A Room With A View Character Analysis

The death of Queen Victoria in 1901 signified the end of the Victorian era, and the beginning of the Edwardian era. A Room with a View is a romantic comedy, and begins with a young lady (Lucy) and her chaperone (Miss Bartlett) visiting Florence. Although Charlotte Bartlett’s character as a chaperone might seem a little mundane to begin with, her development has a significant influence in the action and language of the novel. Forster juxtaposes characters, places and ideas. Charlotte symbolises the repression of emotions and the strict and arbitrary rules on propriety of the Victorian era, which Forster communicates in a humorous way, giving her a unique character which has an impact on the plot. Throughout the novel Charlotte and Lucy’s
‘Now don’t be alarmed; this isn’t a cold. It’s the tiniest cough.’ Forster presents Miss Bartlett as a comic figure by making Miss Bartlett’s speech melodramatic, because no one was actually alarmed and all she has done is draw attention to herself. Moreover, Miss Bartlett usually projects her frustrations not only through passive-exaggeration, but through martyrdom ‘My own wishes are unimportant in comparison with yours.’ She exaggerates her altruism which has a comical effect. She also does this when she wants something, and usually finds a way to get it by making the others around her feel guilty. ‘...any nook does for me... but it does seem hard that you should not have a view.’ Although she pretends to want very little she often gets in the way. Miss Bartlett continues to behave in a very typical manner; ‘The ground will do for me. Really I have had not had rheumatism for years.’ This suggests that she is willing to make a sacrifice, but aims to make Lucy feel guilty by referring to having suffered from a disease of the joints. Without Miss Bartlett the novel would be much more ordinary, not a romantic comedy as such, however merely a romantic novel. It is clear she has an influence on the genre of the