Part One:

What are some implications of the title? Do the characters ever achieve the goal of finding a "room with a view"?

How does the initial scene set up aspects of the situations that follow? What do we learn about the social hierarchies and values of the pensione? Are these inclusive?

What are some advantages of choosing this as a fictional setting? Can you think of other literary works based around a similar device? (characters thrown together by chance and confined in a limited space)

To what extent do the characters replicate the values of their class and homeland even on vacation?

What are they seeking when they look for "the true Italy," and do any of them find it? (see "Italy" as embodied in tourist sites rather than Italians themselves) What stereotypes are expressed about Italians and the Italian people?

What are some ways in which chapter titles are used throughout?

What are some symbolic settings throughout--e. g., the mountaintop, the city plaza, the confined church?

What qualities are embodied in the character of Miss Bartlett? What restrictions are placed on Lucy, and are we expected to perceive these as typical?

What changes do we see in Lucy, and what are some of the precipitating elements for these changes? On what occasions does she express her views relatively clearly, and what results from these speech acts?

How are we expected to evaluate Lucy? Is she a typical middle-class Edwardian woman? A rebel?

Do we know much about her education and expectations? Why do you think Forster chose her for his heroine?

How do the older characters respond to her? (vie to serve mentoring roles) What forms of contrary advice is she given?

What are some ways Forster inserts themes of social class? (snobbery, stinginess, observance of hierarchies) Do you find these convincing?

How does Forster's narrator parody/expose the prudish attitudes of those we meet? Are these sometimes amusing? What are some ways the more limited attitudes of many of the characters are undercut? (Mr. Emerson's direct disagreement; Forster's ironic style)

What are major features of Forster's style throughout? What types of places, settings, and scenes does he describe extremely well?

What do we first learn about the Emersons? What do others report of them, and which aspects of these reports are likely true? (Mr. Emerson partly self-taught and the son of a laborer; had been a socialist--but he hadn't murdered his wife and in fact loved her)

Is the statement that Mr. Emerson tells the truth accurate, and if so, to what limitations and/or consequences does this quality lead? Under what circumstances does it prove useful? How do his values differ from those of others in the pensione?

How does his son George respond to him? (understands that he annoys others, loves him but at some distance)

How are names used throughout the novel?

What purpose is served by shopping throughout this section? What do we make of Lucy's choice of postcards, including Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus"? On what grounds had others objected to Botticelli's lovely painting?

What are some moments of epiphany throughout the section, and what seems their thematic correlation? (murder scene as man opens his mouth "as though to speak" to Lucy, followed by her moments alone with George; scene when Lucy is overcome by the colors and beauty of nature and falls, after which George kisses her)

What forms of symbolism may inhere in the murder scene, with the open mouth dripping blood? Why might Lucy have been prompted to think that the murdered man might be intending to convey a message? (uncanny, message from some psychic depth) ]

What do you think has motivated George to destroy the photographs? Would it be significant that blood has covered the image of Venus?

How has this scene altered the relationship between Lucy and George? What draws the young couple together? (can sense one another's emotions)

What do we learn about George? How does his father describe him, and what does this indicate about the differences between the two men? What is indicated by the question mark he has inscribed in his room?

What is indicated by Miss Bartlett's behavior on entering the room George had occupied? What is shown by her extreme reluctance to exchange rooms with the Emersons?

What causes her to feel resentment at being offered a favor? (feels it will confer obligations) Is she correct in believing this will create serious indebtedness?

What aspects of Miss Bartlett's speech and behavior make life difficult for Lucy? In what ways is she controlling? (officious, possessive, makes constant allusions to her role as protectress and her obligations to Lucy's mother) Does she understand how she has been constraining, and are her apologies sincere? (is asking for reassurance)

What do you make of Lucy's reconciliation with Miss Bartlett at the end of book one? What is given as her motive? (need for affection and closeness) Are there points on which the two women still differ? (Miss Bartlett wishes intimate confessions and wants some kind of punishment for George; Lucy uncertain of her emotions, though she does not quite admit that she has had a sexual awakening)

What passage describes the Victorian ideal of womanliness, and what alternative does the narrator suggest? ("Before the show breaks up, she would like to drop the august title of the Eternal Woman, and go there as her transitory self.")

What symbolic or situational use is made of music and art during the narrative? (Beethoven, paintings of Alessio Baldovinetti) Why have these instances been chosen?

What happens on the way to the picnic, and what prior plans have been overturned? What incident causes the tourists to quarrel with one another?

How are the two members of the clergy presented? What useful information, if any, do they provide? How are Mr. Beebe and Mr. Eager contrasted? (relative degrees of tolerance and understanding)

What are some topics of gossip and disagreement among the travelers?

With what tone does the first book end, and what does the reader expect may happen? Is it hopeful that they leave for Rome?

Book Two

What are some important developments in book two? In particular, how does Lucy evolve?

What do we learn about Cecil, his courtship of Lucy, his family, and his attitudes toward his fiancee? Does he have merits as well as limitations? (some of his criticisms of others seem quite accurate; he is gracious when Lucy declares she will not marry him)

What is the Honeychurches class status, and how has it changed over the years? What by contrast is the class status of Cecil and of the Emersons?

What are some signs of danger in their relationship--in London, during the tennis game, in the bathing scene, and on other occasions? How does he interface with Freddy and Lucy's mother, and is this important?

What brings the Emersons to the same neighborhood as the Honeychurches? Are there ironies to this plot element? What motive is ascribed to Cecil, and how do George and his father react on learning the background for this invitation? (annoyed)

How would you characterize Forster's style in this section? What level of emotion is maintained by the characters throughout? (quick repartee, many deft faceoffs)

What role is played by music in the plot? How do the other characters react to Lucy's choice of musical selections?

What is added by Freddy's presence?

What are features of the character of Mrs. Honeychurch? Is this always consistent? What relationship does Lucy maintain with her, and at what points is this frayed?

On what points do they agree? (Charlotte is difficult, Cecil affected)

How does she react to Lucy's statement that she might wish to leave home for a period upon attaining maturity? (rants against suffragettes and other modern women who live in apartments)

What role does Mr. Emerson play in bringing about the marriage between George and Lucy? What do you make of the fact that George's father conducts much of his courtship at a crucial moment?

What do we learn had prompted Mr. Eager's claim that "he had murdered his wife in the sight of God"? (had refused to permit George to be baptized)

Are there other Forster novels in which an older figure plays a significant role in the emotions and decisions of the young at a crucial moment? (e. g. Mrs. Moore in The Passage to India, Maurice's grandfather in Maurice, Mrs. Wilcox in Howard's End)

What striking role is played by Miss Barlett in book two? What is the effect on the reader of the revelation that she has in fact told Miss Lavish about the encounter between Lucy and George?

What are some humorous aspects to this plot? (many seeming coincidences; relationship between Italy and Surrey obtruded in sudden and ironic ways)

What seems the significance of the bathing scene? The scene in which Lucy reads from Miss Lavish's book to George and Cecil? George's second kiss?

Why does Lucy break off her engagement with Cecil? Is he correct that she hasn't permitted him to understand her dissatisfactions and attempt to change? What motivates her to reject George so sternly?

What purpose is served by Lucy's reconciliation with Charlotte, and her desire for Charlotte's presence as she tells George she cannot see him again?

What is significant about George's response? (points out Cecil's weaknesses, urges to her decide for herself)

Do you agree with George and Lucy that her interventions, at some subconscious level, may have furthered their romance? If not, how do you interpret the ending?

What are some feminist claims made by the narrator, by George, by Mr. Emerson, and by Lucy herself? Are these always consistent with the actual behaviors of those who assert them? (others tell Lucy whom she "really" loves)

What role does Mr. Beebe play? Why does he support Lucy in renouncing Cecil and in her plans to leave for Greece, but oppose her union with George? Are some personal motives mixed in with his responses?

What view of love does Forster maintain? If love is of and through the body, what other elements seem attached to it?

In the final scene between Lucy and George, what do the newly married couple seem to have in common? How do they react to the importunate taxi driver?

What do we learn about their marriage, and their relationship to those at home? (after six months of opposition, they had finally married)

What gaps have occurred in the narrative? What finally binds England and Italy in the consciousness of those concerned? (Italy had permitted "a view," even if from an enclosed room)