Analysis of the last three paragraphs of Chapter 1 of "A Room with a View" Ewa Zubek

The last three paragraphs of Chapter 1 of “A Room with a View” describe the actions of the two female protagonists, Lucy Honeychurch and Miss Bartlett, when they find themselves alone in their own rooms. This short scene is a brief yet extremely accurate representation of the contrast between those two different personalities, what they long for and how they perceive the outside world and its inevitable reality. These attitudes are present in the way Lucy and Miss Bartlett behave, so through the analysis of the actions it is possible to tell whether they are “Room” or “View” characters; whether their senses are still fresh or numbed by the flow of time; whether it is optimism or realism that is their driving force. One could perhaps say through this scene E. M. Forster really introduces us to Lucy and Miss Bartlett; the scene, despite the fact that it seems insignificant, foreshadows how these two women will behave and how they will affect or influence each other.

As with the rest of the novel, the narrator is an objective and omniscient one. Even though the situation is described from the perspective of an outsider, i.e. in the third person, and even though there is no personal bond between the characters and the narrator, he...