Cecil and Lucy: The Pillar of Communication Falls Sarah Barse

Every year, incredible amounts of time and money are spent on court cases for sexual harassment and divorce. Perhaps a male supervisor made an unwanted advance on a female employee because he thought that her body language or clothing invited a sexual encounter. Or maybe a married couple couldn't understand each other's wants and needs, so their relationship didn't work out. In the end, it all comes down to one simple observation: since the beginning of time, men and women have had troubles communicating with each other. Whether through spoken words, written words, body language, song, or another method, sometimes messages cannot get through from one person to another. Although these problems are not specific to communication only between males and females, they do tend to occur most between the sexes. Actually, difficulties in communication are so common that writers frequently include them in novels written both in the past and the present. E. M. Forster's early 20th century novel, A Room with a View, is no exception. In his novel, Forster does much more than merely present a lack of communication between two specific people. In fact, through his inclusion of the failed musical communication between Cecil and...