Quotes by theme Flashcards
Gender
‘…but his son was a young man, and she felt that a girl ought to be offended with him, or at all events be offended before him. It was at him that she glanced before replying.’ - 23
‘It was unladylike. Why? Why were most big things unladylike?’-40
The (medieval) woman described by Charlotte’s ‘mission was to inspire others to achievement rather than to achieve themselves.’
The ‘medieval woman’ - ‘the dragons have gone, so have the knights, but still she lingers in our midst.’
‘Happy, not because they are masculine, but because they are alive.’
‘The creature grows degenerate.’
George’s ‘voice was that of an anxious boy. Her heart warmed towards him for the first time.’
‘There is at times a magic in the identity of position; it is one of the things that have suggested to us eternal comradeship.’
‘The elder ladies exchanged glances, not of disapproval; it is suitable that a girl should feel deeply’
Restriction
‘My dear,’ said the old man gently, ‘I think that you are repeating what you have heard older people say.’ - 23
‘This [above] was absolutely impertinent, and she ought to have been furious’ - 23
Mr Eager: ‘remember… the facts of this church of Santa Croce; how it was built by faith in the full fervour of medievalism, before any taint of the Renaissances had appeared.’ - 24
Mr Eager: ‘Now, unhappily, ruined by restoration’ - 24
Lavish ‘I am a real Radical’ - 17
Lucy to Cecil ‘when I think of you it’s always in a room’
Lucy struck by ‘the ghoulish fashion in which respectable people will nibble after blood. George Emerson had kept the subject strangely pure.’
Eager:“We must not submit.” to the Italians snogging
Lav:‘With many a smile, she produced two of those mackintosh squares that protect the frame of the tourist from damp grass or cold marble steps. She sat on one, who was to sit on the other?’
‘The view was stealing around them, but the brown network of the bushes shattered it into countless pieces.’
‘The silence of life had been broken by Miss Bartlett who stood brown against the view.’
Freedom
Mr Emerson: ‘Go out into the sunshine, little boy, and kiss your hand to the sun, for that is where you ought to be.’
‘The Piazza Signoria is too stony to be brilliant’ it suggests ‘not the innocence of childhood, nor the glorious bewilderment of youth, but the conscious achievements of maturity.’ the gods of the statues’ ‘immortality has come to them after experience, not before.’
‘The view was forming at last; she could discern the river, the golden plain, other hills.’
‘For a moment he contemplated her, as one who had fallen out of heaven. He saw radiant joy on her face, he saw the flowers beat against her dress in blue waves. The bushes above them closed. He stepped quickly forward and kissed her.’
‘He [the Italian cab driver] alone had played skillfully, using the whole of his instinct, whilst the others had used scraps of their intelligence… He alone had interpreted the message that Lucy had received five days before from the lips of a dying man… Not so these English. They gain knowledge slowly, and perhaps too late.’
Music
‘Miss Honeychurch, disjoined from her music stall, was only a young lady’- 32
‘Lucy never knew her desires so clearly as after music.’- 40
‘It was Mr Beebe who started the stamping. I was all that one could be.’-31
“If Miss Honeychurch ever takes to live as she plays, it will be very exciting - both for us and for her.”
Lucy ‘entered a more solid world when she opened the piano’
When playing ‘no longer either a rebel or a slave’
‘The kingdom of music.. Will accept anyone whom breeding and intellect and culture alike have rejected.’
The notes ‘were fingers caressing her own; and by touch, not by sound alone, did she come to her desire.’
“Too much Beethoven.”
‘Lucy never knew her desires so clearly as after music.’- 40
Lucy ‘contemplated the River Arno, whose roar was suggesting some unexpected melody to her ears’
Water
When George chucks Lucy’s blood covered pics in Arno ‘The river swirled under the bridge’.
‘The river was gushing below them, almost black in the advancing night’ - Chapter 4
Lucy ‘contemplated the River Arno, whose roar was suggesting some unexpected melody to her ears’- end of 4th chapter
‘The river Arno was a lion that morning in strength, voice, and colour.’ - following chp 4
‘Italian in the mouth of Italians is a deep-voiced stream, with unexpected cataracts and boulders to preserve it from monotony. In Mr Eager’s mouth it resembled nothing so much as an acid whistling fountain’ - chp 6
‘For the real event - whatever it was - had taken place, not in the Loggia, but by the river.’
Rooms and views
‘I have a view! I have a view!’
Mr Emerson ‘had enabled her to see the lights dancing on the Arno’
Mr Emerson: ‘Go out into the sunshine, little boy, and kiss your hand to the sun, for that is where you ought to be.’ -21
‘She looked at the books again - black, brown, and that acrid, theological blue. They surrounded the visitors on every side; they were piled on the tables, they pressed against the very ceiling’.
‘The silence of life had been broken by Miss Bartlett who stood brown against the view.’
Passion/emotion
The notes ‘were fingers caressing her own; and by touch, not by sound alone, did she come to her desire.’
‘… as if he had an important message for her. He opened his lips to deliver it, and a stream of red came out between them and trickled down his unshaven chin.’
George’s ‘voice was that of an anxious boy. Her heart warmed towards him for the first time.’
Em-‘Do you suppose there’s any difference between Spring in nature and Spring in man? But there we go, praising the one and condemning the other as improper, ashamed the the same laws work eternally through both.’
Eager:“We must not submit.” to the Italians snogging
‘The ground gave way, and with a cry she fell out of the wood. Light and beauty enveloped her. She had fallen onto a little open terrace, which was covered in violets from end to end.’
Italian :’courage and love’ Mr Eager: ‘courage and faith’
Italy and England
‘For one ravishing moment Italy appeared… Miss Lavish, with a shriek of dismay, dragged her forward, declaring that they were now out of their path by at least a mile.’
Lavish: ‘How the driver stares at us, dear, simple soul!’ - 17
Lavish: ‘You will never repent a little civility to your inferiors.’ - 17
Lucy “Mr Beebe says Italians know everything, but I think they are rather childish.’
‘Italian in the mouth of Italians is a deep-voiced stream, with unexpected cataracts and boulders to preserve it from monotony. In Mr Eager’s mouth it resembled nothing so much as an acid whistling fountain’ - chp 6
Lav:‘I intend to be unmerciful to the British tourist’ Bart:‘I am sure you are thinking of the Emersons.’ Lav: ‘gave a Machiavellian smile’
‘In the company of this common man [Italian] the world was beautiful and direct. For the first time she felt the influence of Spring. His arm swept the horizon gracefully; violets, like other things, existed in great profusion there; ‘would she like to see them?”
‘He [the Italian cab driver] alone had played skillfully, using the whole of his instinct, whilst the others had used scraps of their intelligence… He alone had interpreted the message that Lucy had received five days before from the lips of a dying man… Not so these English. They gain knowledge slowly, and perhaps too late.’
Hypocrisy
Lav:‘I intend to be unmerciful to the British tourist’ Bart:‘I am sure you are thinking of the Emersons.’ Lav: ‘gave a Machiavellian smile’
‘His voice suggested sympathetic reproof but at the same time indicate that a few harrowing details would not be unacceptable.’
‘I do detest conventional intercourse. Nasty! They are going into the church too. Oh, the Britisher abroad!’ - 19
‘They walk through my Italy like a pair of crows.’
Lavish: ‘We’ve lost the way.’ ‘But Miss Lavish had said so much about knowing her Florence by heart, that Lucy had followed her with no misgivings.’ - 18
‘For one ravishing moment Italy appeared… Miss Lavish, with a shriek of dismay, dragged her forward, declaring that they were now out of their path by at least a mile.’
Lavish: ‘The true Italy is only to be found by patient observation.’ - 17
Lavish: ‘How the driver stares at us, dear, simple soul!’ - 17
Lavish: ‘You will never repent a little civility to your inferiors.’ - 17
Lavish ‘I am a real Radical’ - 17
Tolerance
‘Protestant as she was, Lucy darted forward’ [to help a Catholic child praising images] - 21
Mr Emerson: ‘Hateful bishop! … Intolerable bishop!’ - 21
‘The child screamed frantically at these… dreadful people who told him not to be superstitious (read more of quote)’ - 22
‘The kingdom of music.. Will accept anyone whom breeding and intellect and culture alike have rejected.’
‘There is at times a magic in the identity of position; it is one of the things that have suggested to us eternal comradeship.’
“I’m sure it’s all right,’ put in Lucy. ‘The Emerson’s won’t hear, and they wouldn’t mind if they did.’ Miss Lavish did not seem pleased at this.’
Nature
Mr Emerson: ‘Go out into the sunshine, little boy, and kiss your hand to the sun, for that is where you ought to be.’ -21
‘For the real event - whatever it was - had taken place, not in the Loggia, but by the river.’
Em-‘Do you suppose there’s any difference between Spring in nature and Spring in man? But there we go, praising the one and condemning the other as improper, ashamed the the same laws work eternally through both.’
‘In the company of this common man [Italian] the world was beautiful and direct. For the first time she felt the influence of Spring.’
Cecil
‘when I think of you it’s always in a room’
‘with no view, I fancy’
‘he was medieval. Like a gothic statue’
‘no woman of Leonardo’s could have anything so vulgar as a ‘story’’
Love as a rebellion?
‘broke her engagement off’
‘you’re the sort who can’t know anyone intimately’
‘you love George!’
‘we return’/’said it was his old room’
Mr Beebe
Mediator between restrictive and liberal way of life
Mr Beebe is described as ‘thoughtful’; he ‘hesitates’ and speaks ‘gently’
‘Mr Beebe accepted the convenient word [Socialist], not without a slight twitching of the lips2’
Sympathetic but critical of organised religion as flaws highlighted by end of the book
‘Mr Beebe laughs just like an ordinary man.’
“If Miss Honeychurch ever takes to live as she plays, it will be very exciting - both for us and for her.” but ‘too much Beethoven.’
‘Lucy would be his parishioner.’
“I am more grieved than I could possibly express. It is lamentable, lamentable - incredible.”
Counterpoint to Mr Emerson - changes place as Forster’s mouthpiece by end
Mr Beebe ‘was from rather profound reasons, somewhat chilly in his attitude towards the other sex, and preferred to be interested rather than enthralled’
‘His belief in celibacy, so reticent, so carefully concealed beneath his tolerance and culture, now came to the surface and expanded like some delicate flower.’
“I differ from him on nearly every point of any importance” - ‘differed from Mr Beebe chiefly by his acknowledgement of passion’
‘…he never heard that an engagement was broken off but with a slight feeling of pleasure’
On Lucy’s plan to go to Greece ‘Nor would Charlotte have succeeded. The honours of the day rested with Mr Beebe.’
