MovieChat Forums > A Room with a View (1986) Discussion > Curse of The Single Parent Family?

Curse of The Single Parent Family?

posted 11 years ago by d.doherty
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Did anyone notice that the Honeychurch, Vyse, and Emerson families are all missing a parent?

I wonder if things would have turned out the way the did if there had been a Mr. Honeychurch? Would a Mr. Vyse have put the younger Cecil in his place, thereby making him a more suitable spouse for Lucy? Would Freddy and Lucy have been less Bratty if there had been a Mr. Honeychurch? Would the presence of a Mrs. Emerson have made George a little more diplomatic in his dealings with the opposite sex?

I read the book long ago. Does anyone know what happened to all those missing spouses?

"Do you indulge in any form of worship?"

[–] Virginiana 11 years ago

Mr. Honeychurch died (the book doesn't say when, only that he was a solicitor who built Windy Corner and settled his family there).

Mrs. Emerson died of a fever. There was a plotline in the book about Mr. Eager, the snooty vicar in Florence, saying Mr. Emerson has "as good as killed" his wife. Eventually it is revealed that the atheist Emerson refused to let his son be baptized. At age 12, young George was stricken with typhoid, and his distraught mother feared it was a judgement from God. The fear caused her to sicken. After her son recovered, she died.

No mention in the book of Mr. Vyse as far as I can recall.

Widows and widowers were much commoner in Victorian/Edwardian times, when disease caused high rates of mortality. It's not uncommon for so many characters to have lost spouses in that era.

[–] annlevtex 11 years ago

I got the sense he Mr. Honeychurch didn't die terribly young or anything. Just by the time Lucy was 18 he had been gone several years.

In the film I actually liked Mr. Emerson better than George. I felt George was a little too pushy with Lucy, TBH.