An Aristotelian Perspective of E.M. Forster's A Passage to India

Aristotle's Poetics is a work which has been tremendously influential in the field of literary criticism for over two-thousand years, and has shaped the manner in which literary critics evaluate works. Many of the principles set forth in the Poetics are applicable to works in present-day literature, and are universal to authors from Europe to Asia to the Americas and everywhere in-between. Terms such as hamartia, peripety, and anagnorisis, which translate to "error or frailty," "reversal," and "recognition" respectively, are plot devices that continue to dominate the works of modern authors, and can be found in celebrated works such as E.M. Forster's novel A Passage to India. In Forster's work, a portrait of the British occupation of India in the early 19^th Century, the character of Dr. Aziz experiences not one but all three of Aristotle's aforementioned terms, and proves that Aristotle's comments on the nature of literature are alive and well more than two millennia after his death.

In his Poetics, Aristotle describes the hamartia as "some error or frailty" in a character's nature that ultimately brings the character misfortune and heartache (Aristotle 55). In Forster's work, Dr. Aziz's hamartia is undoubtedly his naiveté of racial politics and affectionate nature toward the British. During an evening encounter with Mrs. Moore in a mosque, Dr. Aziz finds his discussion with a British woman to be uncharacteristically candid and spiritual. He begins to feel a spiritual connection to Mrs. Moore, and "The flame that not even beauty can nourish was springing up, and though his words were querulous his heart began to grow secretly. Presently it burst into speech. 'You understand me, you know what others feel. Oh, if others resembled you!'" (Forster 21). Aziz's sense of companionship and human understanding is reciprocated by Mrs. Moore, and the two part happily. Aziz later feels a similar connection to Mrs. Moore's companion, Adela, and is convinced she is different from her British counterparts when he says "You are absolutely unlike the others, I assure you. You will never be rude to my people" (Forster 161). These encounters contribute to creating in Aziz a feeling of brotherhood and togetherness between Indians and Brits that will be shattered as the novel progresses.

Aziz's feeling of exhilaration for Mrs. Moore and Adela endures as he leads Mrs. Moore and her British companion, Adela, on a trip to visit the nearby Marabar caves. It is at this point in the novel that Aristotle's peripety, the "reversal of the situation...by which the action veers round to its opposite," changes the course of the novel entirely (Aristotle 54). Aziz, a guide and Adela have undertaken a long uphill hike to a series of caves, his thoughts centered only on his hospitality with "Oh, what more can I do for her?" (Forster 158). After leaving Adela briefly for a cigarette break, however, Aziz returns to find her lost in one of the many caves surrounding them. Upon realizing it he says to himself, "Merciful Heavens, Miss Quested is lost," and begins to look for her calmly (Forster 170). After spotting her walking down a trail to an automobile on ground level, he assumes that Adela "had joined the people in the car-friends of hers, no doubt" and feels that all is well (Forster 171). Upon returning to the city, though, Aziz is placed under arrest by British officials and learns that he is accused of attempting to rape Adela in the caves. He is shocked to find that Adela, after all the kindness he has shown her, would think him capable of such atrocities and accuse him when he has done nothing wrong. This reversal of the plot indicates a clear turning point of the action as well as the sentiments of Aziz toward the British as a people.

Aristotle's anagnorisis, the "recognition

Aristotle's comments on the nature of literature in his Poetics remain relevant in literature through the present-day, and works created more than two-thousand years after his death still follow some of his most important terms. Hamartia, peripety, and anagnorisis are all terms which can be followed through the character of Dr. Aziz in E.M. Forster's A Passage to India, proving that Aristotle has remained greatly important through the ages up until modern literature and beyond. Aristotle's work is universal and the terms he puts forth are timeless, and knowledge of Aristotle is essential to a thorough understanding of most any work of literature from the days of Ancient Greece through today's post-modern period.

Works Cited

Aristotle. "Poetics." Selections from Critical Theory Since Plato. Ed. Hazard Adams. 2007. 48-66.

Forster, E.M. A Passage to India. New York: Harcourt, 1984.