A 13-page, 6000-word A* quotation bank that covers Forster's 'A Passage to India' in its entirety. Alive to questions beyond the scope of the A-Level course, engaging w/ narratology, linguistics, orientalism, and humanism amongst other concepts.
Structured into A02 (textual analysis) and A03 (c...
Quote AO2 Analysis AO3 Context/ AO4 Links to HoD
‘Except for the ‘Several critics have examined the language of Established as extraordinary/ preternatural
Marabar Caves… the the novel and found negation and absence at the beginning of the novel – elucidated
city of Chandrapore (gaps) to be operating on linguistic and 33 by allusion to Plato’s cave in Part II.
presents nothing thematic levels. Gillian Beer identifies the fact
extraordinary. that “negative sentence structures, together The inadequacy of language is a theme
with the words ‘no,’ ‘not,’ ‘never,’ and in throughout both novels.
particular ‘nothing,’ predominate in the
linguistic ordering” (45). Herz implies that
Forster shows language to be insufficient to its
task and that it is silence that denotes
meaning, because language is full of “noise”.
(here).
The caves transcend language: their enigmatic
nature is emphasised by the sense of
ineffability.
‘Edged rather than Cities usually represent advanced civilisation Perhaps links to the theme of ‘places’ –
washed by the river and systems of governance. The Ganges is compare with the Thames in HoD.
Ganges’ considered to be holy by Hindus; therefore, that
it ‘edge[s]’ the city places a framework of
morality.
‘the Ganges happens Forster satirically rejects the romanticised view
not to be holy here’ of India, instead offering a more accurate
depiction of the harsh reality of Chandrapore.
‘The reader is deliberately shifted from exotic
and colourful narratives about British India
which featured picturesque and exalted
discourses about the colonial exchange… It is a
mundane geographical appropriation of the
colonized land.’
‘So abased, so The strength of the adjective ‘abased’ might This is reflective of modernism which
monotonous is indicate the narrative voice breaking through – sought to express the complexity of
everything that meets Forster using speaker as a mouthpiece. experience through literature.
the eye’
Forster seeks to distance his description from Links to subjectivity/ epistemological
expected local colour: it is obvious from the relativism in Heart of Darkness: ‘the yarns of
start that Forster has serious qualms about seaman have a direct simplicity […]
Imperial romance and wants to disappoint moonshine’.
readers who, like the eager Adela, long to see
India. In both, the emphasis on the subjectivity of
experience allows the authors to comment
The phrase ‘meets the eye’ links to the theme more broadly on the moral ambivalence of
of epistemological relativism as seen in Heart of colonialism. Makes readers aware of own
Darkness, establishing subjectivity as an perspectives - questioning truth and
overarching theme of the novel – particularly assumptions, and therefore calls into
with the conflicting perceptions of Adela’s question whether the colonists'
experience in the caves. perspectives are superior to those of others.
Links to multiple perspectives on
This sense of monotony and vacuity links to the colonialism.
‘oh-boum’ noise in the caves later in the novel.
The novels differ somewhat in this, though –
Heart of Darkness uses the narrow
, perspective of Marlow whereas in APTI the
omniscient narrator introduces multiple
different perspectives.
There is a ‘hospital’, Infrastructure exists, but in the favour of the A similar polarity exists in Heart of Darkness
‘railway station’ and a British. There is a clear disparity between the – disparity between the accountant’s office
‘sensibly planned’ ‘sensibly planned’ ‘Civil Station’ and the and ‘muddle of everything else’.
‘Civil Station’ with a ‘abased’ and ‘monotonous’ ‘bazaars’.
‘red-brick Club on its
brow’
‘On this second rise is This links to Chapter Eight: ‘nothing in India is
laid out the little Civil identifiable, the mere asking of a question
Station, and viewed causes it to disappear or merge into something
hence Chandrapore else’.
appears to be a totally
different place’ Again, Forster is establishing the volatility of
perspective/ changing quality of reality as an
overarching theme of the novel.
‘It is a tropical ‘The Anglo-Indians find psychological Forster was President of the Cambridge
pleasance, washed by reassurance in this imposition of the tranquillity Humanists from 1959 to his death. The sky
a noble river’ vs ‘The and order of English gardens on India. Yet their serves as a universalizing symbol which
sky settles verdure is composed of non-English exotic unifies humans.
everything… because vegetation: toddy palms, neem trees, mangoes
it is so strong and and peepul. And the narrator makes it clear As Conrad employs the ‘objective
enormous’ that no aspect of human agency like the correlative’ (Modernist device propounded
creation of gardens can compete with the by TS Eliot here.), Forster allows the reader
power of an Indian nature that is outside to attain a gradual comprehension of his
human control: ‘The sky settles everything—not humanist ideas through the symbol of the
only climates and seasons but when the earth ‘sky’.
shall be beautiful. By herself she can do little—
only feeble outbursts of flowers. But when the
sky chooses, glory can rain in to the
Chandrapore bazaars or a benediction pass
from horizon to horizon’. The novel thus opens
with a challenge to the prevailing faith (held by
the British) in human agency to impose culture
on nature.’ From here.
‘The fists and fingers The corporeal imagery of ‘fists and fingers’
are the Marabar Hills’ serves as an adumbration of Adela’s alleged
rape in the Marabar Caves. There is a hint of
something extraordinary: the Marabar Caves
disrupt the ‘endless expanse’ of earth. This hint
remains subtle throughout the chapter,
however.
‘Hamidullah here is The Indians are immediately established as
actually dead. He civilised – they are able to have dry, sarcastic
passed away just as he exchanges.
rode up on your bike’
‘I give any Englishman The actions of the male Anglo-Indians are
two years… And I give mediated by their professional responsibilities.
any Englishwoman six
months’
‘Mrs Turton takes As in Heart of Darkness, there is shown to be Links to HoD: ‘Anything – anything can be
bribes’: she was given little moral accountability in India. done in this country’.
a ‘sewing machine in
solid gold’
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