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Howards End
May. 16th, 2020 11:18 amI first read E. M. Forster's Howards End in my senior year of high school (when I wrote a term paper about it), so it was a bit startling to watch the recent miniseries starring Hayley Atwell as Margaret Schlegel and discover that my opinions of the work had shifted significantly. Was the Schlegels' relationship with their lower-middle-class protege Leonard Bast always this condescending?
This side of their relationship was present in the book, but I don't recall finding it so unbearable, and I'm not sure if the difference is because the adaptation is highlighting that quality, or simply that I'm older and less able to forgive Helen Schlegel everything on account of her high spirits and good intentions. Yes, she's so charming, but the way that she drags poor Leonard Bast and his wife Jackie across the countryside to confront Mr. Wilcox after Mr. Wilcox's advice inadvertently leads to Bast ending up unemployed... It's like she didn't stop for a moment to see how humiliating this would be for Leonard Bast, and can't even really see it when her older sister Margaret points it out to her.
But he shouldn't be embarrassed!, Helen insists; he's done nothing wrong! It's Mr. Wilcox who ought to be embarrassed. As if people can just choose whether to feel embarrassed based on whether or not you personally happen to feel that they should.
To be fair I think we are meant to be on Margaret's side of the question - she is after all played by Hayley Atwell - but nonetheless the whole scene gave me secondhand embarrassment for Leonard Bast and Jackie and especially Helen, largely because Helen is the only one who doesn't seem to realize that she has anything to be embarrassed about.
The adaptation also made the odd choice to cast Jackie as a black woman and then never comment on this fact, an omission which became particularly glaring when Leonard is explaining why his family never approved of their relationship and it's all about how she's a woman with a Past. His family... didn't have objections based on racial prejudice? Really? Is this story set in an alternate universe 1910?
There are some lovely costumes and sets in this miniseries, and of course I always enjoy Hayley Atwell, but in the end the secondhand embarrassment is so strong - not just in the aforementioned scene, but in almost any scene involving Leonard Bast - that I couldn't recommend the miniseries unless you have great fortitude for that sort of thing.
This side of their relationship was present in the book, but I don't recall finding it so unbearable, and I'm not sure if the difference is because the adaptation is highlighting that quality, or simply that I'm older and less able to forgive Helen Schlegel everything on account of her high spirits and good intentions. Yes, she's so charming, but the way that she drags poor Leonard Bast and his wife Jackie across the countryside to confront Mr. Wilcox after Mr. Wilcox's advice inadvertently leads to Bast ending up unemployed... It's like she didn't stop for a moment to see how humiliating this would be for Leonard Bast, and can't even really see it when her older sister Margaret points it out to her.
But he shouldn't be embarrassed!, Helen insists; he's done nothing wrong! It's Mr. Wilcox who ought to be embarrassed. As if people can just choose whether to feel embarrassed based on whether or not you personally happen to feel that they should.
To be fair I think we are meant to be on Margaret's side of the question - she is after all played by Hayley Atwell - but nonetheless the whole scene gave me secondhand embarrassment for Leonard Bast and Jackie and especially Helen, largely because Helen is the only one who doesn't seem to realize that she has anything to be embarrassed about.
The adaptation also made the odd choice to cast Jackie as a black woman and then never comment on this fact, an omission which became particularly glaring when Leonard is explaining why his family never approved of their relationship and it's all about how she's a woman with a Past. His family... didn't have objections based on racial prejudice? Really? Is this story set in an alternate universe 1910?
There are some lovely costumes and sets in this miniseries, and of course I always enjoy Hayley Atwell, but in the end the secondhand embarrassment is so strong - not just in the aforementioned scene, but in almost any scene involving Leonard Bast - that I couldn't recommend the miniseries unless you have great fortitude for that sort of thing.
