The Eternal Yes

In the film A Room with a View, the kind Mr. Emerson Sr. opines to Mr. Emerson Jr.:  'Why shouldn't they have their view?' Why not, indeed?  Why shouldn't we all have a lovely view?  Kindly Mr. Emerson argues that it's only women who must have a view, but I don't quite agree with him there.  If enjoying beautiful scenery in nature is a feminine thing (which I don't think it is at all), then surely men have a bit of the feminine inside them, just as women have a masculine side.  On the other hand, in the last frames of the film, after the two young lovers escape to Florence, handsome Julian Sands is pre-occupied more with the view of lovely Helena Bonham Carter than with the gorgeous sun-drenched view of Florence outside their open window.  I think, if I'm not mistaken, this is not emphasized in the novel.  Film-goers demand a bit of smooching in a film.

But poor Cecil Vyse's views are all artificial.  He never goes to Italy--only talks about it and occasionally spouts a bit of Italian for emphasis.   He can't fall in love, because he's in love with the abstract notion of love and he can't see the beauty of nature because he's intellectualized it all.  Charlotte Bartlett, Lucy Honeychurch's prim and proper escort, seemed to have had a view at one time, but lost it.

One scene that is underplayed in the film, but receives prominence in the novel and is of special interest to us language geeks, is when Lucy is in the Italian countryside and is seeking out the Reverend Mr. Beebe.  She asks the lusty peasant where she might find him, saying:   'Dov'è l'uomo buono?'  The Italian man (probably intentionally) thinks she means young George Emerson, thus leading us to the passionate kissing scene in the grain field. 

Lucy perhaps would have done better to ask for il sant'uomo or perhaps il sacerdote or even il padre.  Amazing how an inappropriate choice of words can, to use one of Forster's favorite words, put us in a muddle.  

But in the end Lucy does get her good man and her view.  Young Emerson finds Amore and stops leaving question marks all over the place, having discovered what is meant by The Eternal Yes, Il Sì eterno.  

A presto...