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What is the echoing “boum” in the Marabar caves?
The echoing noises in the caves represent different meanings to Mrs. Moore and Miss Quested. Mrs. Moore is disturbed by the boom – she hears in it something older and more powerful than Christianity, and it causes her to not only doubt her faith but take a more nihilistic view of the universe. The Marabar caves make Mrs. Moore feel the smallness of humanity compared to the vastness of time and the universe, and the meaninglessness of their squabbles. Everything that has ever happened in the world amounts only to one terrifying and empty boom. For Miss Quested, the echo of the caves becomes a symbol for the mystical unveiling of truth. She hears the echoing of the caves in her ears until she is finally struck by the realization that she has made a mistake, and that Aziz is innocent. After she tells the truth at the trial, the sound disappears, suggesting that the caves had some otherworldly power that haunted Miss Quested until she righted her wrongs.
Who really assaulted Adela in the Marabar caves?
It is never entirely clear what happens to Adela in the caves. In terms of logical answers, it’s very possible that Adela was assaulted by the guide, who flees the scene of the crime and is never tracked down by law enforcement. Adela and Fielding also discuss the possibility that she may have hallucinated the attack, although that answer feels less likely. However, Adela’s experience in the caves is as much metaphorical as it is literal. The novel hints at the possibility that no one was in the caves with Adela. Perhaps what she perceived as an attack was in fact her coming up against her own spiritual or personal conundrum. She realizes that she does not love Ronny, and that her life is not heading in the direction she had hoped, and this clash with her own consciousness is so intense that she believes it a physical assault. The truth is not fully clarified, but regardless of the specifics, Adela is genuinely shaken and changed by what occurs in the caves.
Why is Aziz acquitted during his trial?
After a few English witnesses make their case against Aziz, Adela Quested takes the stand. But as she is questioned, she becomes increasingly certain that Aziz is innocent. She admits on the stand that she has made a mistake and recants her statement. The trial immediately comes to an end and Aziz is freed. The Anglo-Indians are furious with Adela, but Adela is not concerned with losing the support of her compatriots, nor is she particularly apologetic to Aziz. She simply knew she had to act justly and honestly, despite the consequences, and in doing so, loses favor with both sides of Chandrapore but feels entirely confident in her decision. If Adela had not recanted her accusation, Aziz would have most likely lost the trial because the word of an Englishwoman had more legal power than the word of an Indian man, especially in a biased, corrupt courtroom. Although Aziz’s legal team could have taken the case to a higher court, this trial would have resulted in an English victory over India.
Why does Aziz come to resent Fielding?
After Aziz’s trial, Fielding becomes increasingly sympathetic to Adela. He not only admires her bravery in recanting her accusation, but he also finds in her a similar set of beliefs and values to his own. Aziz resents Fielding’s blossoming friendship with the woman who wrongfully accused him, and, thanks to an untrue rumor that Fielding has taken Adela as his lover, begins to question the validity of his friendship with Fielding. After Fielding leaves to visit England, Aziz becomes further poisonous toward Fielding, believing that Fielding convinced him to drop the financial charges against Adela so that Fielding could marry her and gain that inheritance for himself. When Fielding writes to tell Aziz that he has married someone Aziz knows, Aziz immediately assumes he has married Adela, and refuses all communication with Fielding henceforth. Fielding has in fact not married Adela, but Aziz’s friends, who know the truth, do nothing to disabuse him of this notion, so he continues to hate Fielding. After Aziz finally learns the truth, the two eventually have a reconciliation, but the painful and violent reality of British colonialism prevents the men from engaging in the intimate friendship they wish to have with one another.
Who does Cyril Fielding marry?
Fielding returns to England toward the end of the novel on business, as well as to visit friends. Aziz becomes convinced that he has married Adela Quested, as the two had struck up a friendship before they both returned to England. When Fielding writes Aziz to tell him he has married someone Aziz knows, the letter is further proof that Fielding has married Adela. However, the person Fielding is referring to is actually Mrs. Moore’s daughter, Stella, whom Mrs. Moore spoke to Aziz about, and whom Aziz promised to always love. Fielding tells Aziz that Adela is now one of his best friends, and she, who had made it her goal to befriend Mrs. Moore’s children and see them succeed in marriage, introduced him to Stella. Fielding characterizes Stella as not entirely as devoted to him as he is to her, but he assures Aziz that she is a faithful and good woman. He also, more interestingly, paints Stella as similar to Mrs. Moore in her willingness to believe in mysticism and spirituality – a remark that implies that Stella, like her mother, may have more of a chance of understanding the mystery of India than the rational and atheistic Fielding and Adela ever did.
