Edward Morgan Forster
Biography
Born in 1879, died in 1970.
Important detail from his biography related to A Passage to India:
Edward Morgan Forster was an English novelist,
short story writer, essayist and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and
well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century
British society.
He was the only child of Edward Morgan Llewellyn Forster and Alice
Clara "Lily
His four novels: Where the Angels
Fear to Tread (1905), Room with the View (1908), the Longest Journey (1907) and
Howard’s end (1910).
The story preceding the publication
of A Passage to India: Forster went to a trip to India which was his first encounter
with Indian culture (Similar to Conrad who first travelled to Congo
and then wrote a short novel about it).
In 1914, at the beginning of WWI he
began the novel about India, which was later to become a Passage to India,
however, it took him 10 years to complete it.
The publication of the novel was
delayed because of the war. In the meantime, from the moment he started the
novel, to its completion, he travelled to Alexandria. He spent time there as a
Red Cross worker. Another reason that he delayed completion of the Passage to
India is that he started another novel in the meantime.
That other novel was entitled
Maurice, it was about the happy outcome of the homosexual pursuit of love and
happiness (modernist theme again, where characters mature and learn to reject
the social norm which stood in the way of their happiness) It was only
published in 1971 after Forster’s death.
A Passage to India
The title: A Passage to India is
taken from the poem of Walt Whitman. The basic plot will not be detailed here.
The name of the female protagonist Adela Quested.
Passage to India
(1924) synopsis: Adela Quested visits Chandrapore with
Mrs. Moore in order to make up her mind whether to marry the latter's
son. Mrs. Moore meets his friend, Dr. Azis, assistant to the British Civil
Surgeon. She and Adela accept Azis's invitation to visit the mysterious Marabar
Caves. In this trip, Mrs. Moore nearly faints in the cave and goes mad for an
instant. Adela asks Azis, "Have you one wife or more than one?" and
he is shocked. "But to ask an educated Indian Moslem how many wives he has
- appalling, hideous!" She believes herself to have been the victim of a
sexual assault by Azis, who is arrested. Adela is pushed forward by his friends
and family, but she admits that she was mistaken. "Something that she did
not understand took hold of the girl and pulled her through. Though the vision
was over, and she had returned to the insipidity of the world, she remembered
what she had learnt. Atonement and confession - they could wait. It was in hard
prosaic tones that she said: 'I withdraw everything.'" Mrs. Moore dies on
the voyage home at sea. "The heat, I suppose," Mr. Hamidullah says.
Azis has changed his liberal views. "We may hate one another, but we hate
you most. If I don't make you go, Ahmed will, Karim will, if it's fifty-hundred
years we shall get rid of you; yes, we shall drive every blasted Englishman
into the sea, and then' - he rode against him furiously - 'and then,' he
concluded, half kissing him, 'you and I shall be friends.'"
Character list
Dr. Aziz
Cyril Fielding
The 45-year-old, unmarried British headmaster of the small government-run college for Indians.
Fielding's logical Western mind cannot comprehend the muddle (or mystery) of
India, but he is highly tolerant and respectful toward Indians. He befriends
Dr. Aziz, but cultural and racial differences, and personal misunderstandings,
separate them.
Adela Quested
A young British schoolmistress who is visiting India with
the vague intention of marrying Ronny Heaslop. Intelligent, brave, honest, but
slightly prudish, she is what Fielding calls a "prig." She arrives
with the intention of seeing the real India. But after a frightening trip to
the Marabar Caves, she falsely accuses Aziz of sexually assaulting her.
Mrs. Moore
The elderly, thoughtful mother of Ronny Heaslop. She is
visiting Chandrapore to oversee her son's engagement to Adela Quested. She
respects Indians and their customs, and the Indians in the novel appreciate her
more than they do any other Briton. After undergoing an experience similar to
Adela's, she becomes apathetic and bitter.
Ronny Heaslop
The British city magistrate of Chandrapore. Though not a bad
man, he shares his Anglo-Indian colleagues' racist view of Indians.
He breaks off his engagement to Adela after she retracts her accusation against
Aziz. He considers it a betrayal of their race.
Professor Narayan Godbole
An elderly, courteous, contemplative Brahmin who views the world with equanimity. He remains totally
aloof from the novel's conflicts.
Mr. Turton
The British city collector of Chandrapore. He does not hate
Indians, for that would be to negate his life's work. Nevertheless, he is
fiercely loyal to his race, reviles less bigoted people like Fielding, and
regards natives with thinly veiled contempt.
Mrs. Turton
Mr. Turton's wife. Openly racist, snobbish, and rude toward
Indians and those Anglo-Indians who are different, she screams at Adela in the
courtroom when the latter retracts her accusation against Aziz.
Maj. Callendar
The British head doctor and Aziz's superior at the hospital.
He is more openly racist than any other male character. Rumors circulate among
Indians that Callendar actually tortured an injured Indian by putting pepper
instead of antiseptic on his wounds.
Mr. McBryde
The British superintendent of police in Chandrapore. Like
Mr. Turton, he considers dark-skinned races inferior to light-skinned ones.
During Aziz's trial, he publicly asserts that it is a scientific fact that dark
men lust after white women. Nevertheless, he is more tolerant of Indians than
most Britons, and he is friendly with Fielding.
Miss Derek
An Englishwoman employed by a Hindu royal family. She frequently borrows their
car—and does not trouble to ask their permission or return it in time. She is
too boisterous and easygoing for most of her compatriots' tastes. She has an
affair with McBryde.
Nawab Bahadur
The chief Indian gentleman in Chandrapore, a Muslim. Wealthy
(he owns a car) and generous, he is loyal to the British (he lends his car to
Ronny Heaslop). But after the trial, he gives up his title of
"nawab," which the British bestowed on him, in favor of plain
"Mr. Zulfiqar."
Hamidullah
Aziz's uncle and friend. Educated in law at Cambridge University, he declares at the beginning of
the novel that it is easier to be friends with an Englishman in England than in
India. Aziz comes to agree with him.
Amritrao
A prominent Indian lawyer from Calcutta, called in to defend Aziz. He is known for his strong
anti-British sentiment. He takes the case for political reasons and becomes
disgusted when the case evaporates in court.
Mahmoud Ali
Dr. Panna Lal
Ralph Moore
A timid, sensitive and discerning youth, the second son of
Mrs. Moore.
Stella Moore
Mrs.
Moore's daughter and Fielding's beautiful younger wife.
Writing this novel, Forster combines realism of the traditional
novel with symbolism of the modern novel.
Marabar caves serve as a symbol of confrontation with oneself,
this experience is shared both by Adela, who realises she does not want to
marry, and also Mrs. Moore, who is also confronted with herself. Not only do
Adela and Mrs. Moore realise that they do not understand India, they come to
realisation that they do not understand themselves.
Forster is a modernist in terms of the themes he explores, but he
does not experiment with the form.
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