Week 3 - Coming of Age as a Traveler

Our third week in London, we analyzed the novel A Room with a View, by writer E.M Foster. By connecting the protagonist of this novel - Lucy Honeychurch - to our site visits, we were able to better understand how one's perceptions can change through traveling.
                                             
                                                      
This here are two photos of both the exterior and interior of our first site visit, the John Soane Museum. Personally, I was able to connect the character of John Soane with the character of George Emerson of our novel. Soane was not part of the upper, or even middle class, yet he did not let that define him. As you can see in this photo, Soane became almost an obsessive collector, and he was taken in by artifacts from foreign countries. But John found himself through his traveling, and became one of the greater architects of all time, regardless of his class. He was an outlier of his time. In the same sense, George Emerson comes to Italy as a middle class gentleman, and he is striving to find himself – he comes to find purpose in the world, regardless of his class - and this intrigues Lucy. 

Our second day we visited the National Gallery, and my partner and I came across this painting.
This is a painting titled, “The Departure of the Argonauts” by Pietro Donzello. This painting shows Jason and The Argonauts, as they prepare for their adventure to locate the Golden Fleece. In the painting, it is clear that the adventure to find this treasured item is not very common, as the group is reporting to the king before they leave. They know that the journey to find the Golden Fleece may be dangerous, but they hunger for it anyway, similar to the idea - pointed out by Lucy - that people often "nibble after blood." Lucy experiences this as well, as she has her desire to love George Emerson, regardless that it is against the expectations of social norms.

At the Tate Britain Museum, there is this painting above, titled “Rome from the Vatican” by JMW Turner. This painting was painted by Turner in hindsight, after he left Vatican City, and the painting does a wonderful job of portraying what he took away from his time spent in Italy. He covers the historical aspect of the city through the architecture, the artistic aspect through the paintings, and he even covers the nature with the mountains in the background. This approach to Turner's painting is similar to Lucy and her views on her relationships, as her hindsight of George allows her to recognize that she is not in love with Cecil. She remembers what she took away from her time with George, and that's when she realizes she is in love with him.

Here is another painting from the Tate Britain, titled "Palestrina" by Turner. This painting seems to be a mirror image of the painting above, as it focuses more on the nature, but still has the city present in the background. The painting suggests that sometimes the road less traveled on is the right way to go, as you can see how the pathway of trees would shade any visitor from the sunlight. This is the approach that Lucy takes by following her passion for George, and she is rewarded with a better view (both figuratively and literally) at the end of the novel because of this.