SOURCE: Thomson, George H. “Howards End.” In The Fiction of E. M. Forster, pp. 170-99. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1967.

In the following essay, Thomson examines the symbolic objects in Howards End.

Rigidity and Chaos, these two forms of the negative are directly opposed to the creative principle, which encompasses transformation, hence not only life but also death. Across the diabolical axis of rigidity and chaos cuts the transformative axis of life and death.

—Erich Neumann

The center of our attention in Howards End is to be the object as archetype rather than the character as archetype. But if we are properly to understand the symbolic objects of the novel, we will have first to take some notice of Mrs. Wilcox, for every one and every thing is a fragment of her mind (p. 331). She is the most inclusive of all the symbols of totality. Knowing this, we...