An Analysis of Symbolism in A Passage to India

张 瑛

Abstract: E. M. Forster is a very famous traditional novelist, who is good at using symbolism to interpret the themes in his novels. At the beginning of this essay, the author briefly introduces Forsters life story, and then analyzes the use of symbols in his masterpiece A Passage to India .

Key words: symbolism;friendship;A Passage to India

中图分类号:G642文献标识码: A文章编号:1672-1578(2009)11-0031-02

1 Introduction

Edward Morgan Forster is a realistic, traditional novelist in English literature. He was born in London in 1879, the son of an architect. He was educated at Tongridge School and later at Kings College, Cambridge, where he enjoyed the free academic atmosphere there. He was particularly interested in the Cambridge philosopher, G. E. Moores idea of true friendship in a very stuffy and hypocritical world.

Forster began his career by working as a journalist after his graduation. He visited Greece and stayed for a time in Italy. Both Greek mythology and Italian Renaissance art gave him much inspiration. And most of his work is concerned with ways of discovering a quality in personal relationship amid the complexities and distortions of modern life. And he also emphasized the importance of harmony between spiritual life and material civilization and the need of mutual understanding in human relationships, which was very well presented in his novels. In 1912 and 1922, Forster visited India twice, and out of his personal experience of the two trips, he wrote his last and best novel A Passage to India.

2 The Content of A Passage to India

In A Passage to India, Forster takes the relations between the Englishmen and the Indians in India in the early 1920s as a background, tells us a story about an Indian doctors being accused falsely of insulting an Englishwoman, and explores the possibilities of establishing true friendship between Englishmen and Indians under the British colonialist rule. The story develops mainly around the relations of Aziz, a Muslin Indian doctor, and Cycil Fielding, an English humanist, who works in India as the principal of the Government College.

Mrs. Moore and Miss Adela Quested have strong liberal ideas and are eager to meet Indians on an equal position. In order to meet the needs of Adelas deeply and truly understanding of India, Aziz invited the two women and his friend Fielding to visit the Marabar Caves. While visiting one of the caves, Adela seems to have a hallucination of being insulted by some one in the cave. She rushes down alone and is picked up to go back to Chardrapore. Aziz fails to find Adela, but is arrested for having insulted Adela according to the latters own testimony. Adelas accusation brings the already strained relations between the British and the Indians to a crisis. During the stormy trial, Adela recovers from her hysteria, and realizes that she has made a big mistake. The crisis is resolved, and Dr. Aziz is set free. But Adela fells into a lonely position and is dropped by all the British community except Fielding, who now admires her and helps her back to England. Fielding comes back to India again after two years and meets Aziz. But Aziz clearly expresses that there will be no true friendship between the two peoples before India gets complete independence.

3 The Symbolism in A Passage to India

A Passage to India is regarded as Forsters well-knows masterpiece, not only because of the careful description of the four major characters and the content which uncovered the conflicts between the English colonial rulers and the oppressed native Indians, but also because of Forsters succeeding in fusing the elements of social realism, symbolic suggestion and psychological insights wonderfully well. From the several places of the themes of the novels, we may know this.

First, A Passage to India is a superb realistic novel. In this novel, Forster exposes the brutal treatment of the Indian people by the English colonialists in India to certain extent. By presenting a vivid picture of the racial inequality in India, Forster not only condemns colonialism, but also shows his deep sympathy for the common India people. In this sense, A Passage to India can be regarded as a criticism of the English colonialist rule in India and has rich social and historical significance.

Secondly, A Passage to India is also a modernist novel. With a vast physical and mental landscape, it shows the value of personal relationships and the holiness of the “hearts affection”. The emphasis here is put on mans difficulties and inadequacies in achieving the ideal. On various degrees, all the major characters, such as Fielding, Aziz, Adela and Mrs. Moore, seem to have failed in their search for friendship and understanding.

As a novelist, Forster is also very good at making subtle use of symbolism to express a normal and spiritual interpretation of human experience. In his novels, the images, metaphors, and the details of descriptions and actions seem to have carried a certain symbolic meaning. The very obvious symbols in this novel are the title of the novel and also those names of places. The title “A Passage to India”, is not simply the path to greater understanding of India, but also symbolically implies mans quest for ultimate truth. The three subtitles, “Mosque”, “Caves” and “Temple”, symbolically suggest that various religious paths to truth are being problematically offered. In the first part, the meeting of Dr. Aziz and Mrs. Moore at the mosque implies the possible achievement in personal relations by means of intuitive sympathy, acceptance and warmth. In correspondence with the theme in this part, the cool weather implies a kind of sanity and control over the human behavior. But the abortive “bridge party”, the rudely interrupted tea party, the broken and patched engagement of Adela and Ronny and the coming of the hot weather all pose a threat to the frail human bond.

In the second part, the shattering experience of Adela and Mrs.Moore in the Marabar Caves is the central episode. Adelas accusation of Azizs insulting her destroys Mrs. Moore both spiritually and physically, and drives Adela to the brink of madness. It threatens ruin to Aziz and destroys all constructive relationships among the four persons. Suspicion, hostility

and hatred between the Englishmen and the Indians are

aroused to the full when the stormy trial comes. Symbolically, the caves stand for the voice of chaos and provide a negative answer to the human endeavor for understanding and friendship. In this part, the hot weather, dangerous and oppressive to all life, echoes the negative answer to the caves with hallucination and hysteria, which annihilates all reason and justice.

In the third part, the festival to celebrate the birth of Indian love goddess in rainy season opens the “Temple” section. Usually temple is the place where Hindu religion celebrates the birth of love goddess, and where curls up holy incense smoke. But after the celebration, when Aziz and Fielding rides out of the mountain valley, the temples, the tank, the jail, the palace, even the birds and the carrion, what seem to be an ill omen, say in their hundred voices: that they dont want to be friends. So “Temple” is not only the symbol of the Hindu religion, and also that of a magic universe to which an answer to possible reconciliation of human relations might exist, and rain, symbol of renewed life or regeneration, also implies a hope of future friendship between England and India. The organic combination of the natural climate, the atmosphere of the story and the characters feeling also displays the excellent skills in using the symbolism technique.

4 Conclusion

While presenting a realistic picture in his works, Forster aims to convey his moral message in various symbols. But he does not always succeed in harmonizing realism and symbolism. As his stories shift from one to the other, now and again the reader feels ajar. The symbolic episode is too improbable for the reader to maintain his illusion of everyday reality. The demands of his symbolic pattern also lead Forster astray by making him go outside his creative range. But his A Passage to India also can be regarded as a masterpiece in the English literature world.

References:

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[3]金光兰. 《印度之行》的象征意蕴[J]. 兰州大学学报(社会科学版)2002, (02).

[4]张伯香. 英国文学教程[M]. 武汉:武汉大学出版社,1997.

[5]张秀芝. 迷人的梦幻与失望的悲凉 – 福斯特《印度之行》解读[J]. 西安外国语学院学报,2006, (01).

作者简介:张瑛(1974-),女,湖北工业大学外国语学院讲师,主要从事英语语言学,英美文学方向研究。