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The Role of the Character of Mrs. Moore in E.M. Forster's A Passage to India
Mrs. Moore provides a major contrast to Adela Quested, who is much younger, which is one of the main reasons for what they expect of life, and how they look at life. From the beginning, Adela has had the wish to see the real India, but, as she had foreseen, she "would see India always as a frieze, never as a spirit," while "Mrs. Moore had had a glimpse" of the spirit of India (p. 66). To know the real India, one should know its inhabitants, and Mrs. Moore has captured some of its spirit by becoming friends with Aziz, something which Adela never realized in her failure to see the real India.
Moreover, Mrs. Moore is not prejudiced in her view of the Indians, however hard her son, Ronny Heaslop, tries to influence her. When Heaslop judges Aziz's behaviour in the mosque negatively, he is unable to convince his mother of his view (p. 54). Adela, on the contrary, is easily influenced and less open-minded. When Heaslop accuses the Indians of bad morals, using the car accident as an example, Adela promptly agrees with him, and even overlooks his misrepresentation of the event when he accuses the Nawab of intruding upon Miss Derek, while it was Heaslop who actually did it (p. ??).
Another character contrasting Mrs. Moore is Aziz, which is less obvious, because most of the contrasts between them are culturally based. However, there is evidence that his character has a flaw that is not induced by his Islamic culture. Aziz is particularly prejudiced against members of the Hindu religion, which is shown, for example, in the condescending way he speaks about the Bhattacharyas (p. 86). In addition, the narrator's comment on Aziz's character (p. 89), suggests that he is not as broad-minded as Adela thinks he is, which she naively assumes based on his talk about his profession.
Furthermore, Aziz is a bad judge of character in contrast to Mrs. Moore. First, he accuses Cyril Fielding of having deserted him (p. 187). And later on, even after Fielding has put his career at risk to help him, Aziz easily believes in the rumours slandering Fielding (p. 267), and suspects his friend of dubious motives in helping him.
A significant parallel to Mrs. Moore is provided by Fielding. They both are older and experienced, and they both have travelled a lot, which has conditioned them towards a mind that is mainly objective and without prejudice. For instance, like Mrs. Moore, Fielding unconditionally believes in Aziz's innocence when the latter was charged with a crime that seems to be supported by convincing evidence (pp. 178-179). Their sound judgment of Aziz's character is the basis of their immovable belief in his innocence.
Furthermore, Fielding is an outsider to the Anglo-Indian community, which is essentially also true for Mrs. Moore, because her morals, as are his, are resistant to the influence of the Anglo-Indian community. Because of her age, she is not afraid to come forward with her opinions. Fielding is also not afraid to have different opinions from the rest of the community, though because of different reasons: he has no family to support in Chandrapore that would make him dependent on his job, and therefore he is free to go whenever he likes.
Mrs. Moore's presence in the novel has a great influence on the course of the events. One obvious point is that Mrs. Moore's decision to not join Adela and Aziz to the second cave, and the fact that she suggested to the latter to go with a smaller party (p. 160), creates the opening in which the tragic event could take place. Another case in which she is of importance is subtly concealed in the fact that her presence has a very specific effect on Adela. When Adela is brought to Mrs. Moore after her illness by Heaslop, the former receives a sudden insight that gives her a notion of the mistake she made on Aziz's behalf (p. 207). This notion however, is quickly pushed aside under Heaslop's pressure. Moreover, she even feels that the echo that she continually heard in her head from the moment she went into the cave without Mrs. Moore, has receded (p. 210).
These events seem to suggest that Mrs. Moore's absence from her has contributed to the continuation of the false incrimination of Aziz. In other words, Mrs. Moore serves as a kind of catalyst to draw Adela out of the bad influence of the Anglo-Indian society, and to give her a clear insight without prejudice. Even after Mrs. Moore's death, we see this effect on Adela when she testifies at court. The moment Mrs. Moore is mentioned, her remembrance works as a catalyst to Adela, and pulls her out of her strange trance (pp. 227-228), which results in her withdrawal of her false charge against Aziz. The death of Mrs. Moore significantly takes place before the court session, which suggests that her spirit was in truth present with Adela, then.
Finally, the presence of Mrs. Moore is found at the end of the novel in the person of her son, Ralph Moore. Aziz unknowingly recognizes something of Mrs. Moore's spirit in Ralph, and spontaneously tells him: "Then you are an Oriental" (p. 306), which are exactly the same words he told Mrs. Moore. It is as if the spirit of Mrs. Moore lives through her son, and in this manner, again, she serves as a catalyst to bring Aziz back to the right track, and as a result, she restores the friendship between Fielding and Aziz.
Work Cited
Forster, E.M. A Passage to India. Ed. Oliver Stallybrass. London: Penguin, 1979.
Copyright © 1998 Jill Li. All Rights Reserved.
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