Symbolically, then, the attraction between Helen and Paul, between a Schlegel and a Wilcox, has the potential to connect the two aspects of the upper class, marrying the Schlegel intellectualism and idealism to the pragmatism and focus of the Wilcoxes. But the relationship falls apart before it can even begin; Helen leaves Howards End, and Forster makes it clear that the gulf separating his two symbolic archetypes is a very wide one indeed.