Howards End · Chapter
VI explained
This chapter introduces Leonard Bast, a poor clerk on the edge of gentility, who feels inferior to the Schlegels after their tea party.
What happens
This chapter introduces Leonard Bast, a poor clerk on the edge of gentility, who feels inferior to the Schlegels after their tea party. He walks home through London, reflecting on his poverty and aspirations for culture through Ruskin and concerts. At his dark, stuffy flat, he is met by Jacky, his unrefined and aging mistress, whom he has promised to marry when he turns twenty-one. Their strained domestic scene highlights Leonard's struggle between his desire for self-improvement and the squalor of his reality.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Inequality
The chapter explicitly contrasts Leonard's poverty and struggle for gentility with the wealth of the Schlegels, highlighting the vast class divide and the precariousness of those on the edge.
Materialism vs. Idealism
Leonard's pursuit of culture through Ruskin and concerts represents idealism, but it clashes with his material reality of a dark, stuffy flat and a relationship with Jacky, underscoring the difficulty of transcending one's circumstances.
Connection vs. Isolation
Leonard feels isolated from the Schlegels and society; his interactions with Jacky and Mr. Cunningham are superficial, emphasizing his loneliness and lack of meaningful connection.
Characters to notice
- Leonard Bast
Introduced as a poor clerk on the verge of gentility; walks home from the Schlegels, feeling wounded pride and inferiority; reads Ruskin and attends concerts in hopes of self-improvement; lives with Jacky in a dark, stuffy flat.
- Jacky Bast
Leonard's mistress, described as past her prime and not respectable; wears cheap, flashy clothing; anxious and dependent on Leonard for reassurance; he has promised to marry her when he turns twenty-one.
- Margaret Schlegel
Referenced through Leonard's thoughts; her calling card falls out of Leonard's book, and he recalls the tea party where she and Helen gave him advice.
- Helen Schlegel
Referenced through Leonard's thoughts; he recalls her remark about stealing an umbrella, which stung his pride.
- Mr. Cunningham
A neighbor who briefly speaks with Leonard outside the flats about the decline of the birthrate in Manchester.
Key passages
“We are not concerned with the very poor. They are unthinkable and only to be approached by the statistician or the poet. This story deals with gentlefolk, or with those who are obliged to pretend that they are gentlefolk.”
The narrative focuses on the middle class and those who must fake gentility, not the truly destitute, who are beyond comprehension.
Sets the class focus of the chapter and introduces Leonard's precarious social position.
“He knew that he was poor, and would admit it; he would have died sooner than confess any inferiority to the rich. This may be splendid of him. But he was inferior to most rich people, there is not the least doubt of it.”
Leonard acknowledges his poverty but fiercely denies any inferiority to the wealthy, though the narrator asserts he is indeed inferior in many ways.
Highlights Leonard's pride and the narrator's critical view of class differences.
“He believed in sudden conversion, a belief which may be right, but which is peculiarly attractive to a half-baked mind.”
Leonard hopes for an instant transformation into a cultured person, a naive idea common among the uneducated.
Critiques Leonard's simplistic view of self-improvement and his lack of understanding of gradual growth.
“Jacky was past her prime, whatever that prime may have been. She was descending quicker than most women into the colourless years, and the look in her eyes confessed it.”
Jacky is aging rapidly and losing her attractiveness, a fact she seems to acknowledge in her weary expression.
Portrays Jacky's decline and the grim reality of Leonard's domestic life.
