MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Literary The MobileRead Literary Book Club August 2011 Discussion: A Passage To India

beppe · 08-19-2011, 04:07 AM

Beautiful comment, all of them.
At this point I want to add my little own on the women issue, as Paola and Hamle53 both touch this point.

paola
More in general the women here felt often more like a narration device than proper character - perhaps I am exagerating, but Adela is almost forgotten of after the trial, and both the change of personality in Mrs Moore as well as her death are rather sudden. These women needed to fade in the background, and in the background they disappear fast.

Hamlet53
Women are important because it is here that the separation is the greatest. The Anglo-English look on their women as genteel 'hot house flowers' that must be shielded from contact with Indians, especially the presumed primitive and rapacious characters of Indian men. Love and relationships are remarkably unimportant by and large if the meaning is between man and woman. Even the relationship between Miss Quested and Mr. Heaslop is weak and easily abandoned.

Forster has 4.5 characters well developed in the book. Mrs Moore, Adela, Aziz and Fielding. The half one is the Hindu singer, professor and chief mystic Prof Godbole, that merits a space by himself and on whom I'll return.So let's forget him for the moment and think of 4 well developed character.

The 4 characters have an intense spiritual life, at difference from the others, that are heavy with "business", like Rodney.

Mrs Moore is one of the pillars of the book's drama. maybe I should say flow rather than pillar. Many critical events turn around her. She is even made into a goddess. She, in the mind of Aziz, is the true friend, total and unconditioned, instinctive, that has never failed his expectations. She is the one more touched by the passage to India, her change is to me one of the most significant meaning of the book. The passage to nothingness.

Adela is a paradigm of honesty, together with Fielding. It is searching the true truth in herself that weakens her defences and makes her resonate with the voice of nothingness, the worm, in the cave. She, like Fielding, travels light, and is ready to put everything in discussion, to be true. Very admirable character. I would like to have a friend like that. I actually have. Her final talk with Fielding in the college, when they recognize that they like each other, quietly, simply, is one of the marvelous pages of the book. (modest and personal opinion)

So I think that women share at least half of the high characters in the book.
An other little thought on the title. I think that it also refers to Forster himself that was much touched by his personal experience there.

08-19-2011, 04:07 AM	#12
beppe Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,161 Karma: 81026524 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Italy Device: Kindle3, Ipod4, IPad2	Beautiful comment, all of them. At this point I want to add my little own on the women issue, as Paola and Hamle53 both touch this point. paola More in general the women here felt often more like a narration device than proper character - perhaps I am exagerating, but Adela is almost forgotten of after the trial, and both the change of personality in Mrs Moore as well as her death are rather sudden. These women needed to fade in the background, and in the background they disappear fast. Hamlet53 Women are important because it is here that the separation is the greatest. The Anglo-English look on their women as genteel 'hot house flowers' that must be shielded from contact with Indians, especially the presumed primitive and rapacious characters of Indian men. Love and relationships are remarkably unimportant by and large if the meaning is between man and woman. Even the relationship between Miss Quested and Mr. Heaslop is weak and easily abandoned. Forster has 4.5 characters well developed in the book. Mrs Moore, Adela, Aziz and Fielding. The half one is the Hindu singer, professor and chief mystic Prof Godbole, that merits a space by himself and on whom I'll return.So let's forget him for the moment and think of 4 well developed character. The 4 characters have an intense spiritual life, at difference from the others, that are heavy with "business", like Rodney. Mrs Moore is one of the pillars of the book's drama. maybe I should say flow rather than pillar. Many critical events turn around her. She is even made into a goddess. She, in the mind of Aziz, is the true friend, total and unconditioned, instinctive, that has never failed his expectations. She is the one more touched by the passage to India, her change is to me one of the most significant meaning of the book. The passage to nothingness. Adela is a paradigm of honesty, together with Fielding. It is searching the true truth in herself that weakens her defences and makes her resonate with the voice of nothingness, the worm, in the cave. She, like Fielding, travels light, and is ready to put everything in discussion, to be true. Very admirable character. I would like to have a friend like that. I actually have. Her final talk with Fielding in the college, when they recognize that they like each other, quietly, simply, is one of the marvelous pages of the book. (modest and personal opinion) So I think that women share at least half of the high characters in the book. An other little thought on the title. I think that it also refers to Forster himself that was much touched by his personal experience there.