To understand Forster’s motive, it must be established that he is a humanistic writer. Harry T. Moore states “Of all imaginative works in English in this century, Forster’s stand highest among those which may properly be called humanistic.” (Riley, Moore 107) His main belief is that individual human beings fail to connect because the humanistic virtues, tolerance, good temper, and sympathy are ineffective in this world of religious and racial persecution. However, he also believes that personal relationships aan succeed, provided they are not publicly exposed, because values and noble impulses do exist within human nature. “Life is not a failure but a tragedy principally because it is difficult to translate private decencies into public ones.” (Riley, McDowell 108)
Forster is conscious of the evil that exists in human nature. Forster feels men do not know enough to control that evil, and he takes on the humanistic responsibility to secure internal and external order by utilizing reason. f orster depended on the individual’s conscience and sense of identification with others as equal components of the human race as his basis for maintaining that order. He also gives the individual social, political and metaphysical worth, and favors the individual when in conflict with society. (Riley, McDowell 108) It is fo…
… middle of paper …
…ia University Press, 1979.
Riley, Carolyn, ed., Contemporary Literary Criticism. 4. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research, 1975.
Bradbury, Malcolm, “E. M. Forster as Victorian And Modern: ‘Howard’s End’ and ‘A Passage To India’,”
Possibilities: Essays on the State of the Novel (1973 by Malcolm Bradbury; reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press), Oxford University Press, 1973.
Riley, Carolyn, ed., Contemporary Literary Criticism. 3. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research, 1975.
Johnstone, J. K., “E. M. Forster (1879-1970)”” The Politics of Twentieth Century Novelists, edited by George
A. Panichas (reprinted by permission of Hawthorn Books; 1971 by the University of Maryland;) Hawthorn, 1971.
Riley, Carolyn, ed., Contemporary Literary Criticism. 1. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research, 1973.
McDowell, E. M. Forster, Twayne, 1969.
The Red Badge of Courage and The Blue Hotel
The Red Badge of Courage and The Blue Hotel: The Singular Love of Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane firmly cemented himself in the canon of American Romanticism with the success of works such as The Red Badge of Courage and “The Blue Hotel.” His writing served to probe the fundamental depths of the genre while enumerating on the themes vital to the movement’s aesthetic. Such topics as heartfelt reverence for the beauty and ferocity of nature, the general exaltation of emotion over reason and senses over intellect, self-examination of personality and its moods and mental possibilities, a preoccupation with genius and the heroic archetype in general, a focus on passions and inner struggles, and an emphasis on imagination as a gateway to transcendence, as well as a predilection for the exotic, the remote, the mysterious, and folk culture are all characteristic of his stories.
However, the most traditionally “romantic” facets of his artifice are most fully manifested in a series of private correspondence between himself and a certain society maiden by the name of Nellie Crouse. It is these letters that serve to illustrate Crane’s writing prowess as it transcends traditional Romantic genrefication. Through these letters, which serve as an informed testament to Crane’s marked skill as a writer, we begin to examine Crane in the context of his own existence, devoid of the fictional trappings of his most acclaimed accomplishments.
What is most remarkable about Crane’s series of letters to Mrs. Crouse is the tone of his love-stricken entreaties. He gracefully plays off of his burgeoning fame and his growing success as a published artist with good-natured self-deprecation and a propensity to undermine his own endeavours. The series of letters commences with a carefully constructed communique crafted to provoke a sympathetic response from Mrs. Crouse. Employing “inside” reactions to his celebrity to impress, he relies on an aura of exotic settings and playful humor to win a reply. Having succeeded in securing an apparently satisfactory response, he eagerly raises the temperature of the correspondence in his second letter. Without compromising further relations with Mrs. Crouse, his words adopt a more acute degree of intimacy, with Crane even going so far as to volunteer to accept her literary advice.
The third letter opens to the heart of the correspondence on Crane’s side, as he begins in earnest to try and make Mrs.