Tuesday, 11 February 2014

Adela Quested: In The Quest of Real India, In The Quest Of Her Real "Self"!

Many of the exilic figures portrayed in 18th century, 19th century narratives revolve around the very confusions of individualism and to some extent sexuality. What Foster has highlighted in his narrative, is the question of his characters’ freedom, sexuality and what sort of implications they create for governing their life. One rather odd or misfit character in this setting is that of Adela Quested who as the name implies, is on a quest to find the “real India” and may be through that discovery, hopes to find her “real personality”.
In the very first encounter of the reader with the character, three things become very clear about the personality of Miss Quested. First of all, her life revolves around intellectualism and there is no place for emotional associations, even though she expresses a great desire for them but lacks the intimacy in her relationship with Ronny. Secondly, her reservations about the way the subjects of Imperialism are being treated by the British and the Anglo-Indians. Lastly, the experience in Marabar Caves is the depiction of her desperate nature for discovering the “real life” and the person she is.

In her very desire of seeing the real India, we see a great deal of desperation that exists in her personality for feeling the plight of those existing beyond the sophisticated bubble of British India created by her countrymen. A general aura of plea to passionately associate herself with the life of those around her and to experience the versatilities of the world is the main focus of the narrative. Furthermore, her disagreement on how the Indians are subjected to inferiority complex and treated in a derogatory and demotivating way shows her real passion for helping people out of their misery and spreading of “love-for-all” message, overall giving her personality a light, humanist perspective.  

But in this little perfectionist or an exemplary idea for a character, we also see the little imperfections when it comes to handling her personal life and sorting out the muddles of love and relationships and what an association really means. Her traumatic experience in the Marabar Caves can be viewed to be the bigger picture of a series of events preceding it and which primarily culminated of her unpredictable emotional personal life. She is seen to be constantly puzzled and confused about her relationship with Ronny and how she views her interactions with him to be “ordinary”. The absence of romantic letters, love declarations, intimate moments in their engaged life shows the very confused sentiments in both of the characters. A mere touch of a hand in a car is a proof of their engagement which in the context of overall intimacy and sexuality represented in the novel represents nothing but an acquaintance and much less a romantic relationship.

Therefore, the very incident of Marabar Caves can be viewed to be the depiction of Adela’s desperation for drama and a hallucination to overcome the boredom of her travel and love life. It can also be seen to be simply a hysterical fantasy driven as a result of sexual attraction to Aziz. So may be the whole experience was in fact an attempt by Adela for discovering herself and discovering the harsh realities of the life outside the bubble that she is brought in from Britain. Fielding’s thought on her experience after the trial also sums up this perspective, where he says:

“was no longer examining life, but being examined by it; she had become a real person”


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