E. M. Forster's A Passage to India: What Really Happened in the Caves
The core event in E. M. Forster's A Passage to India is the "attack" experienced by Adela Quested in one of the Marabar Caves, where Aziz has taken Miss Quested and Mrs. Moore for a day's excursion. As Chapter Sixteen, the central chapter of the central section of the novel, begins, Aziz, Miss Quested, and a guide from the local village have climbed up the hills, away from the rest of the expedition party. Aziz has just separated himself from Adela, having lost his emotional balance due to her insensitive questioning. The narrator then follows Aziz, who, to recover his equilibrium, plunges into one of the caves where he waits, lights a cigarette, and thinks what he will say on rejoining Miss Quested. When he emerges from the caves Aziz finds the guide, who is alone and who tells Aziz that he has heard a noiseÂ—the whine of a motor car. Aziz and the guide then attempt to get a better look at the oncoming car. Only at that juncture, as Aziz runs back to tell Miss Quested that a car is approaching, does he realize that she has disappearedÂ—into a cave, as the guide informs him. After berating the guide for not keeping track of her, Aziz looks fruitlessly and more and more confusedly for her. In his frustration he strikes out at the guide, who then disappears, resurfacing only hypothetically and not very seriously much later in the novel in discussions regarding the cause of Adela's upset. Immediately thereupon Aziz discovers that Miss Quested had in fact joined her friends at the base of the hill. Almost in the same moment his relief is followed by disquiet as he finds Miss Quested's field glasses, with a broken leather strap, lying at the verge of