Re-forming sexuality : an exploration of sexual issues and their representation in selected Edwardian novels of H.G. Wells and E.M. Forster

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the way H. G. Wells and E. M. Forster represent issues connected to sexuality in a selected number of their Edwardian novels. The introductory chapter directly challenges the misconception of Edwardian England as an innocent, static place, by providing a socio-historical overview of the major changes that were transpiring at the beginning of the twentieth century. This chapter considers some of the most eminent reformers and writers of the age, giving particular attention to the novelists. This introduction provides a vital outline of the momentous shifts in the study of sexuality which took place during the nineteenth century, and the way Victorian novelists were affected by these salient changes. The connection which Wells and Forster had with the liberation and reformation of sexuality in their society and the novel will also be discussed here. The first chapter of the dissertation explores the triangular relationship between desire, love, and marriage, in Wells's Love and Mr Lewisham and Forster's Where Angels Fear to Tread and Howards End. In these novels, Wells and Forster consider the complex relationships between men and women, and the ramifications of making one's sexual feelings a public matter. This chapter explicates the prescribed Victorian mores, and the series of stages that ultimately led to marriage, which these Edwardian men and women were expected to follow. Through the choices these characters make in their private and public life, Wells and Forster present a compelling picture of the sacrifices involved in sustaining a fulfilling relationship. Wells and Forster's conception of the Woman Question, and their representation of female sexual issues, are examined in the second chapter of the dissertation. The sexual, social, and political improvement of women had become a pressing issue by the Edwardian years, and these novelists sought to explore the consequences this movement had on their female protagonists. The central heroines in Forster's A Room with a View, and Wells's Ann Veronica, provide a vital insight into these writers' conception of female sexuality, and what it meant to be a woman during this period. Through the vivid portrayals of Lucy Honeychurch and Ann Veronica Stanley, Forster and Wells highlight the unfathomable constraints and suppressions women still experienced throughout their life. The third chapter identifies the sense of immorality and shame associated with sex, and notably considers its treatment in these Edwardian novels. Wells' s The New Machiavelli explores the irrevocable consequences of having an adulterous relationship, while Forster, in Howards End, brings to light the sexual double standard that existed between male and female chastity. This chapter examines the palpable effect Wells and Forster's sexual selves had on their fiction, and the means these writers employed to either promote or conceal their sexual temperament. The New Machiavelli serves as a perfect exemplar of Wells' s advocacy of free love, while Forster' s Where Angels Fear to Tread provides a unique understanding of Forster's relation to homosexuality. A central concern which runs all through the dissertation is the effect foreign lands have on English morals, and the way these men and women seek to escape the muddle and scandal which are an inevitable outcome of openly accepting sexual desires. The breakdown of gender stereotypes, and the roles Wells and Forster assign to their characters, are established in the concluding chapter of the dissertation. By bringing together these diverse sexual issues and presenting them through the distinctive perceptions of these novelists, this dissertation endeavours to establish Wells and Forster's consistent dedication to re-forming sexuality throughout the Edwardian era.