Confused by ending

It's been a while since I last saw the film, sometime last year; and the time when I read the book was before that, I believe, but I hope I can answer some part of your question.

Aziz and Fielding reconcile. However, they also realize that they cannot remain friends, not under the current conditions in India, and after the whole ordeal they've been through. Fielding realizes that he is more of an Englishman than he initially thought, and that he belongs among his own people. He has become more supportive of the British. Aziz also seems to embrace his own Indian identity.

Forster made the events that happen in the Marabar caves vague on purpose, and in the novel these events are perceived from the perspective of Aziz, if I'm not mistaken. In all likelyhood Aziz did nothing wrong, but the point is that this event devides the Indians and the British. The only Englishman willing to help Aziz is Fielding, and he is an atheist, and wishes to look past ethnicity in his judgment of people. The rest of the British seem unified in their support of Adele and condemn Aziz. Racial identity is a very important theme in A Passage to India, and this is the reason why it is hard for Fielding and Aziz to remain friends in the end.

I can't really remember the match scene, so I can't tell you anything about that, but perhaps some other visitor will know.

scratches all over herself? She did it to herself? She was so taken aback by the 'moment' in the cave (of eroticism) that she did it to herself, and couldn't remember it? Is that right?

I've always taken, beginning with the scenes in the jungle, the incident in the Malabar caves as an allegory for the beating heart of India (the echo being the pulse, of course). For Mrs. Moore, the call of India is so strong, it deafens her, at the same time conflicting with her staid English background. For Adela, the pulse is not just the vitality and morbidity of India, but also the implicit sexual attraction between her and Dr. Aziz. She, too, is a product of her class, and left alone with only a match and her own feelings, and the approaching echo of Dr. Aziz, she runs from herself and her own impulses, just as she ran from her discovery of the ruins in the brush. But "She has character!" You'll notice that it's only she and Mrs. Moore and Fielding who are willing to make such an exploration of the caves - to the rest of the English its just one more desolate, barbaric place to avoid.

I suppose, too, the caves are an allegory for the British occupation of India. Having no business colonizing the place, and trying to impose British mores, or at least ignoring the Indians and holding steadfast to their standards, the British were fundamentally incapable of understanding the heart of Indian culture, just as Adela and Mrs. Moore are ultimately limited in how much of India they can accept. They just happen to be more willing to explore than most. We never see the heart of Indian culture either, by the way, only Dr. Aziz sweating out of his shirtsleeves, anxious to please his British guests.

I prefer the Jewel in the Crown to this, but then I thought the development of Adela's character, and that of Mrs. Moore, too brief. And Peggy Ashcroft is in both.

I believe she had gotten a bit "too much sun" as Aziz had pointed out, but, as some other posters have mentioned, I think Adele was at a confusing crossroads in her life--with her iminent marriage and all--which left her vulnerable to delusions of deluge. I think it was noble of Aziz to look past his anger in the end and contact Adele to offer forgiveness.



He who conquers himself is mightier than he who conquers a city.

I like HemingwayHero's reply to this question and would like to take it further. Adela evidently had a panic attack and in retrospect may in her confusion have believed she was raped. Lean seems to make this point visually by the sight of Aziz silhouetted against the sky at the opening to the cave (Freudian symbolism) as viewed from inside, a vision that her tortured mind could easily have made much of following her experience in the Hindu temple. Blowing out a match may also be relevant here, it being a filmic visual convention for satisfying a person's desire. The fact that she extinguished it herself may emphasise that the rape took place only in her own mind.

I have only seen the film; I've not read the book. But in the movie, it is my belief that what happened in the cave was that Miss Quested had an orgasm. Sexual tension had been building for quite some time in her own mind, and then to be alone with a man of a more "primitive" culture in a remote place triggered a kind of sexual hysteria (the burning match). In the cave, as in her own mind, she was alone, vulnerable, no way out. The man could have her. All Aziz had to do was enter her space. And he did (although innocently) . . . with his voice. The tension was overwhelming, and she came. This was displayed symbolically in the scene immediately following, where a bit of water washed over a rocky ledge in the pond where the elephant was bathing.

Having achieved this release, she reverted to her proper English self. Deeply shamed and in a panic, she fled down the slope. When found, she then had to invent -- either consciously or unconsciously -- an explanation for her panic and disheveled appearance.

The ridiculously naive and stupid Adela used the entire (and false) incident to demonstrate the alleged "racism" in India, in a misguided attempt to make changes...unfortunately, she ruined a man's life in the process - Adela's idiotic belief was in the righteousness of sacrificing one to the benefit of many. The movie was meant to illustrate how lame the British were when controlling India.

maybe she was touched by a demon