Written in the early years of the 20th century, EM Forster's Howards End is set in 1910s England as he exits the Victorian era and enters the Edwardian era. Connection is the novel's most important theme, as indicated by the epigraph "Only Connect." Howards End examines English life in the years before the First World War. In the early 1900s, England was in the midst of social change. In writing this novel, Forster was trying to answer critic Lionel Trilling's question: "Who will inherit England?" In Howards End the author presents the different classes of English society with Howards End, the house representing England. Forster imbues his novel with the concerns of the Edwardian period, such as the relentless urban expansion that claims the Schlegels' home, Wickham Place, and the financial difficulties of Leonard Bast who works hard as a clerk, trying to maintain his middle-class status. The novel is about people predestined to a life of wealth or lack thereof. The Schlegel family represents the intellectual, literary and cultured upper class, the Wilcox family represents upper class materialism, and the Basts represent the lower middle class of English society. The underlying theme is the development of human connections and the acceptance of differences. The novel also deals with gender roles, as the Schlegel sisters do not completely submit to the expectations of their society. The Schlegels and Wilcoxes are well educated and born into a world full of privilege and wealth. The sisters have limited but respectable means, while the Wilcoxes are very wealthy from the sale of properties after Ruth's death. There is the inner life that is valued by the Schlegel sisters and there is the outer life that is valued...... middle of paper...... Avery, Ruth's childhood friend and housekeeper of Howards End, who unpacks the old Schlegels furniture in full anticipation of their future residence there: "You think you won't come back to live here, Mrs. Wilcox, but you will." (Forster, p. 253) Fourteen months later, Margaret, Mr. Wilcox, Helen and her baby are still living in Howards End and have become a family. The novel ends with Margaret's revelation that Ruth Wilcox wanted her to have Howards End. Throughout the novel, Forster suggests that all classes of English society must learn to coexist as equals. In the end, these three social groups are permanently connected. “In the revised Howards End manuscripts, a pattern becomes clear: Forster inserts hundreds of personal pronouns, emphasizing in a concrete grammatical way a theme of the novel: the importance of personal relationships. » (I p. 237)