The Imagery of the Wasp: Underlying Tension within the Novel

The wasp appears on three different instances in the course of the novel – as a visual, as a part of speech and as a thought/memory. In the first instance, Mrs. Moore finds the wasp on a coat-peg, exclaiming “Pretty, dear” (35); in the second instance, the wasp appears in the conversation of the missionaries which pertains to whether or not wasps should be admitted to heaven and, lastly, the wasp appears in Godbole’s memory, symbolising a unity which is enacted at the Hindu festival. My contention is that the wasp, on all three occasions that it appears, is symbolic of antagonism – a certain kind of tension.

On a fundamental level, then, this conflict exists, firstly, within the essential nature of the wasp – the wasp is, at once, a creature which possesses the ability to sting whomever it comes into contact with while, at the same time, it is also a “pretty” creature in the eyes of Mrs. Moore. On a second level, this conflict exists within the different contexts in which the wasp is brought up. Mrs. Moore’s interaction with the wasp is one of intimacy, where she finds herself being thankful for its presence in her room. The Christian missionaries, on the other hand, use the wasp to create distinctions between who can enter heaven and who cannot, claiming that “we must exclude someone from our gathering, or we shall be left with nothing.” This conflict is furthered when we see the use of the wasp in the final instance, at the Hindu festival where Godbole sees God in everything around him, including his vision of the wasp and thus, “he loved the wasp equally, he impelled it likewise, he was imitating God.” In Godbole’s vision, therefore, we see an all embracing unity, instead of the hierarchy present within the conversation of the Christian missionaries.

Hopefully not pushing the analysis too far, I think that in repetitively bringing up the image of the wasp, in different contexts, and in setting up the antagonism in the way the wasp is viewed, Forster is drawing on the different ways that the British see the “real India” – a muddle which is neither a “promise” nor an “appeal.” India appears to be pretty, just like the wasp, to the newcomers, to the Orientals who wish to see a certain India and, thus, the desire of Mrs. Moore and Adela to see the Ganges and the Marabar Hills. At the same time, however, there is a different conception among the Anglo-Indians, one in which India is the stinging creature – repelling the European with its Hot Weather – while all Indians are “criminals at heart” (156), incapable of redemption.