A Room with a View Themes
Society and Class
In this book, the divisive boundaries of social class dominate practically all of the characters. The metaphor of the room with a view, which represents a life unrestrained by the strict laws of ...
Love
A Room with a View contains all the standard elements you need for a romance novel – two attractive, emotional young people, flowers, sunshine, violence, and Italy. These elements are so glar...
Identity
How much of our identities are shaped by the circumstances in which we grow up? In Forster’s text, our heroine faces a real crisis of identity; she must choose between the conventional constr...
Youth
The transitions from childhood to youth, then from youth to adulthood are important in A Room with a View. Childhood is defined as a period of safety and obedience, and of something perhaps approxi...
Women and Femininity
A Room with a View is all about women. There’s a strong sense of what a woman should be like in the society Forster describes – that is, what they’re expected to be like. However,...
Transformation
Transformations abound in A Room with a View. We’re talking change of every possible kind: personal discovery, youth to adulthood, falling in love, shifting allegiances, moving to and from co...
Art and Culture
Forster uses images of famous Italian art of the Medieval and Renaissance periods to illustrate (not literally) the feelings, opinions, and personalities of his characters. The author clearly compa...
Lies and Deceit
Everyone lies sometimes. Forster’s text playfully acknowledges this very overtly, particularly in a series of chapter titles in which our protagonist lies to just about everyone else in the b...