Comparative study of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and E.M.Forster’s A Passage to India

Comparative study of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and E.M.Forster’s A Passage to India

Heart of Darkness and A Passage to India have been written in different time periods and in different lengths as Heart of Darkness is a novella and A Passage to India is a detailed novel. Both Conrad and Forster utilize Britain age of Empire as a backdrop for the narratives. Both the fictions explore British attitudes and behavior in the exotic locales of the imperial frontier. The characters in both the novels deal differently with the fundamental contradiction between systematic dehumanization for economic gain and the ideological justification of civilizing the natives. For example dehumanization takes place in Heart of Darkness when the indigenous people are considered to be savages and have made slaves, and starving due to their conditions caused by imperialism. In A Passage to India Ronny dehumanizes the natives. He puts himself up as a god just to hold the country together by force. Both novels portray imperialism in Congo and India. As Marlow traveling from the Outer Station to the Central Station and the Inner Station encounters scenes of torture, cruelty, and near-slavery. The men who work for the Company describe what they do as “trade,” and their treatment of native Africans is part of a benevolent project of “civilization.” Kurtz, on the other hand, is open about the fact that he does not trade but rather takes ivory by force, and he describes his own treatment of the natives with the words “suppression” and “extermination”: he does not hide the fact that he rules through violence and intimidation. The episode of Marlow encounter with the indigenous people who are starving, having old machinery and living in holes portrays the cruelty of imperialism, consequently people become mad. In A Passage to India Forster comments upon the British manner of governing India. He suggests that the British would be well served by becoming kinder and more sympathetic to the Indians with whom they live. Thus, the imperialism in these fictions further gives way to the issues of race, cruelty and dehumanization. Human relations are also different in both fictions. These relationships have different cultures, languages, nationalities as well as mindsets. In A Passage to India we find these relationships sometimes sweet, bitter and sour. Sweetness is there in Aziz’s relationship with Fielding and Mrs. Moore. Mrs. Moore is a benevolent lady. She is very sweet towards Aziz even she did not believe that Aziz is guilty. Fielding is also a well wisher, true and loving friend of Aziz. He defends his best friend in front of the brutish court when he is accuses for the assault of Adela. But their relationship has gone through a great downfall when Aziz objected Fielding to be friend of Adela who accuses him. Also he has the suspicion that Fielding is going to get married Adela. The relationship of Aziz and Adela has also gone through bitter circumstances as she accuses him for her assault. But she does not intentionally want to harm Aziz. When she realizes the truth she plays an important role to make him free. Ronny’s relationship towards

Aziz and others is very rude. Perhaps it shows the colonizer’s superiority complex on the one hand. It might show a human being’s temperament of bearing others on the other hand because he is also rude towards Adela. The attitude of Fielding is very good towards Aziz and others as he comes back to India as a professor for the welfare of Indians. By the end Aziz was hoping India a very prosperous state in future after the departure of Britishers but he is not aware of the fact that Hindu, Sikhs and Muslims are different nations having different rituals and religion that will further develop the conflict of freedom among them. In Heart of Darkness we find cruelty in the relationships of the indigenous people and the imperialists. The Marabar Caves are central to A Passage to India like the Africa's Congo in Heart of Darkness, where a European is presented with the colonial 'other' and comes undone, never to recover. However, unlike the 'other' in the Heart of Darkness, India's 'other' is not something that is savage and wild, the 'other' in the Marabar Caves is something old, ancient, and indifferent to even the best that British colonialism has to offer in Mrs. Moore. The Caves are an impersonal entity; dark and empty, echoing back that nothing has meaning; not idealism, gentility or Christian virtues.