Only Connect
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Let us not, when speaking about love, take the easy way out, and mention only the impact of culture, and society, of money and industrialism, of why and how they threaten to impoverish and break the human bondage. Let us be honest when speaking about love. Let us recognize its complexity as well as the complexity of human nature. A look from within is necessary. A look inside the human soul, an understanding of human nature, but what a challenge the task is: to climb through the high walls that we meticulously build to separate from one another, and our true selves; to strip naked the human soul of the fear so deeply rooted in itself; to let go of our strong defenses and be able to realize that our nature is fragile, and that we need each other's affection, and tenderness, and touch to live.
To connect man and woman is Foster's ambition in Howards End. The other "sort", the Henry Wilcox sort, the business man, who never bothers with the mysteries of life, the person who sees it steady instead of seeing it whole, the patriarch, who believes that "man is for war, woman for the recreation of the warrior" (225), the man who desires comradeship and affection, but fears them, yet a "real" man, as she calls him is what stimulates Margaret Schlegel, the articulate, cultured, yet down to earth woman, who appreciates the outer life of "telegrams and anger" (102) as the force that creates and maintains civilization, into falling in love with him.
In a crescendo of human emotions: from sympathy to physical attraction, to feeling pleasure in Henry's company, to liking him steadily for three years, Margaret is moved to happiness by a greater force. After Henry's proposal, she recognizes it to be love. "On leaving him she realized that the central radiance had been love (151)...