The Golfing Man
At the beginning of Chapter II in which Forster examines the purpose of a novel, he presents images of three different men, one of whom is himself, answering the question “What does a novel do?” All three of the men give the same answer, but not quite exactly the same answer: “it tells a story.” Man number two—pictured as being on a golf course at the time—adds the information that a novel must tell a story and if it doesn’t, it’s of no interest or use to him. This man is Forster’s symbolic incarnation of those members of the reading public which he both fears and loathes.
Hourglass and Chain
The hourglass and the chain are two symbols which Forster introduces to demonstrate the difference between story and plot. A story exists separate from the external intrusion of linear manipulation: things happen in a cause-and-effect way limited entirely to the chronological. Plot is not synonymous with story, it is instead the way in which a story manipulated so it can be told. The hourglass and the chain represent two distinct patterns of structural plotting.
The Circular Room
The circular room is one which Forster asks the reader to imagine as a location in which all English novelists—though it could equally be applied to any nation—sit together simultaneously. This image is intended to symbolize the way in which he wants his readers to understand his approach to analysis of the history of the British novel, one unencumbered by external pressures upon this development and focuses exclusively on the writing literature itself.
Mirror
Somewhat akin to the circular room, the mirror is a symbol of the novel relative to the effects of historical progression. Just a mirror reflects all that passes in front of it, noting each evolutionary change without itself being changed as a result, so should the novel be viewed as a mirror of society that reflects changes without those changes necessarily having any impact upon it.
Claggart
Herman Melville’s epic novel Moby Dick is usually considered his definitive—if not literature’s definitive—statement on the nature of evil in the world. Forster, however, counters this general perception by identifying the antagonist of Melville’s final work, Billy Budd, as not just a symbol of evil, but a symbol of the way in which writers fail so regularly and comprehensively to adequately depict evil in their fiction. Claggart’s wickedness rises above mere sinful conduct vague mystery to rise to the level of genuinely inexplicable darkness in the human heart.
