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ENG 451 Modern Novel in Britain Revision Week 1-13
ENG 451 Modern Novel in Britain Revision Week 1-13
451 Section: 59
Q#1: Define the term ‘Novel’ and how is novel differentiated from the novella
and the short story?
Ans: The novel is a long fictional prose narrative. The novel is differentiated from
the novella and the short story in terms of length.
Q#2: What are some possible antecedents of the modern novel in world
literature?
Ans: There are many possible antecedents of the modern novel in world literature
(e.g. The Arabian Nights), in Elizabethan prose fiction, and the French heroic
romance.
Q#3: What are the developmental stages of Modern Novel?
Ans: The novel, as we know it today, starts in Britain in the 18th century,
Then during the first half of 19th century, the novel reflected the romantic
spirit of the age.
The Victorian Age is marked roughly by the reign of Queen Victoria of
England from 1837-1901.
The modern novel is the novel written in the modern times-the twentieth
century and the end of the nineteenth century.
The modern novel breaks away with many of the literary conventions of the novel
written in the preceding period.
i) Modern novel is remarkable for its popularity, variety and complexity.
ii) Novels are being written practically on all possible themes and subjects.
iii) A number of different trends are to be noticed.
iv) The modern novel is realistic. It deals with all the facts of contemporary life,
the pleasant as well as the unpleasant, the beautiful as well as the ugly, and does
not present merely a one sided view of life. It attempts at a presenting a frank
Q#5: Write a short note on 18th Century novel. Name the famous writers of
this era?
The novel, as we know it today, starts in Britain in the 18th century at the hands of
such writers as Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding and Daniel Defoe.
Robinson Crusoe (1719), Moll Flanders (1722) by Danial Defoe
Pamela, (I, 1740; II, 1741) by Samuel Richardson
Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding are some of the first English novels.
Q#6: Write a short note on Romantic Novel. Name the famous writers and
their works?
During the first half of 19th century, the novel reflected the romantic spirit of
the age, which was characterized by the return to nature and which valued the
imagination over reason and emotion over intellect.
The Gothic novel was one form of the romantic novel; it presented horror and
the supernatural. A good example is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818)
Major romantic novels also include Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Sense and Sensibility (1811), and Emma (1815).
Q#7: Write a short note on Victorian Novel. Mention the famous writers and
their works?
The Victorian Age is marked roughly by the reign of Queen Victoria of England
from 1837-1901. The novel was the dominant genre in the Victorian period.
The Victorian novel is characterized by its realism and its treatment of the
social issues of that period.
George Eliot's (1819–80) most important works are Middlemarch, The Mill on
the Floss and Adam Bede.
Q#8: Write a short note on Modern Novel. Name the famous writers of this
era?
The modern novel is the novel written in the modern times-the twentieth century
and the end of the nineteenth century.
It necessarily reflects the aspirations, concerns, fears, ways of thinking, as well as
the artistic and literary taste of the modern era.
Short Q’s
Q.1: Why did Dr. Aziz invites Ms. Adela for excursion to caves?
Ans: Upon hearing a false rumor that Adela is offended that Aziz has not invited
them out to the caves, Aziz invites Adela and Mrs. Moore for an excursion to the
caves.
Ans: The Gokul Ashtami festival, the birth of lord Krishna. The Hindus celebrate
the birth of lord Krishna every year and worship a silver image in a shrine.
Ans: By chance, while thinking about a wasp Godbole remembers Mrs. Moore, even
though she was not important to him.
Ans: Fielding is making an official visit; he was transferred from Chandrapore and
sent on a tour through Central India to see what the more remote states are doing
with regard to English education.
Q.6: Why did Dr. Aziz assume that Fielding marry Ms. Quested?
Unfortunately, Aziz never read any letters past the phrase "someone he knew" and
automatically assumed it was Miss Quested. Aziz still remains under criminal
investigation since the trial.
Ans: Aziz had destroyed all the letters that Fielding had wrote to him after he
learned that Fielding had married someone he knew.
There are two shrines to a Mohammedan saint in Mau. These commemorate a man
who, upon his mother's order to "free prisoners," freed the inmates at the local jail,
but whose head was cut off by the police. These shrines are the sites where the few
Mohammedans in Mau pray.
Q.11: For what reason did Fielding blame Mahmud Ali? How did Aziz react to
that?
Ans: Fielding blames Mahmoud Ali for the ill will between them, for he knew
definitively that Fielding had married Stella. Aziz behaves aggressively and says
that he forgives Mahmoud Ali.
Q.14: How did the novel end? Where are Fielding and Dr. Aziz at the end of
novel?
Ans: The novel ends as Fielding and Aziz go on a horse ride together, with the
mutual realization that circumstances prevent them from maintaining their
friendship.
Although he is generous and loving toward his English friends, including Mrs.
Moore and Cyril Fielding. Aziz attempts to make friends with Adela Quested, Mrs.
Moore, and Cyril Fielding after Adela Quested accuses him of assault, he becomes
bitter, vindictive (spiteful) and notoriously anti-British, the charges are dropped
after Adela’s testimony at the trial. Aziz enjoys writing and reciting poetry.
A primary concern of A Passage to India is the shift in Dr. Aziz's views of the
British from accommodating and even a bit submissive to an aggressively anti-
colonial stance.
Fielding stands alone among the British officials in India, for he is one of the few to
treat the Indians with respect.
Fielding is an individualist who has no great allegiance to any particular group, but
rather to his core set of liberal values and sense of justice. This quality allows
Fielding to break with the English who support Adela Quested's charges against
Aziz and side with the Indians in support of him. However, the events surrounding
Aziz's trial cause Fielding to become disenchanted with India, despite his affection
for the nation, and motivate him to leave India and return to resume a different
post.
Adela travels to India with Mrs. Moore in order to decide whether or not to marry
Mrs. Moore’s son Ronny.
Miss Quested begins with an open-minded desire to get to know Indians and see
the real India. Later, she falsely accuses Aziz of attempting to allegedly attack her
in the Marabar Caves.
Mrs. Moore
An elderly Englishwoman who voyages to India with Adela Quested. Mrs. Moore
wishes to see the country and hopes that Adela will marry her son Ronny.
Mrs. Moore married twice and has three children. Mrs. Moore befriends Dr.
Aziz, as she feels some spiritual connection with him.
Ronny Heaslop
Mahmoud Ali
This friend of Aziz serves as one of the lawyers for his defense and takes a defiant
anti-British stance.
His behavior during the trial is dangerously aggressive, however, and he threatens
to provoke a riot after Aziz's release after the victory on the day of trial.
Later he refuses to clear up the misunderstanding concerning Fielding's marriage
to Stella Moore.
Mrs. Turton: Turton’s wife. In her interactions with Indians, Mrs. Turton
embodies the novel’s stereotype of the snobby, rude, and prejudiced English
colonial wife. Mrs. Turton comforts Adela Quested after the incident at the
Marabar Caves.
Major Callendar: The civil surgeon at Chandrapore, Dr. Aziz’s superior. Major
Callendar is a boastful, cruel, intolerant, and ridiculous man.
Hamidullah: Dr. Aziz’s uncle and friend. Hamidullah, who was educated at
Cambridge, believes that friendship between the English and Indians is more likely
possible in England than in India.
Hamidullah was a close friend of Fielding before Fielding and Aziz met.
The Nawab Bahadur: The Nawab Bahadur, a wealthy Moslem, leading loyalist in
Chandrapore. The Nawab Bahadur is generous, and faithful to the English.
When Dr. Aziz is tried, he rejects the British and after Aziz’s trial, he gives up his
title in protest.
Dr. Panna Lal: A low-born Hindu doctor and Aziz’s rival. Dr. Panna Lal intends to
testify against Aziz at the trial, but he begs forgiveness after Aziz is set free.
Stella Moore: A sensitive young girl. Mrs. Moore’s daughter from her second
marriage. Stella marries Fielding toward the end of the novel.
Ralph Moore: Mrs. Moore’s son from her second marriage, a sensitive young man.
Ralph finally gets Fielding and Dr. Aziz together again.
Miss Derek: A young Englishwoman who works for a wealthy Indian family. She
takes advantage of her Indian employers and often steals their car. Miss Derek is
easygoing and has a fine sense of humor, but many of the English at Chandrapore
resent her, considering her presence unseemly.
• The collector,
10 • the man who governs Chandrapore Mr. Turton
• Turton’s wife
11 • snobby, rude, and prejudiced English Mrs. Turton
colonial wife
b) Briefly write about any TWO themes discussed in novel A Passage to India.
i) Colonialism
On one level, A Passage to India is an in-depth description of daily life in India under
British rule.
The British “Raj” (its colonial empire in India) lasted from 1858 to 1947.
The main attitude behind colonialism was that of the “white man’s burden” (in
Rudyard Kipling’s phrase)—that it was the moral duty of Europeans to “civilize”
other nations.
Throughout the novel Forster uses the words “muddle” and “mystery” as distinctive
terms to describe India. A “muddle” implies chaos and meaningless mess, while a
“mystery” suggests something confusing but with an underlying purpose or
mystical plan.
On the English side, Fielding sees India as a muddle, though a sympathetic one,
while Mrs. Moore and Adela approach the country with a sense of mystery. Forster
himself often uses “Orientalizing” terms to describe India, portraying
iii) Friendship
Despite its strong political overtones, A Passage to India is also a deep psychological
portrayal of different individuals.
Ideas of division and unity are important in A Passage to India in both a social and
spiritual sense.
The social and cultural divisions between English and Indians are clear, but India
itself is also internally divided. The phrase “a hundred India’s” is used several times
to describe the “muddle” of the country, where Hindus and Muslims are divided
against each other and even among themselves. The best hope Forster proposes for
this chaotic division…
Many observations about race and culture in colonial India are threaded throughout
the novel.
Ronny is naturally goodhearted and sympathetic, but his “public school mindset”
and the influence of his English peers compel him to become hardened and unkind
to Indians. The other English…
c) Which symbols are used by Forester in his novel A Passage to India? Mention
any FOUR.
i) The Characters
ii) The Mosque
iii) The Bridge Party
• All Muslim and Hindu characters stand for the natives of India and their respective
communities.
• All English characters are the symbol of ruling class (Frangis) in India.
• Dr. Aziz shows the changing outlook of natives towards the Frangis.
• Ronny shows the haughty and arrogant ruling class.
• Miss Adela represents the weak temper of English ladies who want to seduce the
innocents.
• Mrs. Moore and Mr. Fielding represent the exception in English people, they are
polite and humanitarian.
• Of friendship.
• Of peace, solace and comfort.
• Where souls are purified.
• According to a critic “the ‘Kawa Dol’ Cave symbolizes the fragile condition of
Indians under the foreign yoke (burden).”
• In addition an another critic says that as the ‘Kawa Dol’ Cave situated at the top, it
represents the pathetic condition of powerless Indian rulers.
• The counterpart of mosque, the temple is also a place of peace, serene and
tranquillity and above all unity.
• The raised issues are resolved in the temple. Although the ceremony was sacred
for Hindus only, yet people from every class and religion come there and enjoy it. It
shows the universal unity among human beings.
“An implicit symbol which silently tells us that the story is about a mixture of the
communities.”
• 3 section of novel.
• 3 children of Aziz.
• 3 children of Mrs. Moore.
• 3 communities; Europeans, Asians and Eurasians.
• The novel deals with the interaction among Muslims, Hindus and Frangis.
• Metaphor
• Allegory
From the beginning, both Mrs. Moore and Adela state or declare that their desire is
to see the “real India” while they are in the country.
Both women are frustrated with the lack of interaction between the English and
the Indians, and they hope to get a true view of India rather than the standard tour
for visiting colonials.
Of the two, Mrs. Moore is less vocal than Adela in her impatience to discover the
spirit of India, and she seems to be provisionally more successful in her goal. While
Adela mopes in the Chandrapore Club, Mrs. Moore is already out on her own
meeting Aziz in the mosque. Mrs. Moore, it seems, gets closer to a real sense of
India because she seeks it out within Indians themselves, approaching them with
sincere sympathy and interest. She does not desire to learn facts about Indian
culture, but to forge a personal, individual connection.
Q#2: What causes Adela’s breakdown? Why does she accuse Aziz? What
qualities enable her to admit the truth at the trial?
Adela is an intelligent and inquisitive girl, but she has a limited worldview, and is,
as Fielding puts it that Adela has come to India to experience an adventure and to
gauge her desire to marry Ronny.
On the way to the Marabar Caves, Adela realizes for the first time that she does not
love Ronny. The sheer incomprehensibility of experience—as represented by the
echo in the caves—overwhelms her for the first time. Traumatized, Adela feels not
only as though her world is breaking down, but as though India itself is
responsible for the breakdown.
This idea solidifies in her mind as the idea that Aziz, an Indian, has attacked and
attempted to rape her. Still, Adela is committed to the truth and has a strong mind.
When she sees Aziz at the trial, she re-enters the scene in her mind in a sort of
disembodied vision. She realizes that her actions are ruining a real person’s life,
Q#3: What purpose does Part III, “Temple,” play in A Passage to India?
The first issue that Forster addresses in A Passage to India is whether or not an
Englishman and an Indian can be friends.
Parts I and II of the novel depict the friendship of Aziz and Fielding, and then as it
breaks apart. Part II leaves us with a pessimistic sense that cross-cultural
communication is useless, and that such friendships cause more hurt than good.
In this final section of the novel, Fielding and Aziz meet again and resolve their
misunderstandings.
The irony of the expedition to the caves can be found in the fact that no one really
wanted to go there.
No, Fielding does not want to marry Miss. Adela Quested. He claims that she is a
prig, a pathetic product of Western education who prattles on as if she were at a
lecture.
A Passage to India as a tragic but spiritual love story between the two friends,
separated by different cultures and political climates.
However, Aziz does make the point that it is British rule in India that prevents the
two men from remaining friends. Forster thus indicates that British rule in India
The backdrop surrounds the conflict of British occupied India and the discontent
of Indians under the occupation.
The details of this conflict are shown through the character of Dr. Aziz. Although he
is generous and loving toward his English friends, including Mrs. Moore and Cyril
Fielding, after Adela Quested accuses him of assault he becomes bitter, vindictive
and notoriously anti-British.
A primary concern of A Passage to India is the shift in Dr. Aziz's views of the
British from accommodating and even a bit submissive to an aggressively anti-
colonial stance. Dr. Aziz's discontent serves as a microcosm for the conflict in the
country as a whole.
The Indians were troubled for freedom underneath the leadership of Mahatma
Gandhi.
The perspective of British Government towards the new chesty for freedom was
terribly hostile.
Though European country might have created its subject railroads run on time, it’s
not been ready to establish important relationship with its subject folks. British
Government on its policy of Divide and Rule.
Matching
Q.1: What is the central theme or concern of the novel The Lord of the Flies?
Ans: The central concern of Lord of the Flies is the conflict between two competing
impulses that exist within all human beings: the instinct to live by rules, act
peacefully, follow moral commands, and value the good of the group, against the
instinct to gratify one’s immediate desires, act violently to obtain supremacy over
others, and enforce one’s will.
Q.2: Write a short character sketch on the following characters from The
Lord of the Flies:
i. Simon
ii. Ralph
iii. Jack
iv. Piggy
a) Jack symbolises
b) Piggy symbolises
c) Simon symbolises
d) Ralph symbolises
Q.6: Describe briefly the symbols used in The Lord of Flies by William
Golding. What does these symbol represent?
iv. The Beast is a symbol of savagery and evil inside the humans
Lord of the Flies is an allegory because, at a higher level, beyond the surface
meaning of the story, the boys can be seen as humanity as a whole, the island as
the world, the fighting between the two groups as war between countries, etc.
Ans: The central concern of Lord of the Flies is the conflict between two competing
impulses that exist within all human beings: The instinct to live by rules, against
the instinct to gratify one’s immediate desires,
Q.10: How is the conflict between good and evil depicted by William Golding
throughout the novel?
Ans: Throughout the novel, Golding associates the instinct of civilization with good
and the instinct of savagery with evil.
act peacefully,
follow moral commands, and
value the good of the group
Q#13: What happens when the instinct to live by rules is not stronger?
The instinct to live by rules is not stronger, AGAINST the instinct to gratify one’s
immediate desires, human beings
Quote #1
‘’The roads, named after victorious generals and intersecting at right angles, were
symbolic of the net Great Britain had thrown over India. He felt caught in their
meshes.’’
Answer:
Quote#2:
"[…] We're out here to do justice and keep the peace. That's my sentiments. India
isn't a drawing-room."
"Your sentiments are those of a god," [Mrs. Moore] said quietly, but it was his
manner rather than his sentiments that annoyed her.
Trying to recover his temper, [Ronny] said, "India likes gods."
"And Englishmen like posing as gods.“
Quote#3:
"They all become exactly the same, not worse, not better. I give any Englishman
two years, be he Turton or Burton. It is only the difference of a letter. And I give
any Englishwoman six months. “
Answer: The quotation has been taken from Part-I Mosque, Chapter 2,
• These lines occur when Mr. and Mrs. Turton arrive in India and they are in their car.
Quote#4:
‘’A community that bows the knee to a Viceroy and believes that the divinity that
hedges a king can be transplanted, must feel some reverence for any vice-regal
substitute. At Chandrapore the Turtons were little gods; soon they would retire to
some suburban villa, and die exiled from glory.’’
Answer: These lines are taken from A Passage to India by E .M Forster.
• This quotation occurs in Part 1 Mosque and Chapter 3/III
• This passage casts an ironic eye toward the Turtons, who may lord their position in
society over everyone in their particular province of India as if they were gods. And
as Ronny Heaslop says, India likes its gods (see the first quote under "Justice and
Judgment"). But when they return to England, their human ordinariness will return,
and they will revert to run-of-the-mill retirees.
Quote#5:
‘’And there were circles even beyond these – people wore nothing but a loin-cloth,
people who wore not even that, and spent their lives in knocking two sticks
together before a scarlet doll – humanity grading and drifting beyond the educated
vision, until no earthly vision can embrace it.’’
Answer: These lines are taken from A Passage to India by E .M Forster.
• This quotation occurs in Part 1 Mosque and Chapter 4/IV
• This quote asks the reader to consider how it would be possible to create a society
that respects the needs of even the very neediest of human beings, human beings
Quote#6:
"All unfortunate natives are criminals at heart, for the simple reason that they live
south of latitude 30.”
Answer: These lines are taken from A Passage to India by E .M Forster.
• This quotation occurs in Part II Caves and Chapter 18/Eighteen
• Here, McBryde professes his racist view of Indian psychology as a scientific fact:
according to McBryde, it's the geographical location that makes the Indians
criminal. Of course, this doesn't explain why someone like himself, who was born in
Karachi, happens to be a policeman. Ironically, McBryde is discovered to be having
an affair later in the novel.
Quote#7:
In every remark [Aziz] found a meaning, but not always the true meaning, and his
life though vivid was largely a dream.
Answer: These lines are taken from A Passage to India by E .M Forster.
• This quotation occurs in Part 1 Mosque and Chapter VII
• These lines are said during Dr. Aziz and Fielding’s first meeting at Fielding’s house,
just before the tea party.
• Fielding has just made a brief comment in which he meant that the post-
impressionist school of painting, to which Aziz has just made joking reference, is
obscure and silly. Aziz, however, takes Fielding’s comment to mean that it is silly for
Aziz to have Western cultural knowledge.
Quote#8:
‘’Fielding did not even want to [correct Aziz]; he had dulled his craving for verbal
truth and cared chiefly for truth of mood. As for Miss Quested, she accepted
everything Aziz said as true verbally. In her ignorance, she regarded him as “India,”
Quote#9:
One touch of regret – not the canny substitute but the true regret from the heart
– would have made him a different man, and the British Empire a different
institution.
"I'm going to argue, and indeed dictate," she said, clinking her rings. "The English
are out here to be pleasant.”
Answer: The passage has been taken from Part-I Mosque, and Chapter V of A
Passage to India
• It suggests that Ronny's attitude is representative of the British Empire's as a whole
toward its "civilizing mission.“
• By questioning Ronny, Mrs. Moore questions the whole notion of a civilizing mission
here. He is too rude to the Indians.
• Ronny's cold-hearted attitude toward Indians suggests that the civilizing mission is
just an excuse to gain power, and no more.
Quote#10:
[Mrs. Moore] felt increasingly (vision or nightmare?) that, though people are
important, the relations between them are not, and that in particular too much
fuss has been made over marriage.
Guess Who?
# Hint Character
5 “He was shorter than the fair boy and very fat” Piggy
“The shock of black hair, down his nape and low on his
forehead, seemed to suit his gloomy face and make what had
6 Roger
seemed at first unsociable remoteness in to something
foreboding.”
“They breathed together, they grinned together, they were
7 Samneric
chunky and vital.”
“ The waves turned the corpse gently in the water. … Softly,
surrounded by a fringe of bright inquisitive creatures, itself a
8 Simon
silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, [his] dead
body moved out towards the open sea”.
"'We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're
14 not savages. We're English, and the English are best at Jack
everything.'"
"[he] . . . would treat the day's decisions as though he
15 were playing chess. The only trouble was that he would Ralph
never be a very good chess player."
"'I don't care what [you] call me so long as . . . [it's not]
16 Piggy
what they used to call me in school"
17 "'I think we ought to climb the mountain'" Simon
"kept to himself with an inner intensity of avoidance and
18 Roger
secrecy."
"protested out of the heart of civilization, 'Oh, I say! –
19 Samneric
honestly!'"
"[he] himself shrank at this cry with a hiss of indrawn
20 breath; and for a minute became less a hunter than a Jack
furtive thing, ape-like among the tangle of trees"