The classic symbolism of the cave is the underworld, the sepulcher of death from which the soul is reborn and illuminated. It is a dangerous place, a labyrinth from which no escape is guaranteed. The literary device of passing through a cave is often seen as that of entry and rebirth from the womb of the earth and one by which the entrant is forever changed. . Nothing is an oft-repeated word in “A Passage to India” and the Marabar Caves are obviously important from the first sentence on that reads, “Except for the Marabar Caves -- and they are twenty miles off -- the city of Chandrapore presents nothing extraordinary.” In the central section of A Passage to India, the Marabar Caves represent nothing, or rather more specifically, a dark formless nothingness that forces the protagonists to confront the darkest, most empty elements in their own souls. The Marabar Caves characters’ reactions to the personal confrontation they face inside serve as a transitional pivot for both the story and its characters.
The first section of “A Passage to India” introduces the book’s major characters. Dr. Aziz is an Indian doctor, a poet and a widower with three children. Representative of his county in the story his character transitions back and forth. At times, he epitomizes one role or another; at others, his character encompasses all three; much like India herself. He attempts to befriend the other Anglo characters in the tale. Cyril Fielding is the other major male character in the story. As the principal of the government college close to Chandrapore where Aziz lives he is a more enlightened and independent thinker than most of his compatriots. He understands the importance of education and educating the Indian population as self-aware individuals. Miss Adela Quested is the traveling companion of Mrs. Moore. Mrs. Moore’s son, Ronny Heaslop is the magistrate at Chandrapore and the fiancée of Adela Quested. Mrs. Moore’s purpose for her journey to India and her selection of Adela as a traveling companion is bi-fold. Although she genuinely wants to see India, she also actively supports and fosters the romance and marriage plans between her son and Miss Quested. Ronny is an important, although lesser character. Where Cyril Fielding is the enlightened Englishman reaching out to find a way to meld the divergent essences of India and England, Ronny epitomizes the typical prejudiced, intolerant Englishman in India at that time. Although fully developed characters, the major actors also represent a macrocosm of the social groups that are active in India at that time.
The opening of this section sees the primary characters embarking in a journey to the legendary Marabar Caves. Thrusting up sharply, the hills in which the caves can be found seem to be the most ancient place on earth. The highest, Kawa Dol is topped by a round boulder reputed to be hollow. Looking out at them one day Adela remarked that she would like to visit them sometime. Word of this comment travels through the servant grapevine to Aziz. Because of this, Aziz felt constrained to make good on his earlier offer to show them to her. The details are both complicated and expensive. Nevertheless, by including Fielding and Godbole, Aziz works them out so that even Ronny is satisfied of the comfort and safety of Adela and Mrs. Moore. Unfortunately, reality does not run accordingly to plan and from that point on all the careful planning start to run awry.
They are dark caves. Even when they open towards the sun, very little light penetrates down the entrance tunnel into the circular chamber. There is little to see, and no eye to see it, until the visitor arrives for his five minutes, and strikes a match. Immediately another flame rises in the depths of the rock and moves towards the surface like an imprisoned spirit: the walls of the circular chamber have been most marvelously polished. The two flames approach and strive to unite, but cannot, because one of them breathes air, the other stone. A mirror inlaid with lovely colors divides the lovers, delicate stars of pink and grey interpose, exquisite nebulae, shadings fainter than the tail of a comet or the midday moon, all the evanescent life of the granite, only here visible. Fists and fingers thrust above the advancing soil — here at last is their skin, finer than any covering acquired by the animals, smoother than windless water, more voluptuous than love. The radiance increases, the flames touch one another, kiss, expire. The cave is dark again, like all the caves.
People visiting the caves also experience the sensation of reflection, magnification, then deep darkness made even darker by the earlier temporary moments of light. This is certainly true of both Mrs. Moore and Adela. Both confront parts of themselves and the universe that were never known to them before. The echo of the caves resonates throughout their experience in the Marabar Caves and continues to haunt them after they leave. Mrs. Moore experiences the dark side of her spiritual commitment, one that she had been previously unaware of. She experiences, her own doubts regarding her commitment to relationships and God. Fielding describes her view on relationships when he writes “that, though people are important, the relations between them are not, and that in particular too much fuss has been made over marriage.”. During the train ride she expresses her feelings that the over emphasis on marriage has prevented society from appreciating human nature. This view becomes a focal point of her experience in the caves themselves.
The evolving disintegration of Aziz’s careful preparations for the group’s exploration of the caves become more evident when the group enters the first cave and this is where Mrs. Moore is confronted with the effects of the Marabar Caves. Aziz’s expansive plans excite the interest of the villagers who follow the group into the first cave. In the crowded atmosphere, Mrs. More panics when a child brushes against her face and subsequently refuses to enter the next cave. However, it is almost as if the cave has entered her; although her exposure to the caves is brief, the effect is long lasting. After leaving the cave, Mrs. Moore becomes so apathetic that even the Christian word that she previously delighted her and provides solace to her spirit seems null and Mrs. Moore seems teetering on the brink of total despair. Because of her inability to fully embrace and absorb the import of the universality of both the luminescent and darker elements of her spiritual being she never quite escapes their power and the bourm echoes of the caves remain with her for the rest of her life.
Adela is the next to confront herself in the transformative atmosphere of the Marabar Caves. Having lost the presence of Fielding and Godbole at the train station and Mrs. Moore to the crowded morose sensations of the first cave, Adela and Aziz are left to explore the next cave with only a native guide as companion. Adela separates from the two men and experiences seeing a shadow, and hearing the echo that seems to resonate with the eerie sensation of nothingness that the caves engender. Her mental state when she entered the cave was fragile at best. Inside the cave, it seems that she feels something tear of her field glasses. When this happens Adela’s precarious mental balance shatters. She flees from the caves, down the hill and returns to Chandrapore where, in her delusional state she accuses Aziz of raping her. This becomes the apex of the pivotal action in “A Passage to India”
Adela confronts the darker aspects of her relationships and spiritual existence, as well. In her case, her commitment to relationships takes the form of the depth of her feelings towards her fiancée, Ronny. In the caves she realizes she is not attracted to Ronny and that, in fact she might never feel that attraction at all.
Aziz may be the one who suffers the most from their experiences in the Marabar Caves. Although it is never quite clear what Adela experienced in the caves one thing is certain, Aziz was not in the same cave as Adela and could not have attempted to rape her. In the course of the uphill climb, Adela asks him how many wives he has. To cover his embarrassment as to the personal nature of the question Aziz ducks into a cave and lights a cigarette. When he reemerges, Adela is nowhere to be found. After confronting the servant guide who was supposed to look after her, the next glimpse he gets of her is far down the mountain. In this manner, the Marabar Caves serve to isolate the characters physically as well spiritually and emotionally. However, since the accusation came from an Englishwoman against an Indian man her word carries more weight in the Courts. Upon returning to Chandrapore Aziz is arrested and, due to his interment is isolated physically and socially. Fielding attempts to defend Aziz and eventually Aziz is cleared of the charges but the repercussions do not end there. Like the echoes, they keep resonating through the characters’ lives. Fielding and Aziz never regain the close friendship they once enjoyed. Fielding convinces Aziz not to seek redress from Adela and so loses respect in his own Indian community who feel he squandered his opportunity to demand monetary gain. His countrymen disapprove, and are not reticent about letting him know. Even Fielding who never enters the caves as part of the outing feels the repercussions echoing in his life. His friendship with Aziz is compromised and the hopes he had at the outset to see an enlightened India are dimmed.
Foster’s bleak post World War I outlook on the empty, Godless wasteland surrounding him finds its expression in the emptiness of the Marabar caves with their un-illuminated polished walls and booming echoes. It is as if in writing this he shaped the cave in his own image, revealing the bleakness he felt in his life. In that he is not alone World War I demanded the immediate reaction of many nations to spring to respond to the crisis. It was only afterwards that the nations began to tally up the losses. Young men had died. Others who and were maimed physically and spiritually returned to homes damaged by battles and fields that retained the odor of gunpowder beneath the drift of regenerating life. The women who had waited behind and the children were all still recovering from the daily weight of not knowing how their loved ones were faring and if they would be coming home. It did seem to be a God forsaken world and that finds its way into the deep emptiness of the Marabar caves, reflected over and over again in its polished wall and repeated in its echoes.
Works Cited
Forster, E. M. A Passage to India. n.d.
Fraim, John. "Settings." 2001. Symbolism.Org. 30 04 2013
