Jhabvala's Character Olivia And Forster's Character Adela example essay topic

Literature throughout time has contained many similarities. These similarities become even more prevalent when authors share a similar style and inspirations. Two authors that have similar experiences are Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and E.M. Forster. Both these authors have written books that are in the modernism style. Jhabvala and Forster also were fascinated by India and choose the relationships between native Indians and English colonizers as one of their themes.

These similarities helped produce books that have similar characters. The women, not native to India, in both Jhabvala' Heat and Dust and Forster's A Passage to India, share many of the same attributes. The most obvious similarities are those shared by Jhabvala's character Olivia and Forster's character Adela. Throughout the books, these two characters share many characteristics and experiences. The first experience they shared while in India is that both women are social with the native Indians. This was unacceptable to all Anglo-Indians.

Olivia frequently visited the Nawab at his palace. She also entertained him and his companion, Harry at her home. For the majority of the book, Olivia's husband, Douglas is unaware of how frequently she visited the Nawab. If Douglas had been fully aware of Olivia's actions, he would have been enraged.

Proper Englishwomen were not to associate with natives while unchaperoned. Adela, Forster's character, had a similar experience. She desired to see the 'real'; India. To allow her to do this, a native offered to take her to the Marabar Caves, a local landmark. Again, Englishwomen were not to associate with the natives.

Her potential fianc'e and host, allowed her to go under the condition that his mother and an Englishman were also included in the group. Socializing with Indians is only one common experience Olivia and Adela had. Another similar experience occurs near the end of both books. Both Olivia and Adela had relationships irreparably changed through the influence of India. If neither women was in India, their relationships probably would have remained intact. Olivia's marriage to Douglas was ruined because of her relationship with the Nawab.

Olivia became very close with the Nawab. She eventually came to carry his child. Because Olivia did not believe the child she was carrying was her husband's, she decided to have an abortion. The abortion was discovered by the English doctor at the hospital she was taken to when she started to miscarry. After it was discovered that she had undergone an abortion, 'Olivia never returned to Douglas'; 1 Adela also underwent similar circumstances. Because of her association with Aziz, the native who invited her to visit the Marabar Caves, her potential engagement of Ronnie never happened.

After visiting the Marabar Caves, Adela accused Aziz of attacking her. This accusation led to Aziz's arrest and trial. During the trial, Adela recanted her accusation of Aziz. After Adela announced that Aziz had not really attacked her, Ronnie, through humiliation, no longer want to marry her nor did she want to marry him. Both Olivia and Adela had relationships destroyed because of their deception about their associations with native men. Not only did Olivia and Adela share common experiences, they also shared common beliefs.

Neither Olivia nor Adela expressed views of racism toward the natives. They were quite opposite in their feelings toward the natives. Olivia expressed her support for the natives at a dinner party thrown by one of the other English officials. Suttee, the practice of a widow throwing herself on her husband's funeral pyre, had recently occurred in the village. This became the topic of conversation.

Olivia advocated suttee. She said, 'It's part of their religion, isn't it? I thought one wasn't supposed to meddle with that. And quite apart from religion, it is their culture and who are we to interfere with anyone's culture, especially an ancient one like theirs.

' ; 2 Her ideas were very different from the rest of the English, with the exception of Major Minnies, at the table. They felt that suttee was a barbaric custom and their responsibility to end. Her actions toward the natives also expressed an opinion of tolerance. Olivia's relationship with the Nawab demonstrated her lack of racism. Adela also exhibited a lack of racism. She very much wanted to socialize with the natives.

This is shown at the Bridge Party. She and Mrs. Moore are the only English women who really socialize with the native women. She and Mrs. Moore talked extensively with Mrs. Bhattacharya. They even asked to call on her.

Adela's lack of racism is also shown through other visits with natives. She has tea with Aziz and Dr. God bole, both natives. She also accompanies Aziz to the Marabar Caves. Adela also expresses her lack of racism to Ronnie. Ronnie was discussing what he felt was a mistake he made when he first arrived in India.

He told Adela how he had invited one of the Pleaders to have a cigarette with him. The Pleader got the impression that Ronnie was offering him preferential treatment. Ronnie went on to say that he learned from that not to invite any of the Pleaders to have a smoke with him. Adela questioned him and asked, 'Isn't the lesson that you should invite all the Pleaders to have smoke with you?' ; When Ronnie said that he preferred to have his smoke at the club, Adela retorted with 'Why not ask the Pleaders to the club?' ; 3 She was then bluntly informed that they were not allowed at the club.

She is unable to understand why Ronnie did not want to associate with them. A final similarity between Olivia and Adela is their dissatisfaction with the Anglo-Indians. Olivia found the Anglo-Indians to be boring and stuffy. This is shown several times through the book.

It first occurred at the dinner party thrown by the Nawab. Olivia felt everything about the other guests was boring, their attire, their voices and their topics of conversation. Olivia also expressed her boredom to Douglas. They were discussing the plans for her to go to Simla for the hot season when she said she would not go because she found the other women uninteresting. This is expressed when she said, in response to Douglas' insistence that she should have gone to Simla, 'And do what? Take walks with Mrs. Crawford?

Go to the same old boring dinner parties - oh, oh, one more of those and I'll lie down and die. ' ; 4 Adela had similar feelings of dissatisfaction with the Anglo-Indians. She even felt discontent with her potential fianc'e. 'India had developed sides of his character that she had never admired.

' ; 5 Adela did not like the changes that had taken place in Ronnie since his arrival in India. After the trial, Adela also expressed dissatisfaction with other Anglo-Indians. She 'renounced her own people. ' ; 6 She no longer desired to be around any of the Anglo-Indians. Adela and Olivia shared a common displeasure with the Anglo-Indians.

Not only are Olivia and Adela, women fresh from England, similar the Anglo-Indian women, women who have spend several years in India, also share many likenesses. A major similarities is all the Anglo-Indian felt they were superior to all the natives. Forster's characters, Mrs. Turton and Mrs. Callendar, both the wives of English officials, demonstrated this belief throughout the novel. During one of Adela's first meetings with the Anglo-Indian women, Mrs. Callendar very emphatically showed this belief when she said, 'Why, the kindest thing one can do to a native is to let him die,' ; 7 The Anglo-Indian women were discussing with Adela why she should not have wanted to see natives. All the women displayed a belief of superiority. This idea of superiority was also displayed at the Bridge Party thrown by Mr. Turton.

The Bridge Party was an attempt to bridge the gap between the east and the west. It is very difficult to narrow a gap when one group feels they are significantly superior to the other group. Ronnie said to Mrs. Turton, 'The great point to remember is that no one who's here matters; those who matter don't come. Isn't that so, Mrs. Turton?' ; 8 Mrs. Turton went on to agree with Ronnie that none of the natives mattered and were completely nonessential to life in India. Mrs. Turton continued to express her feeling of superiority at Bridge Party. While talking with Adela and Mrs. Moore, she said, ' You " re superior to them, anyway.

Don't forget that. You " re superior to every one in India except one or two of the Ranis, and they " re on an equality. ' ; 9 She openly admitted that she considered the natives inferior to everyone. The idea of superiority was also shown with Jhabvala's characters Mrs. Crawford and Mrs. Minnies. Mrs. Crawford and Olivia visited the Nawab's mother, the Begum.

After their visit with the Begum, Mrs. Crawford and Olivia stopped at Mrs. Minnies house. Mrs. Crawford expressed her feelings of superiority when she told Mrs. Minnies about the visit. 'She comically rolled her eyes up as she recounted where they had been. ' ; Mrs. Minnies echoed the superiority when she told Mrs. Crawford, 'Oh you are good, Beth.

' ; 10 Both the women felt that visiting with a native woman, regardless whether the woman was part of the Indian royalty, was a chore only to be performed when one had to. The women also exhibited their racism during the dinner party when suttee was discussed. Mrs. Crawford found the tradition just as barbaric as the men did. In both Heat and Dust and A Passage to India the Anglo-Indian women express a great deal of racism towards the natives.

The racism among the Anglo-Indian women is not the only similarity between the Anglo-Indian women of Heat and Dust and A Passage to India. The women also felt the need to supply the younger women with less experience in India with advice. Mrs. Crawford and Mrs. Minnies offered advice to Olivia. They told her 'about putting up her khan t atti screens for the hot weather, and how to instruct the ayah to wash her cr^eye-de-chine blouses (which must under no circumstances be given to the dhobi).

11 This information was useful to Olivia because she did not have the experience in India to know what had to be done. The women also gave her advice about the climate of India. They explained to her why they left their husbands and went to the hills for four months each year. They tried to convince her that it was better for her to leave her husband despite her concerns. The Anglo-Indian women in A Passage to India also tried to offer advice. Mrs. Turton and Mrs. Callendar gave Adela advice on how the natives should be dealt with.

The majority of this advice happened at the Bridge Party. Again, they told Adela that she was superior to the natives and should act accordingly. Despite all their attempts Adela did not adopt their opinions about the natives. She attempted to form her own. The Anglo-Indian women in both novels attempted to supply advice to the younger women. Despite being written by different authors, the female characters in Jhabvala's Heat and Dust and Forster's A Passage to India are very similar.

In spite of the similarities among characters the novels themselves are different. Not only do the novels have different themes, they were also written through different points of view. While A Passage to India is mainly written through the view of a narrator, the point of view in Heat and Dust changes from the narrator to a third person view developed through Olivia's letters. These are a few of the many differences between the novels that occur regardless of the fact that the novels have similar characters.

Bibliography

Forster, E.M. (1992).
A Passage to India. New York: Everyman's Library, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer. (1975).