The final scene at Howards End provides a happy
ending for the novel, with Helen and Henry
becoming friends at last, and Henry's hypocritical
edifice being replaced with a more genuine human
presence. This final chapter also directly addresses
the question of "Who will inherit England?" by
featuring Henry's decision about who will inherit
Howards End itself. Margaret will inherit
Howards End, and she intends to leave it to Helen's
child. In other words, Howards End will fall from
the materialistic upper class to the idealistic upper
class, and thence to an offspring of the upper and
lower classes. In a sense, the final living
arrangement at Howards End indicates Forster's belief
that, if people could "only connect," there would be
a place for every class at Howards End, and in
England. The classes are becoming irrevocably
mixed; London is encroaching on the countryside, and
World War I is looming in the near future
(unbeknownst to Forster at the time he wrote the
novel, though even in 1910 he was certainly fearful
of a conflict between England and Germany). But for
the time, all is well; the classes can live together
happily, and the future of England seems less
uncertain, and less dim.
