Katie McCutcheon

McCutcheon 1

Morris
AP Literature, Block D
9/11/15
The Individual Identity
Many parents have trouble seeing eye-to-eye with their children. In E. M. Forsters A
Room with a View, this is just the case. Lucy Honeychurch, the main character of the novel, has
a disagreement with her mother Mrs. Honeychurch. As Lucy turns away from the conventional
ideals of the Victorian society, which are heavily supported by Mrs. Honeychurch, she forms her
own individual identity.
Lucy has the thoughts of a new generation of women who wish to escape the ideals of
conventional society. She has always been a curious girl and asks, Why were most big things
unladylike? (Forster 31). These big things include working and getting an in-depth education.
Although other women may have the same question, Lucy dares to ask it. This new idea,
however, comes in conflict with the Victorian gender roles, which Mrs. Honeychurch
continuously supports. In this society, women are not to speak unless spoken to. They must
keep a good reputation, go to mass, and marry an acceptable man. All of these were expectations
for women, not suggestions. Before her trip to Italy, Lucy keeps to these guidelines. She is a
proper girl who lives to please her mother. Lucy would do everything her mother said, without
many complaints. During the trip to Italy, however, Lucy is able to experience new things such
as freedom, adventure, and love. These new found ideas shape Lucy into a new person. She
becomes resistant towards her mothers ideals and blatantly challenges them, thus causing

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conflict with Mrs. Honeychurch. Overall, the trip to Italy changes Lucys perspective of
Victorian conventions and earns the disrespect of her mother.
Due to the conflict between Lucys ideals and the standards of Victorian women, Lucy
undergoes a dramatic change and gains an individual identity. She has her own thoughts and
makes her own decisions, all of which are not dictated by Victorian gender roles. For example,
Lucy marries George Emerson, who is not only a social outcast but is an unacceptable suitor in
the eyes of Mrs. Honeychurch. Although this decision is against her mothers expectations, Lucy
Honeychurch chooses to be an individual over being a possession, which would likely occur if
she marries the wealthy Cecil Vyse. Due to these choices, she becomes a new woman. Lucy was
not a medieval lady, who was rather an ideal to which she was bidden to lift her eyes when
feeling serious (31). She forms an individual identity as opposed to conforming to the
conventional Victorian society.
In conclusion, even though her mother supports the conventions of Victorian society,
Lucy Honeychurch creates her own identity, unassociated with the ideals of the era. In the
beginning of the novel, Lucy leaves her home on Summer Street as a woman of Leonardo da
Vincis whom we love not so much for herself as for the things that she will not tell us (72).
However, after her experiences of love, adventure, and freedom while in Italy, she had
become a living woman, with mysteries and forces of her own, with qualities that even eluded
art (140-141). In other words, Lucy Honeychurch gains an individual identity and stands apart
from other women who succumb to Victorian gender roles.

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Works Cited

Forster, E. M. A Room with a View. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1995. Print.