English Literature books summary

English Literature books summary

inheritance.

His wife, hearing of his good fortune, travelled with Monks to meet

him there. However, Leeford took ill and died without a will, so his

newfound fortune fell to his wife and son. Brownlow reports that he knows

that Monks's mother Leeford had no will because his wife had actually

burned. Leeford's wife and son then lived in the West Indies on their ill-

gotten fortune which is where Brownlow went to find Monks after Oliver was

kidnapped, Oliver's startling resemblance to the woman in the portrait, his

mother, having bothered his conscience too much. Meanwhile, the search for

Sikes continues.

Crackit flees to Jacob's Island to hide after Fagin and Noah are

captured. They find Sikes' dog waiting for them in the house that serves as

their hiding place. Sikes follows soon thereafter. Charley Bates arrives

and attacks the murderer, calling for the others to help him. The search

party and an angry mob arrive demanding justice. Sikes climbs onto the roof

with a rope with the hopes of lowering himself to escape in the midst of

the confusion. However, he loses his balance when he imagines that Nancy's

ghost is after him. The rope catches around his neck, and he falls to his

death with his head in an accidental noose.

Oliver and his friends travel to the town of his birth, with Monks in

tow, to meet Mr. Grimwig. There, Monks reveals that he and his mother found

a letter and a will after his father's death, both of which they destroyed.

The letter was addressed to Agnes Fleming, Oliver's mother, and it

contained a confession from Leeford about his marriage. The will stated

that if his illegitimate child was born a girl, it was to inherit the

estate unconditionally.

If it was born a boy, it was to inherit the estate only if it

committed no illegal or guilty act. Otherwise, Monks and his mother were to

receive the fortune. Upon learning of his daughter's shame, Agnes' father

fled and changed his family's name. Agnes left to save her family the shame

of her condition, and her father died soon thereafter of a broken heart.

His other small daughter was taken in by a poor couple who died in their

own time. Mrs. Maylie took pity on the little girl and raised her as her

niece. That child is Miss Rose. Mr. Bumble and Mrs. Bumble (the former Mrs.

Corney) are forced to confess their part in concealing Oliver's history,

and Mr. Grimwig takes measure to ensure they never hold public office

again. Harry gives up his political ambitions and becomes a clergyman. He

persuades Rose to marry him.

Fagin is sentenced to death by hanging for being an accomplice to murder.

Noah receives a pardon for his testimony against Fagin. Charley eventually

turns to an honest life. Brownlow arranges for the remains of Monks'

property to be sold and the proceeds divided between Monks and Oliver.

Monks travels to the New World where he squanders his share and turns to a

life of vice for which he is arrested. He dies in a prison. Brownlow adopts

Oliver as his son. He, Losberne, and Grimwig t take up residence near

Harry's church.

The Poor Laws

Oliver Twist opens with a bitter invective directed at the nineteenth-

century English poor laws. The laws were a distorted manifestation of the

Victorian middle class emphasis on the virtues of "work." England in the

1830's was rapidly undergoing a transformation from an agricultural, rural

economy to an urban, industrial nation. The growing middle class had

achieved an economic influence equal to, if not greater than, the British

aristocracy.

Class consciousness reached a peak for the middle class in the 1830's.

It was in this decade that the middle class clamored for a share in

political power with the landed gentry, bringing about a re-structuring of

the voting system. Parliament passed a Reform Act that granted the right to

vote to previously disenfranchised middle class citizens. The middle class

was eager to gain social legitimacy. This desire gave rise to the Puritan

Evangelical

religious movement and inspired sweeping economic and political change.

The ideal social class belonged to the "gentleman," an aristocrat who

could afford not to work for his living. The middle class were stigmatized

for having to work for a living. One way to alleviate the stigma attached

to middle class wealth was to establish work as a moral virtue. Between the

moral value attached to work and the insecurity of the middle class about

its own social legitimacy, the poor were subject to hatred and cruelty. The

middle class Puritan moral value system transformed earned wealth into a

sign of moral virtue. Victorian society interpreted economic success as a

sign that God favored the honest, moral virtue of the successful

individual's efforts. Thus, they interpreted the condition of poverty as a

sign of the weakness of the poor individual.

The sentiment behind the Poor Law of the 1830's reflected these

beliefs. The law allowed the poor to receive public assistance only through

established workhouses. Begging carried the punishment of imprisonment.

Debtors were sent to prison, often with their entire families, which

virtually ensured that they could not re-pay their debts. Workhouses were

deliberately made to be as miserable as possible in order to deter the poor

from relying on public assistance. The philosophy was that the miserable

conditions would prevent able-bodied paupers from being lazy and idle bums.

Anyone who could not support himself or herself was considered an

immoral, evil person. Therefore, such individuals should enjoy no comforts

or luxuries in their reliance on public assistance. In order to create the

misery needed to deter such immoral idleness, families were split apart

upon entering the workhouse. Husbands were permitted no contact with their

wives, lest they should breed more paupers. Mothers were separated from

children, lest they impart their immoral ways to their children. Brothers

were separated from their sisters because the middle class patrons of

workhouses feared the lower class's "natural" inclination towards incest.

In short, the State undertook to become the surrogate "parents" of

workhouse children, whether or not they were orphans. Moreover, meals

served to workhouse residents were deliberately inadequate so as to

encourage the residents to find work and support themselves.

Because of the great stigma attached to workhouse relief, many poor

people chose to die in the streets rather than seek public "aid." The

workhouse was supposed to demonstrate the virtue of gainful employment to

the poor.

In order to receive public assistance, they had to pay in suffering

and misery. Puritan values stressed the moral virtue of suffering and

privation, and the workhouse residents were made to experience these

"virtues" many times over.

Rather that improving the "questionable morals" of the able-bodied poor,

the Poor Laws punished the most defenseless and helpless members of the

lower class. The old, the sick, and the very young suffered more than the

able-bodied benefited from these laws. Dickens meant to demonstrate this

with the figure of Oliver Twist, an orphan born and raised in a workhouse

for the first ten years of his life. He represents the hypocrisy of the

petty middle class bureaucrats, who treat a small child cruelly while

voicing their belief in the Christian virtue of giving charity to the less

fortunate.

Dickens was a life-long champion of the poor. He himself suffered the

harsh abuse of the English legal system's treatment of the poor. In England

in the 1830's, the poor truly had no voice, either politically or

economically. In Oliver Twist, Dickens presents the everyday existence of

the lowest members of English society. He went far beyond the experiences

of the workhouse, extending his depiction of poverty to London's squalid

streets, dark houses and thieves' dens. He gave voice to those who had no

voice, establishing a close link between politics and literature.

What does the phrase "justice is blind" normally mean?

The phrase "justice is blind" normally means that the law treats all

individuals equally. It means that the law is not biased. The phrase is

ironic because the legal system portrayed in Oliver Twist is heavily biased

in favor f individuals who belong to the middle and upper classes. Oliver

enters he courtroom twice in the novel. The magistrate who presides over

Gamfeld's petition to take Oliver on as an apprentice is half-blind. He

asks the workhouse officials if Oliver wants to be a chimney sweep, and

they assure him that he does. The law essentially does not recognize any

legal right for Oliver to speak for himself. The magistrate deigns to ask

for his opinion only after he notices Oliver's terrified expression. Oliver

is saved from Gamfield's brutal treatment, but only by a stroke of luck.

Hence, the phrase "justice is blind" is ironic when applied to the hearing.

The magistrate's half-blindness serves as a metaphor for the half-

blindness of middle class Victorians and their institutions. Although there

are glimmers of hope for mercy and kindness towards the poor, there are

still huge obstacles to change because the law is biased against the poor.

Oliver's trial for stealing a handkerchief highlights the precarious

position of the poor in the eyes of the law. In 1830's England, the right

to vote was based on wealth. Therefore, the law was designed to protect the

interests of people wealthy enough to own property.

Hence, the penalties for stealing were unbelievably harsh. Mr. Fang, the

presiding magistrate, is an aptly named representative of the English legal

system. The law has fangs ready to devour any unfortunate pauper brought to

face "justice." Without hard evidence, without witnesses, and even despite

Brownlow's testimony that Oliver is not the thief, Mr. Fang convicts Oliver

and sentences him to three months hard labour. Mr. Fang is biased against

Oliver from the moment he steps into the courtroom. He does not view Oliver

as an individual, but as the representative of the "criminal poor."

Therefore he views Oliver through the vicious prejudices of the Victorian

middle class.

Again, the phrase "justice is blind" is ironic when applied to Oliver

Twist. The magistrate is blinded by biased stereo types, and the legal

system he represents is biased against the poor. How is Fagin an anti-

Semitic stereotype? How does Dickens's anti-Semitism manifest itself ?

Consider Dickens's habit of referring to Fagin as "the Jew" or "the old

Jew." Consider Fagin's obsession with gold.

Victorians stereotyped the Jews as naturally avaricious beings who

worship gold for its own sake. Fagin's eyes "glisten" as he takes out a

"magnificent gold watch, sparkling with jewels." True to the anti-Semitic

stereotype, his wealth his obtained through thievery. Furthermore, Fagin's

psychological warfare on Oliver's basically virtuous nature reflects the

anti-Semitic stereotype of Jews as conniving, cunning conspirators. Dickens

characterizes Fagin's manipulation of Oliver as a slow poison meant to

corrupt Oliver's sense of right and wrong. Unlike an ordinary villain, the

Jewish villain is far worse. He presents a face of kindness over his true

nature as twisted brain-washer. When Oliver sees Fagin and Monks staring at

him through Mrs. Maylie's window, he cries, "The Jew! The Jew!" He does not

shout Fagin's name, so he does not consider Fagin's villainy as an

individual quality particular to Fagin. He names it as a Jewish quality.

Clearly, Dickens does not portray Fagin as a villain who happens to be

Jewish. He portrays Fagin as a villain because he's Jewish. The continual

habit of referring to Fagin as "the Jew" makes him an abstraction of anti-

Semitic stereotypes, not an individual.

The Victorian middle class's stereotypes of the poor.

Throughout Oliver Twist, Dickens levels a strident criticism at the

Victorian middle class's representation of the poor as hereditary

criminals. Dickens goes to great lengths to criticize the attitude that the

poor are inherently immoral from birth. However, he portrays Monks in the

very same light.

Brownlow tells Monks, "You . . . from your cradle were gall and

bitterness to your own father's heart, and . . . all evil passions, vice,

and profligacy, festered [in you]." Basically, Monks was a b ad one from

the cradle. Why should the unfortunate child of an unhappy, forced marriage

be the very paragon of evil?

A Passage to India by E.M.Forster

Part One: Mosque

Chapter One:

Forster begins A Passage to India with a short description of

Chandrapore, a city along that Ganges that is not notable except for the

nearby Marabar caves. Chandrapore is a city of gardens with few fine houses

from the imperial period of Upper India; it is primarily a "forest sparsely

scattered with huts."

Chapter Two:

Dr. Aziz arrives by bicycle at the house of Hamidullah, where

Hamidullah and Mr. Mahmoud Ali are smoking hookah and arguing about whether

it is possible to be friends with an Englishman. Hamidullah, educated at

Cambridge, claims that it is possibly only in England, and the three gossip

about English elites in India. Hamidullah Begum, a distant aunt of Aziz,

asks him when he will be married, but he responds that once is enough. A

servant arrives, bearing a note from the Civil Surgeon; Callendar wishes to

see Aziz at his bungalow about a medical case. Aziz leaves, traveling down

the various streets named after victorious English generals, to reach Major

Callendar's compound. The servant at the compound snubs Aziz, telling him

the major has no message. Two English ladies, Mrs. Callendar and Mrs.

Lesley, take Aziz's tonga (carriage), thinking that his ride is their own.

Aziz then leaves to go to the nearly mosque paved with broken slabs. The

Islamic temple awakens Aziz's sense of beauty; for Aziz, Islam is more than

a mere Faith, but an attitude towards life. Suddenly, an elderly

Englishwoman arrives at the mosque. He reprimands her, telling her that she

has no right to be there and that she should have taken off her shoes, but

she tells him that she did remember to take them off. Aziz then apologizes

for assuming that she would have forgotten. She introduces herself as Mrs.

Moore, and tells Aziz that she is newly arrived in India and has come from

the club. He warns her about walking alone at night, because of poisonous

snakes and insects. Mrs. Moore is visiting her son, Mr. Heaslop, who is the

City Magistrate. They find that they have much in common: both were married

twice and have two sons and a daughter. He escorts Mrs. Moore back to the

club, but tells her that Indians are not allowed into the Chandrapore Club,

even as guests.

Chapter Three:

Mrs. Moore returns to the Chandrapore Club, where she meets Adela

Quested, her companion from England who may marry her son Ronny Heaslop;

Adela wishes to see "the real India." She complains that they have seen

nothing of India, but rather a replica of England. After the play at the

Club ends, the orchestra plays the anthem of the Army of Occupation, a

reminder of every club member that he or she is a British in exile.

Fielding, the schoolmaster of Government College, suggests that if they

want to see India they should actually see Indians. Mrs. Callendar says

that the kindest thing one can do to a native is to let him die. The

Collector suggests that they have a Bridge Party (a party to bridge the

gulf between east and west). When Mrs. Moore tells Ronny about her trip to

the mosque, he scolds her for speaking to a Mohammedan and suspects the

worst, but Mrs. Moore defends Dr. Aziz. Ronny worries that Aziz does not

tolerate the English (the "brutal conqueror, the sun-dried bureaucrat" as

he describes them). When she tells him that Aziz dislikes the Callendars,

Ronny decides that he must pass that information on to them and tells her

that Aziz abused them in order to impress her. When she tells Ronny that he

never judged people in this way at home, Ronny rudely replies that India is

not home. Finally Ronny agrees not to say anything to Major Callendar.

Chapter Four:

Mr. Turton, the Collector, issues invitations to numerous Indian

gentlemen in the neighborhood for the Bridge Party. While he argues with

Mr. Ram Chand and the elderly and distinguished Nawab Bahadur, Mahmoud Ali

claims that the Bridge Party is due to actions from the Lieutenant

Governor, for Turton would never do this unless compelled. The Nawab

Bahadur is a large proprietor and philanthropist; his decision to attend

the Bridge party carries great weight. Mr. Graysford and Mr. Sorley, the

missionaries who live nearby, argue that no one should be turned away by

God, but cannot decide whether divine hospitality should end at monkeys or

jackals or wasps or even bacteria. They conclude that someone must be

excluded or they shall be left with nothing.

Chapter Five:

Neither Mrs. Moore nor Adela Quested consider the Bridge Party to be a

success. The Indians for the most part adopt European costume, and the

conversations are uncomfortable. Mrs. Moore speaks to Mrs. Bhattacharya and

asks if she may call on her some day, but becomes distressed when she

believes that Mrs. Bhattacharya will postpone a trip to Calcutta for her.

During the party, Mr. Turton and Mr. Fielding are the only officials who

behave well toward the Indian guests. Mr. Fielding comes to respect Mrs.

Moore and Adela. Mr. Fielding suggests that Adela meet Dr. Aziz. Ronny and

Mrs. Moore discuss his behavior in India, and he tells her that he is not

there to be pleasant, for he has more important things to do there. Mrs.

Moore believes that Ronny reminds her of his public school days when he

talked like an intelligent and embittered boy. Mrs. Moore reminds him that

God put us on earth to love our neighbors, even in India. She feels it is a

mistake to mention God, but as she has aged she found him increasingly

difficult to avoid.

Chapter Six:

Aziz did not go to the Bridge Party, but instead he dealt with several

surgical cases. It was the anniversary of his wife's death; they married

before they had met and he did not love her at first, but that changed

after the birth of their first child. He feels that he will never get over

the death of his first wife. Dr. Panna Lal returns from the Bridge Party to

see Aziz and offers a paltry excuse for why he did not attend. Aziz worries

that he offended the Collector by absenting himself from the party. When

Aziz returns home he finds an invitation from Mr. Fielding to tea, which

revives his spirits.

Chapter Seven:

Mr. Fielding arrived in India late in his life, when he had already

passed forty, and was by that time a hard-bitten, good-tempered fellow with

a great enthusiasm for education. He has no racial feelings, because he had

matured in a different atmosphere where the herd instinct did not flourish.

The wives of the English officers dislike Fielding for his liberal racial

views, and Fielding discovers that it is possible to keep company with both

Indians and Englishmen, but to keep company with English women he must drop

Indians. Aziz arrives at Fielding's house for tea as Fielding is dressing

after a bath; since Fielding cannot see him, Aziz makes Fielding guess what

he looks like. Aziz offers Fielding his collar stud, for he has lost his.

When Fielding asks why people wear collars at all, Aziz responds that he

wears them to pass the Police, who take little notice of Indians in English

dress. Fielding tells Aziz that they will meet with Mrs. Moore and Adela,

as well as Professor Narayan Godbole, the Deccani Brahman. Mrs. Moore tells

Mr. Fielding that Mrs. Bhattacharya was to send a carriage for her this

morning, but did not, and worries that she offended her. Fielding, Aziz,

Mrs. Moore and Adela discuss mysteries. Mrs. Moore claims she likes

mysteries but hates muddles, but Mr. Fielding claims that a mystery is a

muddle, and that India itself is a muddle. Godbole arrives, a polite and

enigmatic yet eloquent man, elderly and wizened. His whole appearance

suggests harmony, as if he has reconciled the products of East and West,

mental as well as physical. They discuss how one can get mangoes in England

now, and Fielding remarks that India can be made in England just as England

is now made in India. They discuss the Marabar Caves, and Fielding takes

Mrs. Moore to see the college. Ronny arrives, annoyed to see Adela with

Aziz and Godbole. Ronny tells Fielding that he doesn't like to see an

English girl left smoking with two Indians, but he reminds him that Adela

made the decision herself.

Chapter Eight:

For Adela, Ronny's self-complacency and lack of subtlety grow more

vivid in India than in England. Adela tells Ronny that Fielding, Aziz and

Godbole are planning a picnic at the Marabar Caves for her and Mrs. Moore.

Ronny mocks Aziz for missing his collar stud, claiming that it is typical

of the Indian inattention to detail. Adela decides that she will not marry

Ronny, who is hurt by the news but tells her that they were never bound to

marry in the first place. She feels ashamed at his decency, and they decide

that they shall remain friends. Ronny suggests a car trip to see

Chandrapore, and the Nawab Bahadur offers to take them. There is a slight

accident, as the car swerves into a tree near an embankment. Adela thinks

that they ran into an animal, perhaps a hyena or a buffalo. When Miss Derek

finds them, she offers to drive all of them back into town except for Mr.

Harris, the Eurasian chauffeur. The Nawab Bahadur scolds Miss Derek for her

behavior. Adela tells Ronny that she takes back what she told him about

marriage. Ronny apologizes to his mother for his behavior at Mr. Fielding's

house. Mrs. Moore is now tired of India and wishes only for her passage

back to England. Ronny reminds her that she has dealt with three sets of

Indians today, and all three have let her down, but Mrs. Moore claims that

she likes Aziz. The Nawab Bahadur thinks that the accident was caused by a

ghost, for several years before he was in a car accident in which he killed

a drunken man.

Chapter Nine:

Aziz falls ill with fever, and Hamidullah discusses his illness with

Syed Mohammed, the assistant engineer, and Mr. Haq, a police inspector.

Rafi, the engineer's nephew, suggests that something suspicious occurred,

for Godbole also fell sick after Fielding's party, but Hamidullah dismisses

the idea. Mr. Fielding visits Aziz. They discuss Indian education, and Aziz

asks if it is fair that an Englishman holds a teaching position when

qualified Indians are available. Fielding cannot answer "England holds

India for her own good," the only answer to a conversation of this type.

Fielding instead says that he is delighted to be in India, and that is his

only excuse for working there. He suggests chucking out any Englishman who

does not appreciate being in India.

Chapter Ten:

Opposite Aziz's bungalow stands a large unfinished house belonging to

two brothers. A squirrel hangs on it, seeming to be the only occupant of

the house. More noises come from nearby animals. These animals make up the

majority of the living creatures of India, yet do not care how India is

governed.

Chapter Eleven:

Aziz shows Fielding a picture of his wife, a custom uncommon in

Islamic tradition. Aziz tells him that he believes in the purdah, but would

have told his wife that Fielding is his brother and thus she would have

seen him, just as Hamidullah and a small number of others had. Fielding

wonders what kindness he offered to Aziz to have such kindness offered back

to him. Aziz asks Fielding if he has any children, which he does not, and

asks why he does not marry Miss Quested. He claims that she is a prig, a

pathetic product of Western education who prattles on as if she were at a

lecture. He tells him that Adela is engaged to the City Magistrate. Aziz

then makes a derogatory comment about Miss Quested's small breasts. Aziz

discovers that Fielding was warm-hearted and unconventional, but not wise,

yet they are friends and brothers.

Part Two: Caves

Chapter Twelve:

This chapter is devoted solely to a description of the Marabar Caves.

Each of the caves include a tunnel about eight feet long, five feet high,

three feet wide that leads to a circular chamber about twenty feet in

diameter. Having seen one cave, one has essentially seen all of them. A

visitor who sees them returns to Chandrapore uncertain whether he has had

an interesting experience, a dull one, or even an experience at all. In one

of the caves there is rumored to be a boulder that swings on the summit of

the highest of the hills; this boulder sits on a pedestal known as the Kawa

Dol.

Chapter Thirteen:

Adela Quested mentions the trip to the Marabar Caves to Miss Derek,

but she mentions that she is unsure whether the trip will occur because

Indians seem forgetful. A servant overhears them, and passes on the

information to Mahmoud Ali. Aziz therefore decides to push the matter

through, securing Fielding and Godbole for the trip and asking Fielding to

approach Miss Quested and Mrs. Moore. Aziz considers all aspects of the

trip, including food and alcohol, and worries about the cultural

differences. Mrs. Moore and Adela travel to the caves in a purdah carriage.

Aziz finds that Antony, the servant that the women are bringing, is not to

be trusted, so he suggests that he is unnecessary, but Antony insists that

Ronny wants him to go. Mohammed Latif bribes Antony not to go on the trip

with them. Ten minutes before the train is to leave, Fielding and Godbole

are not yet at the station. The train starts just as Fielding and Godbole

arrive; Godbole had miscalculated the length of his morning prayer. When

the two men miss the train, Aziz blames himself. Aziz feels that this trip

is a chance for him to demonstrate that Indians are capable of

responsibility.

Chapter Fourteen:

For the past two weeks in which they had been in India, Mrs. Moore and

Miss Quested had felt nothing, living inside cocoons; Mrs. Moore accepts

her apathy, but Adela resents hers. It is Adela's faith that the whole

stream of events is important and interesting, and if she grows bored she

blames herself severely. This is her only major insincerity. Mrs. Moore

feels increasingly that people are important, but relationships between

them are not and that in particular too much fuss has been made over

marriage. The train reaches its destination and they ride elephants to

reach the caves. None of the guests particularly want to see the caves.

Aziz overrates hospitality, mistaking it for intimacy and not seeing that

it is tainted with a sense of possession. It is only when Mrs. Moore and

Fielding are near that he knows that it is more blessed to receive than to

give. Miss Quested admits that it is inevitable that she will become an

Anglo-Indian, but Aziz protests. She hopes that she will not become like

Mrs. Turton and Mrs. Callendar, but admits that she does not have a special

force of character to stop that tendency. In one of the caves there is a

distinct echo, which alarms Mrs. Moore, who decides she must leave the

cave. Aziz appreciates the frankness with which Mrs. Moore treats him. Mrs.

Moore begins to write a letter to her son and daughter, but cannot because

she remains disturbed and frightened by the echo in the cave. She is

terrified because the universe no longer offers repose to her soul. She has

lost all interest, even in Aziz, and the affectionate and sincere words

that she had spoken seem foreign to her.

Chapter Fifteen:

Adela and Aziz and a guide continue along the tedious expedition. They

encounter several isolated caves which the guide persuades them to visit,

but there is really nothing for them to see. Aziz has little to say to Miss

Quested, for he likes her less than he does Mrs. Moore and greatly dislikes

that she is marrying a British official, while Adela has little to say to

Aziz. Adela realizes that she does not love Ronny, but is not sure whether

that is reason enough to break off her engagement. She asks Aziz if he is

married, and he tells her that he is, feeling that it is more artistic to

have his wife alive for a moment. She asks him if he has one wife or more

than one, a question which shocks him very much, but Adela is unaware that

she had said the wrong thing.

Chapter Sixteen:

Aziz waits in the cave, smoking, and when he returns he finds the

guide alone with his head on one side. The guide does not know exactly

which cave Miss Quested entered, and Aziz worries that she is lost. On his

way down the path to the car that had arrived from Chandrapore, Aziz finds

Miss Quested's field glasses lying at the verge of a cave and puts them in

his pocket. He sees Fielding, who arrived in Miss Derek's car, but neither

he nor anyone else knows where Adela has gone. The expedition ends, and the

train arrives to bring them back into Chandrapore. As they arrive in town,

Mr. Haq arrests Dr. Aziz, but he is under instructions not to say the

charge. Aziz refuses to go, but Fielding talks him into cooperating. Mr.

Turton leads Fielding off so that Aziz goes to prison alone.

Chapter Seventeen:

Fielding speaks to the Collector, who tells him that Miss Quested has

been insulted in one of the Marabar Caves and that he would not allow

Fielding to accompany Aziz to preserve him from scandal. Fielding thinks

that Adela is mad, a remark that Mr. Turton demands that he withdraw.

Fielding explains that he cannot believe that Aziz is guilty. Mr. Turton

tells Fielding that he has been in the country for twenty-five years, and

in that time he has never known anything but disaster whenever Indians and

the English interact socially. He tells Fielding that there will be an

informal meeting at the club that evening to discuss the situation.

Fielding keeps his head during the discussion; he does not rally to the

banner of race. The Collector goes to the platform, where he can see the

confusion about him. He takes in the situation with a glance, and his sense

of justice functions although he is insane with rage. When he sees coolies

asleep in the ditches or the shopkeepers rising to salute him, he says to

himself "I know what you're like at last; you shall pay for this, you shall

squeal."

Chapter Eighteen:

Mr. McBryde, the District Superintendent of Police, is the most

reflective and best educated of the Chandrapore officials. He receives Aziz

with courtesy, but is shocked at his downfall. McBryde has a theory about

climatic zones: all unfortunate natives are criminals at heart, for the

simple reason that they live south of latitude 30. They are thus not to

blame, for they have not a dog's chance. McBryde, however, admits that he

seems to contradict this theory himself. The charge against Aziz is that he

followed her into the cave and made insulting advances; she hit him with

her field glasses, but he pulled at them and the strap broke, and that is

how she got away. They find that Aziz has the glasses. Fielding asks if he

may see Adela, but the request is denied. McBryde admits to Fielding that

she is in no state to see anyone, but Fielding believes that she's under a

hideous delusion and Aziz is innocent. Fielding explains that, if Aziz were

guilty, he would not have kept the field glasses. McBryde tells him that

the Indian criminal psychology is different, and shows Fielding the

contents of Aziz's pocket case, including a letter from a friend who keeps

a brothel. The police also find pictures of women in Aziz's bungalow, but

Fielding says that the picture is of Aziz's wife.

Chapter Nineteen:

Hamidullah waits outside the Superintendent's office; Fielding tells

him that evidence for Aziz's innocence will come. Hamidullah is convinced

that Aziz is innocent and throws his lot with the Indians, realizing the

profundity of the gulf that separates them. Hamidullah wants Aziz to have

Armitrao, a Hindu who is notoriously anti-British, as his lawyer. Fielding

feels this is too extreme. Fielding tells Hamidullah that he is on the side

of Aziz, but immediately regrets taking sides, for he wishes to slink

through India unlabelled. Fielding has a talk with Godbole, who is entirely

unaffected by Aziz's plight. He tells Fielding that he is leaving

Chandrapore to return to his birthplace in Central India to take charge of

education there. He wants to start a High School on sound English lines.

Godbole cannot say whether or not he thinks that Aziz is guilty; he says

that nothing can be performed in isolation, for when one performs a good

action, all do, and when an evil action is performed, all perform it. He

claims that good and evil are both aspects of the Lord. Fielding goes to

see Aziz, but finds him unapproachable through misery. Fielding wonders why

Miss Quested, such a dry, sensible girl without malice, would falsely

accuse an Indian.

Chapter Twenty:

Miss Quested's plight had brought her great support among the English

in India; she came out from her ennobled in sorrow. At the meeting at the

club, Fielding asks whether there is an official bulletin about Adela's

health, or whether the grave reports are due to gossip. Fielding makes an

error by speaking her name; others refer to both Adela and Aziz in vague

and impersonal terms. Each person feels that all he loved best was at stake

in the matter. The Collector tells them to assume that every Indian is an

angel. The event had made Ronny Heaslop a martyr, the recipient of all the

evil intended against them by the country they had tried to serve. As he

watches Fielding, the Collector says that responsibility is a very awful

thing, but he has no use for the man who shirks it. He claims that he is

against any show of force. Fielding addresses the meeting, telling them

that he believes that Aziz is innocent; if Aziz is found guilty, Fielding

vows to reign and leave India, but now he resigns from the club. When Ronny

enters, Fielding does not stand. The Collector insists that he apologize to

Ronny, but then orders Fielding to leave immediately.

Chapter Twenty-One:

Fielding spends the rest of the evening with the Nawab Bahadur,

Hamidullah, Mahmoud Ali, and others of the confederacy. Fielding has an

inclination to tell Professor Godbole of the tactical and moral error he

had made in being rude to Ronny Heaslop, but Godbole had already gone to

bed.

Chapter Twenty-Two:

Adela lay for several days in the McBryde's bungalow; others are over-

kind to her, the men too respectful and the women too sympathetic. The one

visitor she wants, Mrs. Moore, kept away. She tells that she went into a

detestable cave, remembers scratching the wall with her finger nail, and

then there was a shadow down the entrance tunnel, bottling her up. She hit

him with her glasses, he pulled her round the cave by the strap, it broke,

and she escaped. He never actually touched her. She refuses to cry, a

degradation worse than what occurred in the Marabar and a negation of her

advanced outlook. Adela feels that only Mrs. Moore can drive back the evil

that happened to her. Ronny tells her that she must appear in court, and

Adela asks if his mother can be there. He tells her that the case will come

before Mr. Das, the brother of Mrs. Bhattacharya and Ronny's assistant.

Ronny tells Adela that Fielding wrote her a letter (which he opened). He

tells her that the defense had got hold of Fielding, who has done the

community a great disservice. Adela worries that Mrs. Moore is ill, but

Ronny says that she is merely irritable at the moment. When she sees her,

Adela thinks that she repels Mrs. Moore, who has no inclination to be

helpful; Mrs. Moore appears slightly resentful, without her Christian

tenderness. Mrs. Moore refuses to be at all involved in the trial. She

tells that she will attend their marriage but not their trial. She vows to

go to England. Ronny tells her that she appears to want to be left out of

everything. She says that the human race would have become a single person

centuries ago if marriage were any use. Adela wonders whether she made a

mistake, and tells Ronny that he is innocent. She feels that Mrs. Moore has

told her that Aziz is innocent. Ronny tells her not to say such things,

because every servant he has is a spy. Mrs. Moore tells Adela that of

course Aziz is innocent. Mrs. Moore thinks that she is a bad woman, but she

will not help Ronny torture a man for what he never did. She claims that

there are different ways of evil, and she prefers her own to his. Ronny

thinks that Mrs. Moore must leave India, for she was doing no good to

herself or anyone else.

Chapter Twenty-Three:

Lady Mellanby, wife of the Lieutenant-Governor, had been gratified by

the appeal addressed to her by the ladies of Chandrapore, but she could do

nothing; she does agree to help Mrs. Moore get passage out of India in her

own cabin. Mrs. Moore got what she desired: she escaped the trial, the

marriage and the hot weather, and will return to England in comfort. Mrs.

Moore, however, has come to that state where the horror and the smallness

of the universe are visible. The echo in the cave was a revelation to Mrs.

Moore, insignificant though it may be. Mrs. Moore departs from Chandrapore

alone, for Ronny cannot leave the town.

Chapter Twenty-Four:

The heat accelerates after Mrs. Moore's departure until it seems a

punishment. Adela resumes her morning kneel to Christianity, imploring God

for a favorable verdict. Adela worries that she will break down during the

trial, but the Collector tells her that she is bound to win, but does not

tell her that Nawab Bahadur had financed the defense and would surely

appeal. The case is called, and the first person Adela notices in the Court

is the man who pulls the punkah; to Adela, this nearly naked man stands out

as divine as he pulls the rope. Mr. McBryde behaves casually, as if he

knows that Aziz will be found guilty. He remarks that the darker races are

physically attracted to the fairer, but not vice verse, and a voice is

heard from the crowd asking "even when the lady is so much uglier than the

man?" Mahmoud Ali claims that Mrs. Moore was sent away because she would

have testified that Aziz is innocent. The audience begins chanting Mrs.

Moore until her name seems to be Esmiss Esmoor, as if a Hindu goddess. The

magistrate scolds Armitrao and McBryde for presuming Mrs. Moore's presence

as a witness. Adela is the next to testify; a new sensation protects her

like a magnificent armor. When McBryde asks her whether Aziz followed her,

she say that she cannot be sure. Finally, she admits that she made a

mistake and Dr. Aziz never followed her. The Major attempts to stop the

proceedings on medical grounds, but Adela withdraws the charge. The Nawab

Bahadur declares in court that this is a scandal. Mr. Das rises and

releases the prisoner, as the man who pulls the punkah continues as if

nothing had occurred.

Chapter Twenty-Five:

Miss Quested renounces his own people and is drawn into a mass of

Indians and carried toward the public exit of the court. Fielding finds

her, and tells her that she cannot walk alone in Chandrapore, for there

will be a riot. She wonders if she should join the other English persons,

but Fielding puts her in his carriage. One of Fielding's students finds him

and gives him a garland of jasmine, but Fielding has wearied of his

students' adoration. The student vows to pull Fielding and Miss Quested in

a procession. Mahmoud Ali shouts "down with the Collector, down with the

Superintendent of Police," but the Nawab Bahadur reprimands him as unwise.

A riot nearly occurs, but Dr. Panna Lal calms the situation. Although Dr.

Lal was going to testify for the prosecution, he makes a public apology to

Aziz and secures the release of Nureddin, for there are rumors that he was

being tortured by the police.

Chapter Twenty-Six:

Fielding and Miss Quested remain isolated at the college and have the

first of several curious conversations. He asks her why she would make a

charge if she were to withdraw it, but she cannot give a definitive answer.

She tells him that she has been unwell since the caves and perhaps before

that, and wonders what gave her the hallucination. He offers four

explanations, but only gives three: Aziz is guilty, as her friends think;

she invented the charge out of malice, which is what Fielding's friends

think; or, she had a hallucination. He tells her that he believes that she

broke the strap of the field glasses and was alone in the cave the whole

time. She tells him that she first felt out of sorts at the party with Aziz

and Godbole, and tells him that she had a hallucination of a marriage

proposal when there was none. Fielding believes that McBryde exorcised her:

as soon as he asked a straightforward question, she gave a straightforward

answer and broke down. She asks what Aziz thinks of her, and Fielding tells

Adela that Aziz is not capable of thought in his misery, but is naturally

very bitter. An underlying feeling with Aziz is that he had been accused by

an ugly woman; Aziz is a sexual snob. Fielding offers the fourth

explanation: that it was the guide who assaulted Adela, but that option is

inconclusive. Hamidullah joins them, and alternately praises and reprimands

Adela. Fielding and Hamidullah are unsure where Adela could go, because no

place seems safe for her. Fielding has a new sympathy for Adela, who has

become a real person to him. Adela thinks that she must go to the Turtons,

for the Collector would take her in, if not his wife. Ronny arrives and

tells them that Mrs. Moore died at sea from the heat. Fielding tells him

that Adela will stay at the college but he will not be responsible for her

safety.

Chapter Twenty-Seven:

After the Victory Banquet at Mr. Zulfiqar's mansion, Aziz and Fielding

discuss the future. Aziz knows that Fielding wants him to not sue Adela,

for it will show him to be a gentleman, but Aziz says that he has become

anti-British and ought to have become so sooner. Aziz says that he will not

let Miss Quested off easily to make a better reputation for himself and

Indians generally, for it will be put down to weakness and the attempt to

gain promotion. Aziz decides that he will have nothing more to do with

British India and will seek service in some Moslem State. Fielding tells

Aziz that Adela is a prig, but perfectly genuine and very brave. He tells

Aziz what a momentous move she made. Fielding offers to be an intermediary

for an apology from Adela, and Aziz asks for an apology in which Adela

admits that she is an awful hag. Aziz finally agrees to consult Mrs. Moore.

However, when Fielding blurts out that she is dead, Aziz does not believe

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