What is it that compelled Leonard to visit Helen towards the end of the film? He obviously didn't know she was at Howard's End because they show him visiting her previous residence thus getting the information of her where abouts. Could he have found out about her pregnancy or was he just curious to see her?
shareI think you answered your own question by using the "compelled", which means that maybe he had a sort of preminition or a "feeling" that he needed to see her. An intuitive thing... Sometimes two people can communicate better without words, especially when they have an emotional connection to begin with.
shareThanks for the response.
shareHelen was Leonard's connection to his dream world. After going nearly nine months without seeing her (and spending those months in rather dire straits, intensified by the lack of a satisfying connection with Jackie), he must've been pretty desperate for a fix of the intellectual and social stimulation she afforded him... not to mention the possibility of his being in love with her.
sharei always thought it was possible he knew he was dying from his heart condition and wanted to see her a last time.
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Read the book heathens. He is compelled to confess his sins to Margaret, unaware than Helen is at Howard's End.
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He did know they were at Howard's End. The servant told him. I believe he had dreamt about her the night before, and gone looking for her.
shareI always felt that it was simpler.
Leonard was at his end both physically, spiritually and most importantly, financially. He was going to her for help and support.
It was obviously a fatalistic decision.
chconnol wrote: <<I always felt that it was simpler.
Leonard was at his end both physically, spiritually and most importantly, financially. He was going to her for help and support.
It was obviously a fatalistic decision. >>
Oh, your mistake is really horribly unfair to Leonard. It's totally wrong and it completely misunderstands and undermines Leonard's beautiful, manly character.
Leonard would NEVER go to Helen for money -- EVER. To think that he would is, well, it's something a Wilcox would do. Leonard does NOT even know that Helen is at Howards End! He only knows that Margaret is and he is overcome with guilt (what a contrast to the callous Mr. Wilcox)for having "seduced" Helen -- and she feels the same way about having seduced him.
He goes because he is honest, he is a gentleman, he wants to make amends -- he is everything pure that the Wilcoxes are not. He is desperately poor and he turns to his family for money ONLY, as Forrester makes clear, to take care of Jacky. He will not abandon his responsibility to her, his promise to take care of her. If it were just himself, as Forrester says, he would just die.
Please, please read the book, or watch the movie again. Do not do Leonard Bast the injustice of supposing he is going to Helen for money. Remember -- he does not know she is there. He has already refused the $5000 pounds she tried to give him. All the facts of both novel and movie are against your interpretation, but I understand how you could have made the mistake you did. Please, though, give Leonard the credit that poor, doomed character so richly deserves.
Again I agree with coolbluegreen. Leonard had already turned down 5000 pounds - while not much now, it was an enormous sum at that time. Can you imagine a destitute person slowing dying of starvation turning down that one chance of salvation. I'm not sure if it is bad pride or not. If only for his wife's sake, he might have accepted it. In any case, for this reason, I also do not think he was seeking out money. At least as regards the film (which I just rewatched), I agree with another poster that he could sense his end was near and felt the need to see Helen one more time before he died. It is made quite clear that he went in search of Helen - that is who he asked for when he went to their residence.
sharemark-1589 wrote: <<Again I agree with coolbluegreen.>>
Thanks!
mark-1589 wrote: <<Leonard had already turned down 5000 pounds - while not much now, it was an enormous sum at that time. Can you imagine a destitute person slowing dying of starvation turning down that one chance of salvation. I'm not sure if it is bad pride or not. If only for his wife's sake, he might have accepted it.>>
But he can't. Not in the book, certainly, when he is wracked with guilt over "seducing" Helen and not in the movie, either, even though we don't see that. He cannot take money from her -- a woman he thinks he has wronged (since the movie doesn't show that), woman on whom he has no claim. He has a claim on his family -- none on Helen that would make an honorable man -- and that is what he is -- go to her for money
mark-1589 wrote: <<In any case, for this reason, I also do not think he was seeking out money. At least as regards the film (which I just rewatched), I agree with another poster that he could sense his end was near and felt the need to see Helen one more time before he died. It is made quite clear that he went in search of Helen - that is who he asked for when he went to their residence.
I do get the feeling, well, the movie portrayed Leonard as feeling his end was near -- not knowing it, perhaps, but certainly feeling is. It also portrayed how much Helen was on him mind -- that dream he had, where the gates (gates! What irony -- on pearly gates here) close on him and separate him from her forever. The gates here may symbolize the huge class barriers between them -- and this scene is played as if there might have been a chance of love between Helen and Leonard, which could never happen (class again). It's not that way in the book, though.
At any rate, he is NOT going to see her for money. There is no money in his dream -- just desire, a desire to connect again with a woman he loved (in the movie).
One other thing is that Helen to Leonard represents romance (in the wider sense of the word), adventure and idealism, fond memories that he doesn't want to sully with the baseness of money and dependence. If he accepted that money, then his memories of Helen and what she represented to him would end up becoming like everything else in his life, where money, or the lack of it, was all what mattered. I just thought I'd add that to the list, too.
shareDarn good thing to add, savagebiscuits. I like it.
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