ABSTRACT
In Howards End, the ideal, only connect, is more convincingly rendered through the reconciliation of Margaret and Helen than through the union of culture and commerce, or culture and the common man. Forster's lack of detachment towards two of the major figures his sympathetic involvement with Maurice and his disgust with Clive, the sexual turncoat undoubtedly disturbs the unity and tone of the whole work. The theme of the ideal friend, later to be expanded in the first part of A Passage to India, is further developed in the account of Maurice's life 'as a mediocre member of a mediocre school' at Sunnington, where all is muddle and obscurity, except for two recurring dreams. The part explores the developing relations between Maurice and Clive, the two years' happiness they enjoy after Maurice has been sent down from Cambridge, Clive's psychic illness, his search for health in Greece, his discovery that he is 'normal', and his return home.
