A Passage to India - Themes

Nature in A Passage to India

This novel does more than stress the malignant effect of moral and political domination; it also emphasizes the coexistence of nature with human struggle. Someone has noted that Forster knew and appreciated many of the beauties of India's landscape, but this is not the novel that depicts them. The mud, the dun-colored sky, the buzzing flies, the evil caves, the floods, and the merciless heat constitute for Forster the setting about Chandrapore. It is a place of cheerless plains and "lumpy" hills which contain the "fists and fingers" of the Marabar. "Nothing fits," and man's creations are completely out of harmony with nature.

It is quite evident that Forster intentionally chooses a most unlovely part of India to show the disharmony among the people who inhabit it. He explores the extremes of benevolence and malevolence and uses nature to help with both. For example, the beauty of the moon illuminates the lovely friendship of Mrs. Moore and Aziz; the pale sun against an "insipid sky" forecasts the evil of the cave incident. The wasp enhances Mrs. Moore's and Professor Godbole's concept of God's love for His creation. The bee stings bring Ralph and Aziz together, but the rocks force Fielding and Aziz apart. This influence of nature on human affairs is in line with Hindu philosophy.

Mysticism in A Passage to India

Much has been written about mysticism in Forster's novels, primarily in A Passage to India. It is not, however, mysticism per se with which Forster is here concerned, but rather the mysticism of Hinduism. Any understanding of the mystic element in this novel requires some knowledge of the religion on the part of the reader. (See the short paragraph at the beginning of the commentary on Part III, the "Temple" section.)

But even such knowledge will not bring complete or immediate understanding, for Forster is not attempting to explain Hinduism, or to proselytize for it; his method of dealing with it is, in the main, allusive rather than expository.

The novel is full of unanswered questions: "Mrs. Moore felt increasingly (vision or nightmare?) that, though people are important, the relations between them are not." "God si love. Is this the first message of India?" The reader can find many others for himself; since Forster himself does not pretend to answer them, it would be presumptuous to do so here. In fact, part of the essence of mysticism is its inexpressibility; it cannot be reduced to words, to questions with answers.

However, the reader should at least be aware of those elements that have mystical overtones — primarily the character of Mrs. Moore, the echo and its effect on her, and many of the aspects of Hinduism.