Sexuality in "A Passage to India"

Paper Summary:

The paper is an examination of the meaning of sexuality, the mystery that surrounds it in behavioral situations and the type of people involved, as ascribed to the characters in E.M. Forster's book, "A Passage to India". The tender subject of inter race relations with respect to sexuality is also clearly demonstrated in this review.

From the Paper:

"Aziz also manages to develop a casual platonic friendship with one of the main female characters, Adela, because he finds her not only sexually unattractive but even plain and ugly. A telling scene is one between Aziz and protagonist Fielding, who discuss whether they are attracted to Adela. Aziz rejects her soundly based on her physical plainness, whereas Fielding dislikes her priggish intellectual interest in India. (Aziz is sexually motivated; Fielding is not.) Aziz moreover feels he can talk to Adela as a man - not a common attitude of men towards women at the turn of the last century, but one Aziz employs because of his tendency to equate femininity with sexuality and beauty. However, Aziz is not socially insensible, and he realizes that a proposed visit to Marabar Caves with Adela would be problematic, he being widowed and she being engaged. This attention to social mores indicates how sexually frigid people were in the early 1900s, regardless of race. A man and a woman who are not married should not be seen walking together in public; social mores are so strong on this matter that even Aziz, who can barely see Adela as a sexual object, realizes this. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Forster, E. M. A Passage to India. Florida: Harcourt, Inc., 1924.

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