Character Analysis
Mrs. Honeychurch is a great mom. She really loves her kids and is pretty indulgent with them, despite the strict rules of the society they live in. Even if she is old-fashioned in her views on a woman’s duties, she really does want for Lucy and Freddy to be happy. She also shows herself to be a down-to-earth and common-sensical judge of character – she likes Mr. Emerson immediately, and grows to dislike Cecil before her daughter does. The difficult thing is that Mrs. Honeychurch can’t totally disengage herself from the social standards of the day – she’s too involved in the system herself, despite the fact that she is able to see beyond barriers of class just as clearly as Lucy is. We like to think that her good-natured and loving side wins out in the end, and that Lucy and George are eventually reconciled with the Honeychurches– but who knows? After all, society does exert a lot of control, even upon the best of characters.