49 pages • 1 hour read
Aspects of the Novel
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Chapters 8-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “Pattern and Rhythm”
Returning to the form and approach he used in the first four named chapters, Forster works on defining “Pattern and Rhythm” by borrowing from other art forms. To illuminate the concept of pattern, Forster describes Thais by Anatole France as an hourglass. The two primary characters in the novel effectively switch moral places because of their experience with one another. The aesthetic pattern of the hourglass is what, Forster argues, makes that novel so satisfying. Next, he discusses Percy Lubbock’s Roman Pictures, saying that this novel takes the pattern of a chain—all the characters lock together at the end, unifying the seemingly disconnected events. Again, the pattern itself is what is so satisfying, rather than the unification.
Pattern, then, is the visual aesthetic sense of the novel that relies largely on the shape of the plot; Forster says it is the element of beauty in the plot. To further illustrate the beauty of pattern, Forster examines Henry James’s The Ambassadors, which has an hourglass-shaped plot and is internally tight and unified. The hero of The Ambassadors goes to Paris to retrieve his paramour’s wayward son, Chad; in the process, he discovers the profundity of life, which leads him to switch places with Chad. Although The Ambassadors’ pattern is also an hourglass, the unified whole is more aesthetically successful because the entire novel works in service of the pattern. The drawback of a novel wholly oriented around pattern, like The Ambassadors, is that it can lose the potential of prophecy, fantasy, or even diversity of character in pursuit of beauty.
Forster says that while pattern can evoke beauty, if realism and depth are sacrificed in the interest of pattern, then the beauty achieved is shallow and small. However, rhythm is another avenue toward beauty. He uses Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past to illustrate an example of rhythm—specifically, an actual musical phrase that is repeated and echoed throughout Proust’s novel. The repetition alone is not enough, as the phrase develops along with the character, resulting in a deeper connection with the plot and the character. The musical phrase is always the same, but its interpretation develops and grows, mimicking the way rhythm can work within a larger work of music.
Forster compares the rhythm in Proust with the “easy rhythm” of Beethoven’s opening of Symphony No. 5. Forster says that he cannot find the larger rhythm of the symphony in fiction. However, because of the humanity of the novel, there is a possibility that a novel can capture the immensity and beauty of the rhythm of a whole symphony.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Conclusion”
In his conclusion, Forster opens the door to the future. He recalls his initial metaphor of novelists past and present all together in the same room, writing at the same time. He adds the novelists of the future among them since they must also be considered outside of time. Regardless of what discoveries are made or how the world changes, the novelist will still have to put human experience and truth onto the page. However, Forster wonders if the future could hold a change in the creative mind itself. For that to occur, human nature itself will have to be altered; and for that, human beings must learn to look at themselves in new ways. Forster posits that if anyone can do this, novelists can. He ends with the thought that perhaps the development of the novel could effect a change in human nature itself.
Chapters 8-9 Analysis
Forster’s return to the structure he establishes in the first section of the book echoes his discussion of the novel’s pattern in Chapter 8. He first establishes a structure in the early chapters, then departs from it, and then returns to it; he is practicing the satisfying visual pattern of the hourglass that he describes and the sense of rhythm in the repeated pairings of topics throughout. After the introduction, Forster establishes a pattern of discussion for each novel aspect. With story, plot, and character, he defines the aspect, provides an illustration of that aspect with quotations, and then advances the discussion with isolated examples. In the fantasy and prophecy chapters, however, he departs from this more structured approach and adopts an open approach. He does not question these two aspects since they satisfy a deeper intellectual and spiritual interest in the novel.
He returns to the old format while discussing pattern and rhythm but with an adjustment. Pattern and rhythm are indicative of an aspect with no unifying word to describe it, except beauty. So, Forster discusses them using the same fundamental tools as the earlier chapters and continues the rhythm that was maintained in the prophecy and fantasy discussion: pairs. The book opens with pairs of quotations that show the novel’s connection to time of the novel; the chapter on story is illuminated by the paired concepts of time and value; people are defined by the contrast between real people and characters, and then by the necessity of the variety of flat and round characters; plot requires memory and intellect to probe mystery; fantasy and prophecy are the lower and higher deities. In the final chapter, pattern and rhythm are the paired elements that construct the aesthetic artistry of the novel. The pairings developed over the course of the book are precisely the kind of rhythm Forster describes in Proust, which construct the music of the novel.
Forster ends the book by returning to the metaphor from the introduction, and this further enhances Forster’s development of pattern. The metaphor in the introduction described a circular room in which all past novelists sit, writing in tandem. The conclusion returns to that room, but it adds potential future novelists to it. Forster initially insists, in the introduction, that chronology is too vast to consider for the purpose of his talks and is better situated in the domain of the true scholar; he reiterates this idea by returning his audience to the metaphorical room to consider the future of the novel. Just as the novel’s literary history is inconsequential to his discussion, so, too, is the novel’s future. In Forster’s view, the novel is and always will be art, and he has already established that “Art stands still” (39). The key element of pattern is that it provides the reader with the same satisfaction of a work of visual art. Pattern creates a unified whole that circles back on itself. The ending of this book reinforces Forster’s initial points by developing and returning to the writer’s room metaphor.
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By E. M. Forster
