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NOVEL II Lecture 22

NOVEL II Lecture 22. A PASSAGE TO INDIA. SYNOPSIS. Preface A Word about E. M. Foster A Look at A Passage to India Summary. PREFACE.

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NOVEL II Lecture 22

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  1. NOVEL IILecture 22 A PASSAGE TO INDIA

  2. SYNOPSIS • Preface • A Word about E. M. Foster • A Look at A Passage to India • Summary

  3. PREFACE • A Passage to India (1924) is a novel by English author E. M. Forster set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s. • It was selected as one of the 100 great works of English literature by the Modern Library and won the 1924 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. Time magazine included the novel in its "100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005". • The novel is based on Forster's experiences in India. E.M. Forster borrowed the book's title from Walt Whitman's poem of the same name in Leaves of Grass.

  4. The story revolves around four characters: Dr. Aziz, his British friend Mr. Cyril Fielding, Mrs. • Moore, and Miss Adela Quested. During a trip to the Marabar Caves (modeled on the Barabar Caves of Bihar),[2] Adela accuses Aziz of attempting to assault her. • Aziz's trial, and its run-up and aftermath, bring out all the racial tensions and prejudices between indigenous Indians and the British colonists who rule India.

  5. E.M.Foster A PASSAGE TO INDIA

  6. A Pictorial Outline

  7. E. M. Forster’s life • Birth: 1879 born in London, son of an architect • Aunt: Marianne Thornton, leaving Forster ₤8.000, enough for him to live on and enabled him to become a writer. • King’s College, Cambridge: 1897-1901 • Bloomsbury Group: 1910s-1920s. In the atmosphere of skepticism, he became under the influence of Sir Jamer Frazer, Nathaniel Wedd, Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, and G.E. Moore, and shed his not very deep Christian faith.

  8. E. M. Forster’s Life • Travel: Italy and Greece with his mother; Egypt, Germany and India with the Classicist Goldworthy Lowes Dickinson in 1914 • Lovers: • 1. Mohammed el-Adl, 1916-17 in Alexandria, Egypt; “Good-night, my lad, for nought’s eternal; No league of ours, for sure” • 2. Kanaya, 1920s in India, first ongoing sexual relationship of his life

  9. E. M. Forster’s Life • After the age of 45: stopping writing novels, producing little more fiction apart from short stories only for himself and a small circle of friends • Successful BBC broadcaster in the 1930s and 1940s • Honorary fellowship at King’s College, Cambridge • Death: died in Coventry at the age of 91 in 1970.

  10. E. M. Forster • List of Works by E. M. Forster • Film Adaptations

  11. Key themes in Forster’s novels • 1. The pursuit of personal connections in spite of the restrictions of contemporary society • 2. The irreconcilability of class differences • 3. Sexuality: a general shift from heterosexual love to homosexual love over the course of his writing career. (the posthumously published novel Maurice and the short-story collection The Life to Come

  12. Forster’s Novel: Howards End

  13. Maurice (directed by James Ivory, 1987) • A homosexual love story

  14. A Passage to India (1984 directed by David Lean)

  15. A Passage to India • Published in 1924, the last completed novel that Forster published during his lifetime. • Major Characters in the novel: • 1. Dr. Aziz: • 2. Cyril Fielding • 3. Adela Quested • 4. Mrs. Moore • 5. Professor Narayan Godbole • 6. Ronny Heaslop

  16. A Passage to India (1984 directed by David Lean) • Themes: • 1. the difficulty of friendship between an Englishman (the colonist) and an Indian (the colonized) • 2. the racism and oppression of the British who rule India • 3. the “muddle” of Indian civilization and psychology, and the oneness (and perhaps sameness) of all life

  17. A Room with a View • Published in 1908, Forster’s most famous and popular novel. • Time background: the British Empire’s zenith, the Brits enjoyed the fruits of a system of exploitation and oppression • Spatial background: • Part I and the last chapter: Florence, Italy • Part II: Surrey, England

  18. A Room with a View • Cultural and Social background: • 1. The remnants of Victorian sensibilities: • A. refinement • B. the virtue of young girls • C. the control of passions • 2. A time of change: • A. Women began to clamor more loudly than ever for equal rights • B. Socialists were challenging old ideas about class and religion • C. Artists and thinkers began to challenge Victorian attitudes about emotion and sexuality

  19. A Room with a View • Major Themes: • 1. Propriety and Passion • 2. The beauty of human beings • 3. Travel and the idea of Italy • 4. The beautiful and the delicate • 5. Woman’s position and independence • 6. Connection between nature and man

  20. A Passage to India (1984 directed by David Lean) • Themes: • 1. the difficulty of friendship between an Englishman (the colonist) and an Indian (the colonized) • 2. the racism and oppression of the British who rule India • 3. the “muddle” of Indian civilization and psychology, and the oneness (and perhaps sameness) of all life

  21. A look at Passage to India

  22. A Passage to India E.M. Forster wrote A Passage toIndia in 1924, the last completed novel that he published during his lifetime.

  23. A Passage to India • The novel differs from Forster's other major works in its overt political content, as opposed to the lighter tone and more subdued political subtext contained in works such as Howards Endand A Room With a View. • The novel deals with the political occupation of India by the British, a colonial domination that ended after the publication of Forster's text and still during his lifetime.

  24. The title • Forster took the title from Walt Whitman's poem "Passage to India", 1870. The Suez Canal, creating a passage to India, was completed in 1869. • "While "Passage to India" is very much about the anticipatory joy of a global union fulfilling the destiny first sought by Christopher Columbus, it is also about the voyage of the soul or spirit and the resultant discovery that lies beyond India, the cradle of civilization, the motherland of America. • In fact it is India, as the ultimate goal of Columbus's voyage, that represents all great human undertaking and, at the same time, the distinct wonder of America, for when Columbus arrived in America, he thought he was in India," from An Analysis of Asian Influences in "Passage to India" by Matthew Whitman Lazenby.

  25. Background of the Novel (I) • The colonial occupation of India is significant in terms of the background of the novel. • Britain occupied an important place in political affairs in India since 1760, but did not secure control over India for nearly a century. • In August of 1858, during a period of violent revolt against Britain by the Indians, the British Parliament passed the Government of India Act, transferring political power from the East India Company to the crown.

  26. Background of the Novel (II) • This established the bureaucratic colonial system in India headed by a Council of India consisting initially of fifteen Britons. • Although Parliament and Queen Victoria maintained support for local princes, Victoria added the title Empress of India to her regality. • The typical attitude of Britons in India was that they were undertaking the "white man's burden," as put by Rudyard Kipling. • This was a system of aloof, condescending sovereignty in which the English bureaucracy did not associate with the persons they ruled, and finds its expression in characters such as Ronny Heaslop and Mr. McBryde in A Passage to India.

  27. Background of the Novel (III) • Indian nationalism began to foment around 1885 with the first meeting of the Indian National Congress, and nationalism found expression in the Muslim community as well around the beginning of the twentieth century. • Reforms in India's political system occurred with the victory of the Liberal Party in 1906, culminating in the Indian Councils Act of 1909, but nationalism continued to rise.

  28. Background of the Novel (IV) • India took part in the first world war, assisting the British with the assumption that this help would lead to political concessions, but even with the promise after the war that Indians would play an increased role in their own government, relations between the English and Indians did not improve. • After the war tension continued; in 1919 ten thousand unarmed Indians were massacred at Amritsar's JallianwalaBagh during a protest. • It is around this time that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi became a preeminent force in Indian politics, and it is also around this time that Forster would wrote A Passage to India.

  29. Background of the Novel (V) • More than twenty years later, after a long struggle, Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act in 1947, ordering the separation of India and Pakistan and granting both nations their sovereignty.

  30. Plot • We are introduced to Chandrapore, a city that is part of the British Raj. It is separated into three parts: Mosque, Caves, and Temple. MOSQUE • Aziz is a poor doctor who has lived dutifully under British command, but has grown more frustrated with their treatment of him and his fellow Indians.

  31. He and his friends discuss the English and complain that they have changed in attitude over the years and have become more intolerant and cold. • The British officials at the civil station in Chandrapore run a club that forbids Indians from attending and try to avoid any intimate friendships or relations with the natives. • Mrs. Moore and Adela Quested come over from England to visit Ronny Heaslop, Mrs. Moore's son and Adela's betrothed.

  32. Caves • Aziz gets to the train station especially early so nothing will go wrong with the excursion. • Mrs. Moore and Adela arrive on time, but Fielding and Godbole have not yet arrived. • Aziz is nervous because he does not want to be left alone with the women, anticipating that trouble will arise. • Ronny also disapproves of the women being left alone. He sends over a servant to follow them to make sure they are not left alone with Dr. Aziz. Fielding and Godbole arrive too late. • They miss the train and Aziz is left to travel alone with Mrs. Moore and Adela. • They put him at ease and assure him they are in good hands. At the caves, the weather is hot.

  33. The three go in and out of the caves, which all look similar. Within the caves is the haunting sound of an echo. • While Mrs. Moore is in the cave, which is completely dark, she feels something touch her. But she is haunted by the sound of the echo, which takes over her thoughts. • She decides to rest after her experience and let Adela and Aziz continue to explore other caves.

  34. Adela becomes preoccupied with her engagement to Ronny and realizes she does not love him. Before she enters the cave, she asks Aziz about his wife and love. Adela and Aziz become separated eventually and Aziz can not find Adela. • Aziz hears a car and later assumes that Miss Derek, Adela's friend, picked up Adela. Fielding joins Aziz and Mrs. Moore and they board the train back to Chandrapore. • When the train pulls into the station, Aziz is arrested for charges that are unknown to him. • Fielding publicly vows to defend Aziz and alienates himself from his countrymen. • Aziz is charged with making improper advances to Adela in the caves. Fielding believes that Adela was hallucinating.

  35. As the trial approaches, Mrs. Moore becomes more aloof. Adela seeks her support, but Mrs. Moore wants nothing to do with her or anyone else. • Adela is haunted with the echoes from the caves, and when she realizes Aziz's innocence, the echoes go away. • She tells Ronny about her doubts of Aziz's guilt and Mrs. Moore backs them up, but Ronny encourages her to go on with the trial and continue to press charges. • Mrs. Moore, with the support and encouragement of her son, leaves for Britain before the trial. She dies en route, unable to endure the heat and travel conditions. • At the trial, Adela continues to hear echoes.

  36. The courtroom becomes charged with emotion. Indians in the courthouse begin to call for Mrs. Moore to clear the name of Aziz. • When Adela is called to the witness box, Mr. McBryde presses her until finally she admits that she is not sure if Aziz is really guilty. • The judge drops the charges and all of the Indians in Chandrapore celebrate Aziz's victory. • Adela walks the streets in a daze and is intercepted by Fielding. He invites her to his office for her safety.

  37. Aziz becomes jealous while Adela and Fielding spend time together. • Fielding pities her since her engagement has been broken and since she put her life on the line to tell the truth. • He asks Aziz not to collect money from Adela for damages. Rumors begin to spread that he and Adela are having an affair. • Fielding denies the rumor, but in the back of his mind, Aziz believes the rumor to be true and thinks Fielding will marry Adela for her money. • After the trial, Aziz wants nothing to do with the British and begins to write poetry about the motherland and the nation. He decides to move out of the Raj to a free Indian state. Fielding and Adela return to England.

  38. Temple • Two years have passed and Aziz and Godbole now live in Mau, an independent Hindu state. Godbole is the Minister of Education and Aziz has a clinic in town. • The town is celebrating the arrival of a new God and is filled with singing and dancing in the streets. Godbole receives a note that Fielding and his new wife will be paying a visit. • He tells Aziz who refuses to see them. Aziz has ignored all of Fielding's letters and postcards over the years and assumed that he has married Adela in London. • Aziz runs into Fielding and his new brother-in-law (Ralph) by accident, when he goes out to attend to Ralph's bee sting.

  39. Aziz treats Fielding coldly. Fielding asks why Aziz never returned his letters. • Finally, Aziz realizes that Fielding did not marry Adela, but Mrs. Moore's daughter, Stella. • Adela introduced them in London. Aziz continues to behave coldly and says he wants nothing to do with the British. Later on, Aziz checks up on Ralph's bee sting and continues to be cold, but is finally overcome by a spiritual epiphany brought on by the celebrations in town. • He asks Ralph if he knows when a stranger becomes a friend and he answers yes. This was what his mother said to Aziz in the Mosque when they met. • Finally, Aziz and Fielding become friends again. Aziz gives Fielding a letter to deliver to Adela forgiving her for her charges against him. • He has left the past behind him. As Fielding and Aziz say their final good-byes, their horses pull them away from each other and they know they will never see each other again.

  40. A Brief discussion on the Plot • One night, Mrs. Moore encounters Dr. Aziz in a Mosque in the moonlight. • They are at first startled by each other, but instantly become friends. Mrs. Moore and Adela are more liberal than Ronny and wish to see the "real India" and befriend Indians. • Mr. Fielding, the Principal of the Government College, invites Adela and Mrs. Moore to his home for tea. He also invites Dr. Aziz, who he recently met and liked instantly, and his mystical Hindu colleague Professor Godbole. • Fielding's tea party is very friendly and comfortable. Aziz feels so at ease, that he invites the women on an excursion to the caves at Marabar.

  41. Topic Tracking: Earth (1) • Chap1: The Marabar Hills are described as the fists and fingers of the south. Despite their human characteristics, the hills are imposing. Earth here is more impressive than any of the people in Chandrapore. • Chap3:The women are fascinated by the moonlight, which has a mystical quality to it. However, a British stranger reminds them that in British India, though they might be halfway around the world from home, they stick to the same moon. Therefore, there is little spirit or imagination in the India of the English. Mrs. Moore and Adela hope for something more.

  42. Topic Tracking: Earth (2) • Chap 3: Looking into the sky, Mrs. Moore sees a moon that is very different from the moon in England. This moonlight filled her with a sense of unity with nature and the heavens the way it never had at home. • Chap 10: The heat of April, an aspect of the earth in India, makes things quite unbearable and influences the behavior of those who live there.

  43. Topic Tracking: Earth (3) • Chap 18: McBryde tries to argue that the hot climate and geographic conditions of India drive the Indians to behave the way they do. He contends that nature has control over man in India and if the British were to endure this climate, they would behave the same way. • Chap 23: When Mrs. Moore first came to India, the mystical forces of the earth overtook her. However, after the engagement of Ronny and Adela, she becomes burdened with the duties of reality and this disrupts her union with spirit and earth.

  44. Topic Tracking: Earth (4) • Chap 24: The echoes of the cave haunt Adela and make her question her charges against Aziz. The sound of the caves haunts her until she reveals the truth about Aziz and clears her conscience. • Chap 37: The earth prevents Aziz and Fielding from riding back to each other. It prevents the continuation of their friendship, at least until the British leave India.

  45. Topic Tracking: Love (1) • Chap 8: Though they have broken off the engagement, the bumpy ride in Nawab Bahadur's car awakens Adela and Ronny's feelings of love, or at least lust. • Chap 11: Aziz and Fielding discuss marriage. Aziz admits that he fell in love with his wife after they were married. Sharing the photo of his wife with him is an act of brotherly love. Fielding also admits that he has never married or never plans to. He says he is too old to fall in love.

  46. Topic Tracking: Love (2) • Chap 15 : Adela begins to doubt her love for Ronny. She realizes she is not in love with him and questions if she is capable of loving another. She thinks she is too intellectual to be in love. • Chap 27: Fielding can not understand why Aziz loved Mrs. Moore so much, since she had not been there for Aziz, especially after the cave incident. He tells Fielding that Mrs. Moore was oriental in her emotions--she never measured love. Fielding is very western and Aziz feels he measures his emotions too much. • Chap 28: Ronny terminates the engagement with Adela. The two had never been in love and were probably incapable of loving each other.

  47. Topic Tracking: Love (3) • Chap 29: Both Adela and Fielding have given up on love and think they will never love anyone. • Chap 36: Ralph tells Aziz that his mother loved him very much. Though Aziz is very short with Ralph, Ralph overlooks the behavior and assures him that he is a friend, though he is a stranger. This oriental attitude is like his mother's. Ralph proves he is capable of loving on instinct the way his mother had.

  48. Nationalism (1) • Chap 3: The British National Anthem inspires feelings of power rather than patriotism. England's role in India is one of power and control. • Chap 14: While discussing Akbar, a Hindu figure who had a unifying force, Aziz tells Mrs. Moore and Adela that India cannot be united. As a Muslim, he feels divided from the other half of India.

  49. Nationalism (2) • Chap 24: Adela begins to feel guilty about the notion of the British as a civilizing force. She contemplates who gave them the right to control a country. At the same time, McBryde uses a "scientific" approach to prove the racial and national superiority of the British over the Indians. • Mahmoud Ali becomes vocal about the unfair role of the British in India. He stands up for Indian nationalism and storms out of the court.

  50. Nationalism (3) • Chap 25: The otherwise pro-British Nawab Bahadur, the most diplomatic and respected of Indians, becomes so inspired by the cruel treatment of his son and the treatment of Aziz by the British, that he renounces his name and title for his Islamic name. • Chap 30: The trial awoke the nationalist spirit in Aziz. He now began to think of the motherland in his poetry.

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