Comparing Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Heat and Dust and Forster's A Passage to India

Comparing Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Heat and Dust and Forster's A Passage to India

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 fiancé 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 ...

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... 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.

Works Cited

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

Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer. (1975). Heat and Dust. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers.