1. A Passage to India E.M. Forster

2. Edward Morgan Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970)  English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist.  well-known for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society.  travelled in continental Europe with his mother and visited Egypt, Germany and India with the classicist Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson.  Forster spent a second spell in India in the early 1920s. After returning he completed his last novel, “ A Passage to India” (1924).  humanist, homosexual, lifelong bachelor. Other works: What I Believe A Room with a View Maurice Howards End The Hill of Devi

3. Plot Two English women, the young Miss Adela Quested and the elderly Mrs. Moore, travel to India. Adela expects to marry Mrs. Moore’s son, Ronny, a British magistrate from the Indian city of Chandrapore. Adela and Mrs. Moore each hope to see the real India during their visit, rather than cultural institutions imported by the British. The two women are about to know India through an Indian doctor, Aziz. He offers them the chance to visit the Marabar caves, being accompanied by a new friend of the doctor, Fielding, and by a Hindu professor. The last two happen to miss the train to the caves, but arrived there later. During the visit of the caves, Adela is almost raped in a cave and after she escapes, despite the fact she hasn’t seen who the guy was, she accuses doctor Aziz of being the attacker. After an exhausting process, Adela realizes that it wasn’t Aziz and all the English people start to despise her. Aziz chooses to spend his life far away from the English, near Hindu people and after a fight with Fielding, he renewed the friendship with him.

4. Main Characters Dr. Aziz – Indian doctor from Chandrapore, who tries to make friends with Adela Quested, Mrs. Moore, and Cyril Fielding. He is a character full of contradictions. He has an attitude of irony towards his English superiors. Many of his characteristics are specific for Indians. Cyril Fielding – The principal of the government college near Chandrapore. He believes in educating the Indians as individuals. The character most associated with Forster himself. He is Forster’s model of liberal humanism. Miss Adela Quested – A young Englishwoman who travels to India with Mrs. Moore. She has an openminded desire to get to know India. Mrs. Moore – An elderly Englishwoman who travels to India, hoping that Adela will marry her son Ronny. She is a literar character, but she then becomes a symbolic presence. She symbolizes the ideal spiritual and race-blind openness that Forster sees as a solution to the problems in India. Ronny Heaslop – Mrs. Moore’s son, the magistrate at Chandrapore. Briefly engaged to Adela Quested. The open-minded attitude with which he has been brought up has been replaced by a suspicion of Indians. Forster presents Ronny’s failing as the fault of the colonial system, not his own.

5. Other Characters Mr. Turton - The collector, the man who governs Chandrapore. Mrs. Turton - Turton’s wife. She embodies the novel’s stereotype of the snobby, rude, and prejudiced English colonial wife. Mr. McBryde - The superintendent of police in Chandrapore. He and Fielding are friendly acquaintances. Major Callendar - The civil surgeon at Chandrapore, Dr. Aziz’s superior. Professor Godbole - A Brahman Hindu who teaches at Fielding’s college. Hamidullah - Dr. Aziz’s uncle and friend. Hamidullah was a close friend of Fielding before Fielding and Aziz met. Mahmoud Ali - A lawyer friend of Dr. Aziz who is deeply pessimistic about the English. The Nawab Bahadur - The leading loyalist in Chandrapore. Dr. Panna Lal - A low ‑ born Hindu doctor and Aziz’s rival. Stella Moore - Mrs. Moore’s daughter from her second marriage. Stella marries Fielding toward the end of the novel. Ralph Moore - Mrs. Moore’s son from her second marriage, a sensitive young man. Miss Derek - A young Englishwoman who works for a wealthy Indian family and often steals their car. Amritrao - The lawyer who defends Aziz at his trial. Amritrao is a highly anti ‑ British man.

6. Themes, Motifs & Symbols Themes: The Difficulty of English-Indian Friendship The Unity of All Living Things The “Muddle” of India The Negligence of British Colonial Government Motifs: The Echo Eastern and Western Architecture Godbole’s Song

7. Symbols: The Marabar Caves The Green Bird The Wasp