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Forster investigates ideas about gender by showing how the body exists as a site of societal contest. A body that has been claimed by society as, for example, female due to its reproductive abilities will have definite strictures placed upon it. Likewise, a male body has certain freedoms which he can sacrifice in order to show himself more civilized. Beebe, as usual, unconscious of having put his finger on it, nicely cuts to the point himself with a rich summary. "Can you picture a lady who has been introduced to another lady by a third lady opening civilities with 'How do you do? Come and have a bathe'? And yet you will tell me that the sexes are equal." Men have certain privileges denied to women and the continuation of this paradox depends on Lucy becoming a woman likeCharlotte. Women likeCharlotte exhibit absurd prudish-ness about male flesh while using the body to censure young women. They hold up the "medieval lady," who loathed all physical elements, especially her own flesh, as the ideal.Charlotte displays this stance early through her shock over George's admittance that his father bathes. She also betrays her ideas when she refers to naked Venus as "a pity."Charlotte desires a world of chivalry where men donned armor to amuse well-dressed ladies. The distance between men and women is, thus, well maintained.Charlotte uses her body against Lucy constantly. For example, she wins their fight atFiesole by sitting on the wet ground and tries to physically reclaim her from George beneath the carriage rug. Lucy learns thatCharlotte's view, like that of Mrs. Honeychurch, depends on viewing the male body as something extraordinary. However, she realizes that men, like women, are just human. After realizing this, she accepts Mr. Emerson's idea of "direct desire" with which she robs "the body of its taint." This frees her from the "medieval lady" for she accepts that "love is of the body." George comes alive when nude. The pond where he bathes with Freddy and Beebe acts like "a spell" from a "chalice" that resuscitates his spirit. He abhors civilization's distaste for the body and longs to live a balanced life. However, in keeping with his father's teaching, George knows that women must also enjoy the body. Only then can men and women be "comrades" and enterEden together. Cecil, however, embodies the perfect male Vyse. He gives up the ability to play lawn tennis and reads from a book in order to show he is more civilized. Travel enables the English person of an open mind to taste life and, thereby, begin to live. As Miss Lavish says, toItaly"one comes for life." All too often, the largest obstacle in this process is also the first one confronted by the traveler. The English hotel simply recreates Englandand allows the English tourist to stay English. His vacation, then, consists of collecting evidence of having been there: "The narrowness and superficiality of the Anglo-Saxon tourist is nothing less than a menace." Lucy comments toCharlotte that there is no difference between a Bloomsbury boarding house inLondon and the Pension. The same social rules, people, clothes, and paintings surround them. Only in surroundings completely foreign to the pension andLondon will Lucy possibly learn anything. Different surroundings are important but contact with different people is intrinsic. The characters reveal their ability to discover themselves in their attitude toward travel and the use of the Baedeker. For example, Miss Lavish is the type of tourist who believes she owns the place and likewise believes that there is nothing about her that needs perfecting.Charlotte is terribly lonely, clingy, and loves to play the emotional martyr in her personal relationships. Likewise, she views traveling as an endless series of chores. Cecil, a proclaimed Italophile, understands as little aboutItalyas he does about himself though he gives off airs of knowing both. Lucy and George, however, learn little aboutItalyin comparison but they have a good time and become better people for it. This, Forster indicates, should be the goal of every journey—self-discovery. "Tact!" is the very thing the Emersons disdain but which lubricates the societal hive. Manners, taste, and tact are the very things that muddle Lucy's brain. She spends hours rehearsing bows and statements, and interpreting the actions of others. She wants to "do"; to be approved of by high-standing members of society and, if she tries hard enough, by the queen bee—Mrs. Vyse. At the start of the novel, Lucy has "not yet acquired decency" but she hopes to do so by the end of her Italian tour with Miss Bartlett, her teacher. The education is not without its hardships; one ofCharlotte's early lessons ended Lucy's bathing in theSacred Lake. To be a Lady is to give up on manly prerogatives like public bathing. In the storm on the return fromFiesole, the result of such an education is glimpsed. The various party members lose control of themselves and act naturally. They act in "unladylike" or "unmanly" ways. Lucy is quickly acquiring such unnatural abilities but "she was not better able to stifle emotions of which the conventions and the world would disapprove." An educated lady can violate natural inclinations and always act properly. Ultimately, she will become a nearly "medieval lady," and as "mechanical" as Mrs. Vyse. Fortunately, comic forces intervene and Lucy sees the world of Vyse as "nonsense." It helped that throughout her progress on the path to being ladylike, she was always conscious of how unnatural it was. She succeeded in being a lady only when she concentrated and remembered to perform properly. Otherwise, she was as truthful as the Emersons— who would not "do." Art, in the novel, can inspire characters to live more passionately. Therefore, paintings, literary works, and musical pieces exist as gauges of a character's open-mindedness. By thinking about art and its role in society, a character reveals his or her view of whether life should be experienced naturally or aesthetically, directly or in its written form. For example, as they begin the drive toFiesole, Mr. Eager points out a beautiful cottage, which happens to be owned by an Englishwoman. To some, the cottage becomes exciting only when Mr. Eager points out that some believe it to be the place of a scene from Boccaccio's Decameron. The literary connection enhances the aesthetic enjoyment of the cottage and displaces the natural reaction. Books act this way throughout the novel. Book knowledge overrides natural inclination. Not surprisingly, Cecil hopes to finish Lucy's education with books. The base of aesthetic living, then, is to know how to respond to a given situation by collating one's knowledge. Paintings work in the same way. Lucy hopes her guidebook will enable her to have the proper response to the frescoes in Santa Croce. Instead, the Emersons react from their experience. Likewise, Lucy reacts to Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" from her own experience. She purchases a copy of the painting in a fit of rebellion.Charlotte disapproved of the painting because Venus is naked. Purchasing photographs, however, does not satisfy Lucy—she wants to recapture the passion the artist felt in the painting. Performance becomes the key to recapturing the Renaissance spirit. Miss Lavish comes off as a villain for her writing and yet she offers Lucy a hint: Anyone can accomplish a work of art. Lucy also performs: "Lucy never knew her desires so clearly as after music." The performance of a beautiful work—much like the reading of a good book—can help to illuminate desires. In other words, when Lucy is engaged with life—playing tennis, piano, or kissing—she becomes fully alive. Artworks can show the way, but Lucy must play.
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