Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Why the title A Room With A View?

While reading A Room With A View, I kept wondering why the book was titled that. Obviously, the name connects with the first scene, which is the first interaction between Lucy and George Emerson. George and his father give up their "room with a view" for Lucy and her cousin Charlotte. Throughout the novel, views of various sorts are described in great detail, as an essential part of the play's setting and storyline. As the scene changes from Italy back to England, different views are described. 

However, the meaning goes much deeper, as implied when Lucy discusses people as either having a view or not, as a signifier of the individual's openness to life and his or her appreciation for its beauty. The title could also be a metaphor for the kind of life Lucy wants. She is not satisfied with the stuffy, pretentious life with Cecil. She wants the beautiful before her, the wide open fields of violets, and this, to her, is George Emerson. Life with him is "a room with a view," and the end of the book effectively shows this, as well.

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