morality theme in "A Room With a View": A study of E. M. Forster's novel and the film adaptation by James Ivory

In A Room With A View Forster's allusions to the "mediaeval," the pattern of chapter headings which describes the action, the particular use of names and the way the narrative follows the evolving nature of Lucy Honeychurch's soul reveal a structural similarity to a morality play. In addition, the vivid contrasting elements of Light and Darkness and of Art and Nature establish the morality's opposing framework of Good versus Evil. The overtly visual style of Forster's narrative as well as the essentially dramatic structure of the novel provides director James Ivory a means to successfully adapt Forster's thematic structure to film. Ivory does so by translating the use of literary symbols and motifs into their visual counterparts rather than by merely concentrating on the achievement of narrative fidelity to the novel.