Dr. Masters – May 12, 2013

“A Room With a View” by E. M. Forster

“I want to see the Arno,” Lucy is devastated because her room doesn’t have a view of the Arno River.  Lucy wants what she wants when she wants it whether she is sightseeing in Florence or home in England.  She’s bored and rebels and takes off by herself.  She ends up getting a little more than she hoped for:  a man gets stabbed on the steps of Uffizi Arcade and ruins her prints.  She has to be rescued, of course, by a misunderstood Italian man who threw her purchases into the river she so wanted a view of.  All the excitement of Italy wrapped up in a stabbing in mid-day and the thing she remembers is the feeling of his arms around her.  She also got to see “the lights dancing in the Arno and the cypresses of San Miniato, and the foot hills of the Apennines, black against the rising moon.”

Mr. E. is a controversial figure who has radical ideas about society, especially the church.  He creates quite a stir when he interrupts the service. 

   "Remember," he was saying, "the facts about this church of Santa Croce; how it was built by faith in the full fervour of medievalism, before any taint of the Renaissance had appeared. Observe how Giotto in these frescoes—now, unhappily, ruined by restoration—is untroubled by the snares of anatomy and perspective. Could anything be more majestic, more pathetic, beautiful, true? How little, we feel, avails knowledge and technical cleverness against a man who truly feels!"

"No!" exclaimed Mr. Emerson, in much too loud a voice for church. "Remember nothing of the sort! Built by faith indeed! That simply means the workmen weren't paid properly. And as for the frescoes, I see no truth in them. Look at that fat man in blue! He must weigh as much as I do, and he is shooting into the sky like an air balloon."

Times were changing and Mr. E. seemed to be leading the pack, at least in the crowd of the characters.