1905), ‘The Longest Journey’ (1907), and ‘A Room with a View’ (1908) during this period. In 1910, she wrote ‘Howards End’, considered the pinnacle of her literary maturity. Her 1924 masterpiece ‘A Passage to India’ symbolically depicted the clash of Eastern and Western civilizations and the fundamental limits of human understanding.
Beyond these, she left behind numerous critiques and works, including short story collections marked by fantastical hues, travelogues, biographies, essays, and ‘Aspects of the Novel’ (1927), regarded as an original treatise on fiction. As an author who consistently explored human relationships, ethics, and liberal humanism, Forster occupies a firm position as one of the defining writers of 20th-century British literature.
‘Howards End’: Conflict and Harmony ― A Novel Analysis
Forms of Conflict in ‘Howards End’
‘Howards End’ features complexly intertwined elements of conflict. Particularly prominent contrasts in the work include the Country versus the City, inner life versus outer life, and the conflict between material and spiritual values.
The Country vs. the City
The core spatial axis of ‘Howards End’ is the opposition between the country and the city. Howards End, the Wilcox family’s country house, is introduced at the beginning of the work through Helen’s letter as “old and little, and altogether delightful—red brick.” Howards End is presented not merely as a dwelling space, but as a place symbolizing human order and enduring values. In other words, Howards End functions as both an emblem of the ideal state to be attained and a spiritual goal permeating the entire work. For this reason, the central theme of the novel also converges on the question: “Who will inherit Howards End?”
The symbolic figure most closely linked to Howards End is Mrs. Wilcox. As an entity intimately connected to nature, she symbolically embodies the peasant sensibility that internalizes the joy of labor and the rhythm of life. Mrs. Wilcox is less a character with realistic individuality and more a pure symbol; she is portrayed as inseparable from Howards End within the work.
“She seemed to belong not to the young people and their motor, but to the house, and to the tree that overshadowed it. One knows that she worshipped the past and that the instinctive wisdom the past can alone bestow descended upon her—that wisdom to which we give the clumsy name of aristocracy.”
The space contrasting with Howards End is London and its suburbs. This represents the space of urbanization and industrialization that constantly threatens and encroaches upon the countryside and rural life. Within the work, London is depicted as a place where people, having lost their organic relationships with one another, merely repeat the competition for survival, portrayed as an image akin to a giant monster.
While the Wilcox family exemplify the archetype of London life, Leonard Bast and the Schlegel sisters are also, to some extent, steeped in urban existence. The Wilcox family’s constant association with automobiles and Leonard’s sudden obsession with acquiring refinement symbolically reveal these urban characteristics.
“Certainly London fascinates. One visualizes it as a tract of quivering gray, intelligent without purpose, and excitable without love; as a spirit that has altered before it can be chronicled; as a heart that certainly beats, but no pulsation of humanity.”
Inner Life and Outer Life
In the work, the Schlegel family, representing inner life, consists of the children of Ernst Schlegel, who left his homeland Germany in disgust at vulgar materialism. They inherited an idealistic and spiritual legacy from their father. Among the three Schlegel siblings, sisters Margaret and Helen share common traits: heightened sensitivity and a belief in the value of art, imagination, human relationships, and inner life. As educated women of their time, they are idealists who “hope that the finest things in inner life will be reflected in public life.”
The following quote, Mrs. Moon’s reaction upon receiving a letter informing her that Helen had fallen in love with Paul, the youngest son of the Wilcox family, perfectly illustrates the Schlegel family’s inward-looking attitude.
“Are they our sort? … Do they care about Literature and Art? That is most important when we come to think of it.”
In contrast, the Wilcox family is portrayed as capitalists and imperialists who accumulated wealth through commerce and colonial ventures, the very architects of the British Empire. Henry is so fixated on purely practical and material values that he regards the very notion of “interesting” as a waste of energy or a sign of mental unhealthiness. His eldest son, Charles, is likewise a thoroughgoing materialist who cannot comprehend the motives behind human actions beyond practical gain. Thus, the Wilcox family becomes a target of criticism for their inability to understand inner life and their fixation solely on the external.
“One solid businessman is more useful to the world than ten socialists.”
Where, then, do the Bast couple stand, who form another axis of the work alongside these two families? If the Schleegels and Wilcoxes represent the class enjoying stability and affluence within the capitalist system, the Basts belong to the subjugated class, living on the edge of poverty while merely wearing the veneer of the middle class.
Attempts at Harmony
The poster does not merely present these diverse opposing elements; it constantly seeks harmony between them. The expansion of cities, centered on London, is depicted as a threat to the countryside. This can be read as a critique of the contemporary reality that emerged as a result of the destruction of the values symbolized by Howards End. Through the contrast between the countryside and the city, the author seeks to find the image of an ideal society in the rural community, bound together by affection for others in harmony with nature.
Furthermore, Forster places significant emphasis on the harmony between inner and outer life. The core issue is “who, and how, can reflect the noble aspects of inner life into public life.” In other words, it is the question of which character can harmonize the spiritual and material worlds to reach Howards End, a space of rational order. Within the work, the character fulfilling this mediating role is the Schlegel sisters, particularly Margaret.
The Schlegel sisters’ inner life and contact with the external world can be examined in three stages. The first stage involves Margaret and Mrs. Wilcox forming a friendship, triggered by Helen and Paul’s love affair. Through Mrs. Wilcox, Margaret comes to understand the essence of life and recognizes the necessity of uniting with the Wilcox family.
The second stage is Margaret’s marriage to Henry Wilcox, formally uniting the two families. However, this does not lead to true harmony. In the third stage, Charles is imprisoned for the alleged murder of Leonard Bast, causing the Wilcox family’s solid fortress to crumble. During this process, Margaret embraces the broken Henry and inherits Howards End. By bequeathing the house to the illegitimate child born to Helen and Leonard Bast, she completes the connection between inner and outer life.
The Meaning of Connection
At the work’s conclusion, the Schlegel sisters settle at Howards End, and Helen declares she has come to like Henry. Margaret becomes the rightful Mrs. Wilcox, and Howards End passes from Ruth Wilcox to Henry and Margaret, then to the child of Helen and Leonard Bast. This is the moment when all the forces appearing in the work are integrated within a single symbolic space.
Through this, British values are preserved, and the Schlegel family’s liberalism finally succeeds in finding a ‘home’ to settle into. In ‘Howards End’, Forster sought to achieve the harmonious world he envisioned by “connecting” different ways of life and opposing elements.
CHARACTERS Analysis
Analysis of the Main Characteristics of the Characters
The Schlegel Family
The Schlegel family, originally from Germany, is deeply interested in art, literature, culture, and social welfare. Father Ernst Schlegel, repelled by Germany’s vulgar materialism and imperialism, naturalizes as a British citizen (p.30). This family represents a typical middle-class household; while not wealthy, they enjoy a degree of economic comfort through inheritance, embodying the middle tier of the middle class. The two sisters, Margaret and Helen, inherited an ideal spiritual legacy from their father. Their father is also described as a figure with feminine traits, symbolically representing the situation of liberal intellectuals. He understood the economic foundations of culture and worried about the contradictions between the poor and capitalism, but ultimately remained stuck in armchair debates.
Margaret Schlegel
－Helen and Tibby Schlegel’s older sister
－Identified by Ruth Wilcox as the spiritual heir to Howards End, she later marries Henry Wilcox, becoming Mrs. Wilcox and simultaneously the mistress of Howards End.
－She is known as the character who most strongly reflects Foster’s own ideas and identity.
Margaret is portrayed as a character who practices the epigram “Only connect.” Her constant attempts at reconciliation can be seen as symbolizing Foster’s liberal humanist belief in reestablishing middle-class morality. Unlike Henry or Helen, she is extremely cautious and understanding, while simultaneously revealing a strong sense of self as a feminist. If Helen is an excessive idealist, Margaret shares the same idealism but displays a more mature and realistic attitude, clearly recognizing the stability provided by economic foundation. This aspect is well illustrated in the concert scene where she mentions the umbrella.
“And all our thoughts are the thoughts of six hundred pounders, and all our speeches; and because we don’t want to steal umbrellas ourselves we forget that below the sea people do want to steal them sometimes, and that what’s a joke up here is down there reality.”
Helen Schlegel
Helen is an excessive idealist and absolutist, a deeply passionate and romantic character. She thinks narrowly from her own perspective without deep understanding, and her tendency to repeat flawed behaviors well reflects the limitations of the liberals of her time.
Tibby Schlegel
Tibby is extremely indifferent to others and his surroundings, preoccupied solely with knowledge and culture detached from reality. He possesses escapist and weak tendencies, failing to give even his family sufficient affection. His pursuit of knowledge is clearly evident even when appreciating music, as he becomes absorbed solely in the music itself.
The Wilcox Family
The Wilcox family represents the growing Britain of their era as warriors of industrial society and imperialism. Belonging to the wealthy middle class, they accumulate wealth through colonial ventures in places like the African continent and operate imperial companies. Their lifestyle, including a preference for automobiles—a product of industrial society—shows they lead the tide of industrialization and seek to ride its wave faster than anyone. As pillars of the conservative middle class in the Edwardian era, they valued only external gains. Henry’s dismissive attitude toward women’s equality clearly reveals their lack of inner values.
While Foster criticizes this family’s materialism, he also shows a dualistic attitude, acknowledging to some extent their efficiency and masculine drive. Helen expresses her feelings of ‘panic and emptiness’ towards the Wilcox family through Paul, showing her contempt for them. Yet, by highlighting their strengths—resolve, obedience, and drive—she simultaneously defends the heroic aspects that built imperialism while criticizing it.
Henry Wilcox
－the patriarch of the Wilcox family and British businessman
Henry is the head of the Wilcox family and the figure who most clearly embodies the family’s characteristics. As seen in his experience expanding business in Cyprus during his youth, he is a man who contributed significantly to placing contemporary Britain on a solid foundation. Outwardly, he appears a generous and perceptive gentleman, but in reality, he is cold and calculating. As revealed in his relationship with Jacky, he is a hypocritical figure who hides his dishonest acts. He lacks understanding of the spiritual world, that is, inner life, and regards all actions belonging to that realm as wasteful. He is conservative regarding women, treats subordinates with contempt, and is utterly unwilling to relinquish his privileged position. His attitude toward Bast starkly reveals this arrogance of privilege.
Charles Wilcox
Charles is Henry’s eldest son. While lacking his father’s business acumen, his obsession with money is even stronger. He is a materialist, calculating and fixated on tangible gains. He fears Henry might not bequeath him a proper inheritance and views Margaret with suspicion. He perceives Howards End merely as property, obsessed solely with its economic value. His fixation on automobiles symbolizes the contemporary human tendency to uncritically worship and consume the products of industrial society.
Ruth Wilcox (Mrs. Wilcox)
－Henry’s first wife and owner of Howards End
Ruth Wilcox is a character with a talent for harmony, intuitively understanding Paul and Helen’s affair and quietly resolving it. Her image of walking through the garden holding a bundle of hay suggests a communion with nature; she is portrayed as the guardian spirit of Howards End and an embodiment symbolizing stability.
She designates Margaret as her spiritual heir and immediately empathizes with the Schlegel family’s crisis when their house faces demolition, demonstrating a spiritual maturity distinctly different from the Wilcox men.
The Bast Couple
The Bast couple represent the unfortunate class sacrificed by socio-economic forces beyond their comprehension, plunged into extreme poverty. As rural-born urban laborers aspiring to middle-class cultural life, they ultimately experience only frustration.
Leonard Bast
－poor young clerk
Leonard is a character with an intense desire to acquire education. He carves out time from work to read and scrimps on food and transportation costs to attend concerts. He yearns desperately for the cultural life of the middle class, yet he has lost his physical life and ultimately fails to attain his spiritual life. As part of the class displaced from the impoverished countryside to the city, he appears to have lost his connection to nature and the vitality of life within the machine civilization. Unlike Henry, he does not shirk responsibility toward Jackie, even showing signs of greater inner maturity than the Wilcox family men. However, the scene where he dies of a heart attack, crushed by a collapsed bookcase during Charles’s furious attack, starkly reveals the metaphorical irony: the very spiritual civilization he pursued ultimately brought about his ruin.
Jacky
－Leonard’s wife
Jacky is portrayed as an ignorant and frivolous woman who constantly demands marriage from Leonard or tries to confirm his love. She is described as having “white, gleaming teeth,” an image evoking a carnivorous animal. Her gluttonous eating at the wedding reception and her drunken state further emphasize this character. Though she is also a clear victim of the male-dominated capitalist society, Forster portrays her harshly, revealing his disgust for the existence she symbolizes.
Relationships Between Characters
Margaret and Ruth (Mrs. Wilcox)
Through a spiritual communion, Ruth passes on Howards End to Margaret. Margaret inherits the values embodied by the rural, Elizabethan-style Howards End, which forms the bedrock of British society, and the spirit of harmony that space symbolizes.
Margaret and Helen
Though the two share many common ideals and beliefs, their innate differences in temperament lead them to adopt distinct behavioral patterns. Helen’s fiery temperament pushes her idealism to extremes, driving events to rapid escalation through impulsive actions. In contrast, Margaret seeks to resolve problems and foster harmony with a calm, pragmatic approach. Particularly during the process of easing the conflict between Helen and Henry, Helen herself comes to highly value Margaret’s approach.
Helen smiled. “Oh, Meg, you are a person,” she said. “Think of the racket and torture this time last year. But now I couldn’t stop unhappy if I tried. What a change — and all through you!”
“Oh, we merely settled down. You and Henry learnt to understand one another and to forgive, all through the autumn and the winter.”
“Yes, but who settled us down?”
Margaret did not reply. The scything had begun, and she took off her pince-nez to watch it.
“You!” cried Helen. “You did it all, sweetest, though you’re too stupid to see.
Living here was your plan — I wanted you; he wanted you; and everyone said it was impossible, but you knew. Just think of our lives without you, Meg — I and baby with Monica, revolting by theory, he handed about from Dolly to Evie. But you picked up the pieces, and made us a home. Can’t it strike you — even for a moment — that your life has been heroic? Can’t you remember the two months after Charles’s arrest, when you began to act, and did everything?”
Henry and Helen
Their conflict is partially resolved through Margaret’s mediation, but it persists long-term following the Bast incident. Henry’s materialism and Helen’s idealism stem from fundamentally different ideological roots, and their differing attitudes toward the poor make the inevitability of their conflict even clearer. Yet, the possibility of a union between the two families was already hinted at in Helen’s initial admiration and love for the Wilcox family. Their confrontation represents a direct clash of the values held by the two families, and the reconciliation presented at the end remains incomplete. This serves as a clue suggesting that the ‘harmony’ presented by the work is also far from flawless.
Helen and Leonard
Helen, failing to fully grasp the reality of Leonard Bast, who represents the poor, offers help based solely on her own passion and judgment. Her actions, begun with good intentions, lead to the provision of incorrect information and ultimately result in Leonard’s ruin. This fictional perception of Helen and the true nature of her charity are clearly revealed through Leonard’s words.
“I shall never get work now. If rich people fail at one profession, they can try another. Not I. I had my groove, and I’ve got out of it. I could do one particular branch of insurance in one particular office well enough to command a salary, but that’s all. Poetry’s nothing…. Your money, too, is nothing, if you’ll understand me. I mean if a man over twenty once loses his own particular job, it’s all over with him. I have seen it happen to others. Their friends gave them money for a little, but in the end they fall over the edge. It’s no good. It’s the whole world pulling. There always will be rich and poor.”
In the novel, relationships symbolizing Helen’s contradictory behavior are central, but the film emphasizes the romance between the two characters. The film seeks to present another form of harmony through their relationship, and the boat scene—which doesn’t exist in the novel—represents the climax of that romance.
This essay sought to analyze, on multiple levels, how E. M. Forster’s themes of conflict and harmony, and the ethics of “connection,” are realized through narrative, characters, space, and symbolism in ‘Howards End’. The dichotomous oppositions—countryside and city, inner and outer, spirit and matter—are ultimately not driven to catastrophe within the work, but rather, imperfectly, are adjusted and reconfigured through connection. This narrative choice can be seen as the literary embodiment of the liberal humanist worldview Foster envisioned. ‘Howards End’ remains a classic that poses questions still relevant today, prompting reflection on the relationships between humans and society, values and life.
James Ivory, director of the film ‘Howards End’
Born in Berkeley, California, USA in 1928, James Ivory graduated from USC (University of Southern California) and spent several years directing documentary films in Venice, New York, and India. He co-founded ‘Merchant Ivory Productions’ with Indian producer Ismael Merchant.
He is a director who made his name primarily by producing mid-budget, elegant period dramas costing under $3 million. His adaptations of novels by Henry James and E. M. Forster, such as “The Europeans” (1979), “A Room with a View” (1986), ‘Maurice’ (1987), “Howards End” (1992), and “The Remains of the Day” (1993). These works were particularly highly regarded for their formal beauty, which encapsulated an entire generation with an elegant style while faithfully preserving the literary spirit.
James Ivory elevated the literary significance of these works by adapting the original literary texts, which captured a cool-headed zeitgeist, high-quality satire, and the subtle shifts in human psychology, into visual form. Notable examples include E. M. Forster, a leading novelist who captivated late 19th and early 20th century Britain; Ruskin Prawal Javala, known as India’s ‘Charles Dickens’; and Kazuo Ishiguro, a Japanese-British author acclaimed for his insightful compositional beauty. To the so-called ‘Matrix generation,’ James Ivory’s films might evoke little more than the appreciation of a well-painted watercolor. Yet, approaching his work more closely reveals a world of intense intellectual turmoil existing beyond superficial beauty.
The Film ‘Howards End’ and Mise en Scene
The Novel ‘Howards End’ and the Film ‘Howards End’
When asked why he loved E. M. Forster’s work so much, James Ivory, director of the film ‘Howards End’, reportedly answered, “Because it allowed me to recreate the clash between conservatism and progressivism I love, set against the backdrop of nature’s beauty.” His high regard for Forster’s literary value is evident in his efforts to produce the film ‘Howards End’ without compromising its original essence. In other words, the film ‘Howards End’ was a relatively faithful adaptation of E. M. Forster’s original work. However, we were able to identify some differences, though not numerous, between the novel ‘Howards End’ and the film ‘Howards End’.
One difference between the novel ‘Howards End’ and the film ‘Howards End’ is the shift in perspective. In the novel ‘Howards End’, the thoughts of nearly all characters are directly revealed. Furthermore, Forster not only conveys his own thoughts through the character Margaret, but also sometimes appears as “I”, revealing the author’s own voice. However, the film lacks narration, showing things indirectly through the characters’ words and actions. This often makes it difficult to understand the connections between events, frequently giving the impression that events occur suddenly. Examples include Margaret’s sudden visit to Mrs. Wilcox and Henry Wilcox’s proposal to Margaret.
The following is a part where the novel’s meaning was diminished in the film adaptation. Upon hearing that Helen has fallen in love with Paul, the second son of the Wilcox family, Mrs. Munt travels to Howards End to meet Helen. However, the film omits the scene of Mrs. Moon visiting Howards End.
In the scene of the music lecture, the novel features the Schlegel sisters, Tivy, Mrs. Moon, the sisters’ cousin Frieda and her fiancé, and Leonard all attending. The film, however, shows only Helen and Leonard attending the concert. Frida appears frequently in the novel, but in the film, she is only mentioned in the sisters’ conversations and never appears directly. Here, the novel particularly emphasizes the inner lives of the Schlegel family by detailing their experience of the music and their thoughts. The film, however, reduces the prominence of the other characters and focuses solely on Helen’s impulsive nature.
The film also barely touches upon the Schlegel sisters’ father, Ernst Schlegel. This diminishes the significance of the fact that the Schlegel family originated from a German household and moved to England in opposition to German materialism. Consequently, the novel’s frequent depictions of Anglo-German tensions and Margaret’s perspective on them are largely absent from the film. The Schlegel sisters’ views on women’s suffrage and imperialism, detailed in the novel, are scarcely mentioned in the film.
Conversely, several scenes added to the film that are not in the novel are highlighted, such as the following examples. The scene where Leonard, who left Popirian and was laid off from his new job, comes looking for work and coincidentally finds himself alone with Helen is an addition not found in the novel. Similarly, the scene late in the film where Helen and Leonard take a boat ride on the lake and confirm their love for each other is also absent from the novel. By repeatedly creating and showing these private moments between Helen and Leonard, the film seeks to imply and emphasize their romance earlier than the novel does.
The scene where Leonard dreams about the day he went to the concert is not in the novel. The meaning of this dream could imply their impossible romance, or it could foreshadow Leonard’s death. Furthermore, Leonard’s failure to grasp Helen’s hand—representing the spiritual level and ideal world he yearned to reach—may signify his ultimate failure to attain the world he craved. It is deeply ironic that Leonard, who pursued cultural capital, later dies crushed beneath books and bookshelves.
Mise-en-scène Analysis
1. The film opens with Mrs. Wilcox walking down a flower-filled path. The flowers, along with Mrs. Wilcox, symbolize Britain’s past rural-centered, nature-friendly way of life. To emphasize the alignment between the symbolism of Howards End and the spiritual world Mrs. Wilcox represents, the color of the house’s exterior walls is presented similarly to the color of Mrs. Wilcox’s dress. Mrs. Wilcox stands out starkly against London’s drab backdrop and the sea of black-clad figures by wearing unusually bright colors, creating a sharp contrast with London, which represents industrialization and urbanization.
2. In the scene where Margaret first visits Mrs. Wilcox in London, their hairstyles, clothing colors, and facial features are rendered very similarly. Later, when Margaret first visits Howards End, her manner of walking while caressing the house is strikingly similar to Mrs. Wilcox. The background music is also identical to that playing in the film’s opening scene featuring Mrs. Wilcox. These scenes demonstrate Margaret’s role as Mrs. Wilcox’s “spiritual successor.” This culminates in the scene where Avery tells Margaret, while she is surveying Howards End, “I thought you were Mrs. Wilcox.”
3. In the scene where Henry proposes to Margaret, Henry is positioned higher on the screen than she is. This framing, where Henry is positioned above Margaret, is frequently repeated, such as in the scene after the proposal where Margaret sits at Leonard’s feet, asking about his profession on Evie’s wedding day.
This starkly contrasts with earlier scenes, including the restaurant scene before the proposal, where the two were positioned as equals. However, after Henry’s past with Jackey is revealed, in the scene where they first discuss this issue, Henry is positioned below Margaret. After their reconciliation, Margaret, writing a letter, is again positioned below Henry. A further shift occurs in the scene where Margaret asks Henry to let Helen, who is pregnant, stay overnight at Howards End. This visually illustrates Margaret’s transformation: from the assertive, independent image seen early on, she becomes a submissive, docile woman due to her engagement to Henry, only to revert to her earlier self later.
4. Throughout the film, scenes frequently appear where the camera shows people inside from outside the window, or depicts the outside view from inside the window. Characters situated in different spaces, separated by the window, hold differing thoughts and values. This often leads to conflict, going beyond simple contrast. First, in the opening scene, Mrs. Wilcox peers into the house from outside, observing the other family members inside. Mrs. Wilcox possesses a disposition markedly different from the rest of the Wilcox family, and this difference in disposition is further emphasized by the placement of the central window. The scene where Margaret watches the Wilcoxes, who have moved into the apartment across the way, also reveals the contrasting atmospheres of the two households. However, after Margaret accepts Henry’s proposal, the positions of the sisters, who had always shared the same space, begin to shift. As the atmospheres and values of the two families collide, conflict initially arises, reflected even in the changing weather. When Margaret is seen walking home carrying Henry’s letter just before the proposal, the screen presents sunny weather and flat grassy fields. But after she accepts, the scene of Henry, Margaret, and Helen walking side by side shows a location with some slope, battered by wind and rain. Helen and Henry’s arguments intensify, and eventually Helen enters the house alone, watching Margaret and Henry through the window. That is, the sisters, who were always in the same space, are now placed in different spaces separated by a window. Margaret’s move into Henry’s space also marks the beginning of the sisters’ conflict. The sisters’ conflict deepens further when Helen fails to show herself even after returning home from her aimless travels. Then, after Margaret learns of Helen’s pregnancy, she pushes Henry away as he tries to enter the house, allowing only herself and Helen inside. They watch Henry drive away in his car through the window. After this, the sisters find themselves sharing the same space again, and their conflict comes to a temporary end.
5. When London appears in the film, stark black-and-white contrasts are heavily emphasized. Scenes of crowded streets filled with cars and images of dense crowds clad in dark clothing create repeated bleak visuals. Framing shots so tightly with buildings that the sky is barely visible presents an image of a stifling, suffocating, monochromatic city. In contrast, scenes depicting Howards End feature far more vibrant colors, beautiful natural landscapes, and bright sunlight compared to London. The frequent use of flowers starkly contrasts the contrasting spatial characteristics and the implied meanings held by London and Howards End.
6. The scene where Leonard dreams of the day he went to the concert does not appear in the novel. The meaning of this dream could imply his impossible romance with Helen, or it could foreshadow his death. It could also signify that Leonard ultimately fails to reach the world he yearned for, represented by Helen’s hand—the embodiment of the spiritual level and ideal world he sought to attain. It is deeply ironic that Leonard, who pursued cultural capital, later dies crushed beneath books and bookshelves.
