In E.M. Forster’s novel, Howards End, two characters accidentally knock a photograph frame on the floor, breaking the glass of the frame, and then, in turn, each cuts his or her finger on the broken glass. Though both characters break two different photograph frames, the events share similarities in the breaking of relationships between the one breaking the photograph frame and the one pictured in the photograph. Forster chooses to emphasize different aspects of the act to foreshadow the particulars of how the two relationships are affected. This motif of the photograph frame foreshadows breakings between Leonard and Jacky, citing their hobbled and broken love affair, and Margaret and Dolly as representative of the Wilcoxes, whose family is broken apart in order that Margaret may become a part of it at the end.
After returning home from his first meeting with the Schlegels, Leonard Bast kicks off his boots, jarring a photograph frame which smashes to the floor. The woman pictured in the frame is Jacky, his wife. “Leonard tried to pull out the fragments of glass, and cut his fingers and swore again. A drop of blood fell on the frame, another followed, spilling over onto the exposed photograph” (41). Interestingly enough, this realistic portrayal of the “dirtying” of the photograph also symbolically represents Jacky’s and Leonard’s relationship. Once Leonard finds out the truth of Jacky’s and Mr. Wilcox’s past, it reads, “By now, he had no illusions about his wife, and this was only one new stain on the face of a love that had never been pure” (201). The author’s choice of using ‘stain’ and ‘face’ relate directly back to the drops of blood Leonard dripped on the face of Jacky’s photograph. Not only does the spilled blood on the photograph frame relate to the reality of their dirtied love affair, but it also relates to how their relationship broke apart before Leonard’s death with his one night affair with Helen.
Margaret is invited over to Mrs. Wilcox’s house. During their conversation, Mrs. Wilcox mentions Dolly, her daughter-in-law, and points to a frame which holds her photograph. “Margaret could not bear being bored. She grew inattentive, played with the photograph frame, dropped it, smashed Dolly’s glass, apologized, was pardoned, cut her finger thereon, was pitied, and finally said she must be going” (61). Despite the fact that Leonard and Margaret both break and cut their finger on the glass of a photograph frame, Leonard’s emphasis is on the blood itself which spills onto the exposed photograph. The language surrounding Margaret’s breaking of the photograph frame concentrates on the act of breaking the glass itself, rather than any sort of blood that happens from the cut finger. Because of this difference in emphasis, Margaret’s relationship with the Wilcoxes takes on a different meaning in relation to the broken photograph frame. Charles, Dolly’s husband, was to inherit Howards End from Mrs. Wilcox. By keeping the reality of Margaret’s ownership of Howards End from her, Charles and Dolly still meant to inherit the house.
At the end of the novel, when Margaret ends up getting the house anyway, it reads, “She, who had never expected to conquer anyone, had charged straight through these Wilcoxes and broken up their lives” (291). In light of the photograph frame she had broken with Dolly’s photo in it, the glass of the photograph frame begins to represent the Wilcoxes, standing between her and her rightful owning of Howards End, and the photograph Howards End itself. By the end of the novel, Margaret has broken Mr. Wilcox; he is “weary” and “shadowy” (291). His son has been put in jail because of a poorly chosen chivalrous act on the behalf of Margaret’s sister and his daughter-in-law’s face “sorrow could wither but not steady.” The Wilcox household has been broken up by deceit and accidents, and the only things left standing are Margaret and Howards End. Having charged full-speed into their lives, Margaret breaks through the Wilcoxes blocking her from her rightful, yet unknown, ownership of Howards End. She also breaks through to become acknowledged as the “new” Mrs. Wilcox. Therefore, in order to be considered an actual part of the Wilcox family, they must be broken apart, just as Margaret broke the glass of the photograph frame.
The actions by which the characters break the photograph frame may also illustrate the motif’s use at foreshadowing certain events that happen to the characters which break the photograph frame. When Leonard knocks the photograph frame off the table, he has just kicked off his boots. Kicking off his boots can represent a freeing of social constraints, which would foreshadow his love affair with Helen on Jacky. Margaret grows inattentive before accidentally breaking the photograph frame. This could foreshadow her inattentive way of stumbling on not only Jacky’s involvement with Mr. Wilcox, but also her rightful ownership of Howards End.
Though both Leonard and Margaret break two different photograph frames, the circumstances of the changes in their relationship with the ones pictured reflect the way Forster chooses to emphasize different aspects of the breaking of the photograph frame. With the photograph frame as a basis, Leonard and Jacky’s relationship is obviously broken in the sense that Leonard cheats on her and also because of the impure state of their relationship from the beginning, noted in the quote reflecting back on Leonard’s blood dripping onto Jacky’s exposed photograph. The broken photograph frame also expands itself into a metaphor for the way Margaret breaks into the Wilcox family. Not only does she break in to become a part of the family itself, but also to be acknowledged as the rightful owner of Howards End. Both extrapolations convey a deeper understanding of Leonard and Jacky and Margaret and the Wilcoxes.
