INGLES RESUMENES Y ACTIVIDADES

INGLES RESUMENES Y ACTIVIDADES

A PASSAGE TO INDIA - SUMMARIES
CHAPTER 4: CAVES
This chapter is the beginning of the most important part of the story.
The Marabar caves is the setting for the main action in the novel, that
is, Adela Questeds supposed attack and later accusation of Dr Aziz of
that attack.
At the beginning of the chapter there is a geographical description of
the caves. Aziz is the host of the excursion, and he has invited Mrs
Moore, Adela Quested, Professor Godbole and Fielding to the caves. The
ladies were accompanied by their servant, Antony, who goes back home
because Aziz and Adela ask him to. He doesnt accept at first, but
Mohamed Latif, a friend of Azizs, bribes him with some money to go.
Fielding and Godbole are late, so Aziz and the ladies take the train on
their own. When they arrive to the Marabar station, there is an
elephant waiting for them.
They come into the first cave followed by a crowd of people. Mrs Moore
doesnt enjoy that and she is terrified by an echo inside the cave.
Aziz says that the best cave was higher up the hills but Mrs Moore isnt
interested, so only Aziz, Adela and the guide go up. Adela is thinking
about whether to marry Ronny or not. She asks Aziz how many wives he
has, as he is a Muslim, and he is quite offended by that.
Aziz loses track of Adela, the guide tells him that she has come into a
cave but they dont know which one. The guide runs away so Aziz is left
alone looking for Adela. She then appears down the hill and he sees her
binoculars lying on the ground outside a cave.
When Aziz goes down, the others tell him that Adela has gone back to
town with Miss Derek.
When Aziz returns to the town, he is arrested by the police.

CHAPTER 5
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INGLES RESUMENES Y ACTIVIDADES

Fielding goes to see the Collector, Mr Turton (a judicial officer) to find
about Azizs arrest and he is told that Adela accuses Aziz of attacking
her in the caves.
The collector thinks that this is one of the consequences of the English
and the Indians mixing up.
Mr McBryde, the superintendent of police, has a theory to explain
happenings like this: it was due to the climate of India: all natives are
innately criminals because of the latitude they live in.
Fielding cant believe Aziz is guilty but the police officer tells him that
theyve found a letter by Aziz arranging to meet prostitutes in
Calcutta
ACTIVITIES CHAPTERS 4 AND 5
CHAPTER 4
Page 63 exercise 1
A3B2C5D8E6F1GH4I0J9K7
Page 63 exercise 2
Possible answer:
It seems that for Aziz, Islam was a spirit of love towards all people and
a kind of place where he felt at home. In the mosque he became friends
with a Christian woman (Mrs Moore) simply because of the respect she
showed for the mosque by taking off her shoes. And when he showed
Fielding the photo of his wife, it was a way of going beyond the purdah.
Strictly speaking, only a brother could go beyond the purdah, but for
Aziz, if deep understanding existed, then anybody could become a
brother.
Bearing this in mind, we can see that for Aziz being Moslems together
meant being real friends, or staying with people who truly understood
you. Aziz probably told Adela to send her servant away because Antony
was a servant who was hired by Ronny, and was therefore an intruder.
He was a representative of the hostile English who would have ruined
the understanding between Aziz and his real friends.
Page 64 exercise 3
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INGLES RESUMENES Y ACTIVIDADES

a)

FALSE. They are all very much the same

b)

TRUE

c)

FALSE. They found everything rather dull that morning

d)

TRUE

e)
FALSE. At first, Mrs Moore had thought that somebody had tried
to hurt her.
f)
FALSE. He was glad she told him because it showed that Mrs
Moore considered him a real friend with whom she could be frank.
g)

FALSE. It was Mrs Moore who suggested this.

h)
FALSE. Although she realized that she did not love Ronny, she
knew it was too late to break off their engagement.
i)

TRUE

j)

FALSE. Aziz went to prison alone.

PAGE 64 EXERCISE 4
Possible answer:
The novel A Passage to India describes the feelings and customs of both
the upper-class English and Indians at the beginning of the last century.
Some of the most important customs described are those linked to
hospitality and the behavior of guests. For these upper-class Indians
the question of honour was closely connected to how one treated his
guests. For example, the most important thing for the Nawab Bahadur
after the car accident was that he had risked the lives of his guests.
Mrs Moore surprised Aziz greatly because of her respect for the
traditions of the country when she took off her shoes before entering
the mosque.
Aziz, himself, felt very strongly that his honour depended on treating
his guests well. He said at one point that guests must be free otherwise
they become prisoners. For him, the most important thing was that his
guests were happy. In fact, the whole plot of the novel turned around
his feelings about hospitality. After all, he felt obliged to be a good host
to Mrs Moore and Miss Quested and couldnt, therefore, allow them to
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INGLES RESUMENES Y ACTIVIDADES

come to his dirty, little house. This was the beginning of the disastrous
trip to the Marabar Caves.

PAGE 65 EXERCISE 5
A)

Common sense and goodwill

B)

Because love was missing: she and Ronny did not love each other.

C)

(Open answer)

Page 66 exercise 7
a-6 b-4 c-7 d-1 e-5 f-3 g-2
Page 66 exercise 8
a)

It is circular and about six metres in diameter with smooth walls

b)
Hope spirituality; politeness social life; and the blowing of a
nose the physical existence of individuals
c)
Possible answer: Aziz his loss of honour; Mrs Moore- her loss of
spiritual certainty; Adela- her loss of sentimental certainty
CHAPTER 5
PAGE 75 EXERCISE 1
A)
Because he realized that the collector was mad as well, and so
could not possibly understand.
B)

Disaster

C)
They forgot their differences and began to act as single, united
community
D)
Because he thought that all Indians, sooner or later, became
criminals.
E)
Aziz followed Adela into a cave and made some insulting remark.
She tried to hit him with her binoculars and then escaped down the
gully.

INGLES RESUMENES Y ACTIVIDADES

F)
Because Fielding knew Indians when they were at their best, i.e.
when they were boys, and not when they had grown up and become, as
was inevitable in his opinion, criminals.
G)
Because Amritrao was a Hindu and so Azizs case would become an
Indian issue.
H)
That if an evil action was performed at the Marabar Caves then
everybody, Aziz included, was responsible.
PAGE 75 EXERCISE 2
Because it would cease to be a tragedy and become a difficult legal
matter. Here, the tragedy is not that Miss Quested hurt herself running
down the gully but that a young English woman was attacked by an Indian
man.
Page 75 exercise 3
a)

(Open answer)

b)
He believed that Aziz, a criminal at heart like all Indians, made
insulting remarks to Miss Quested in one of the caves
c)
That if evil was done it was done by all, and if good was done it
was done by all.
d)

(Open answer)

Page 76 exercise 4
1-H 2-D 3-3 4-c 5-a 6-G

INGLES RESUMENES Y ACTIVIDADES

SUMMARIES CHAPTER 6 10
Chapter 6
The English are at the club discussing the incidents. The ladies think
about what they can do to help Miss Quested, even though she is not
very popular among them. They lament that Heaslop, Mrs Moores son, is
paid like that for his efforts for the good of the Indian people.
Dr Callendar thinks that the servant who went with Mrs Moore and Miss
Quested to the caves was bribed by Aziz to go away so he could do his
evil action; and he also says that they cant find the guide who went with
Aziz and the ladies up the caves.
Fielding strongly believed in Azizs innocence and declared that if he was
declared guilty by the court, he would resign from his job.
CHAPTER 7
Adela was recovering from the fever she had had and her skin injuries
caused by the cactus spines. She was in a changing mood.
Mrs Moore is quite rude to her because she firmly believes in Azizs
innocence, although she hasnt got any evidence; just Azizs good
character.
Adela starts doubting about Azizs guilt, she says shes certain that he
followed her into the cave but she doesnt remember anything. Mrs
Moore refuses to attend the trial; and Heaslop decides to send his
mother back to England.
In the trial, the prosecutor declared that it was a fact that the darker
races were attracted to the fairer ones but not vice versa. Mahmoud Ali
protests that they have sent Mrs Moore away, who would be an essential
witness in the trial to help Aziz.
When Adela was asked in the trial if Aziz followed her into the cave,
she answered that SHE WASNT SURE, then she said no, and that she
had realized she had made a mistake. So she finally withdrew the charge
(retirar cargos), and the prisoner was released.

INGLES RESUMENES Y ACTIVIDADES

CHAPTER 8
Adela wants to tell Fielding her version of the story but Fielding says
hes not interested because he belongs to the other side (the Indians).
She says that she suffered some kind of hallucination. Fielding says that
maybe nothing happened and she herself broke the straps of the
binoculars, or maybe it was the guide who attacked her.
The Indians want Adela to pay a compensation to Aziz, for all the harm
shes produced in him. Fielding asks Aziz to pardon her because she has
been brave in admitting the truth. Aziz says that he wont pardon her
until she apologizes to him. Meanwhile, they learn that Mrs Moore has
died in her trip to England. Ronny breaks her engagement to Adela and
she returns to England. The English continue to believe that Aziz is
guilty. There is a rumour that Fielding and Adela have become lovers.
CHAPTER 9
Aziz has left British India and has moved to an Indian state, where he is
respected. He has married again and he writes in favour of the
elimination of the purdah for women to be free. Fielding has been
sending letters to him, but Aziz hasnt read them after one in which he
said he had married someone he knew, and Aziz believed it was Adela.
Fielding is coming to the town for a couple of days and asks Aziz to
arrange a boat trip to see a procession. He has actually married Mrs
Moores daughter.
CHAPTER 10
Dr Aziz treats Ralphs (Mrs Moores son) bee-stings and he asks him
whether his mother told him about their friendship. Ralph says that his
mom loved Aziz very much. Aziz feels affection for the boy for being
Mrs Moores son but he cant be friends with him because he is Ronnys
brother and the two nations cant be friends.
Aziz and Fielding discuss their ideas about the British Empire. Aziz says
that Indians will remain silent until the next European war (2nd WW) but
then they will become a nation (the author is predicting Indias
independence in 1947), and he says that he and Fielding wont be friends
until then.