E. M. Forster's Expanding Vision Of The English Middle Class

Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) was a famous British novelist in the early half of the 20th century. As a writer, Forster had his own distinctive features. He was one of the forerunners of Modernism, and also a firm adherent of Realism. Moreover, his living times, middle class family background, educational experience and traveling activities were all contributory to the particularity of his works. There were five important novels published before his death----two English novels: The Longest Journey (1907) and Howards End (1910); two Italian novels: Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) and A Room with a View (1908); one Indian novel: A Passage to India (1924).As a typical English middle class, he intimately knew the limitations of this class and their"undeveloped heart", and endeavored to search for the way to save them out. Therefore, the common focus of all his five novels is on the English middle class. However, Forster's vision of the English middle class is not static and changeless, but constantly developing and expanding with the accumulation of his fictional composition, and his gradually maturing view: from the focus on the ethics and spirits of the English middle class (the two English novels), to the focus on the communication between the British modern civilization represented by the English middle class and the ancient Mediterranean civilization (the two Italian novels), then to the focus on the communication between the Western civilization represented by the English middle class and the Oriental civilization (the Indian novel). According to the sequence of Forster's literary production, the geographical extension of his novels'settings, and the increase of his own experience, this thesis will discuss in detail the expansion of poetic and thematic vision reflected by the three groups of novels.Forster mixed his liberal-humanistic view of"only connect", realistic criticism, rational introspection, and fantastic utopian ideal into the art of novels. His expansion of vision on the English middle class recorded his persistent pursuit of...