Significance of The Caves

The 'Caves', both as a chapter and as a setting in the novel, represents an important turning-point for the characters. As a consequence of visiting, Aziz gets accused of assault and becomes disillusioned with the idea of forming personal relationships with the colonials, Mrs. Moore suddenly comes upon a fit of nihilism which she never recovers from and Miss Quested's marriage engagement and reputation is ruined. We see that at the end of the entire ordeal of his trial and its aftermath, Aziz concludes that "the earth...the temples, the tank, the jail, the palace...they didn't want it, they said in their hundred voices: 'No, not yet,'" (267-8) to forming a friendship with Fielding. The novel shows that to the end, relations between the Indians and their colonials can never escape the implications of power and capitalist exploitation the colonizer-colonized relationship is always grounded in. (We are shown this by Aziz's inability to refrain from suspecting that Fielding has persuaded him not to sue Miss Quested, only to marry her and steal the money which was rightfully his.) We also see that the visit to the caves scarred Mrs. Moore irrevocably, as the echo "bou-oum" "began in some indescribable way to undermine her hold on life." (123) "Everything exists, nothing has value" (ibid) becomes the existentialist notion with which Mrs. Moore's heart is seized.

The Marabar Caves is a setting of darkness, violence and obscurity. In light of the effects of the visit on its visitors I have outlined, it almost seems to embody the country's meting out of penance for crossing the boundaries of propriety between the colonizers and colonized. We see that in itself it is not "an attractive place or quite worth visiting" (116), a geographical feature of the village which neither the locals (Aziz "had no notion how to treat this particular aspect of India" (117)) nor the foreigners could comprehend. And yet it has profound effects on them all, and "it robbed infinity and eternity of their vastness, the only quality that accomodates them to mankind." (123) This disillusionment with life, friendships and man's goodness is meted out by the caves as the land's punishment for these incursions into the boundaries between colonizers and colonized. It is as if there are to be no grey areas in this unnatural situation where the colonials have taken and exploited land which is not theirs to take. I would read the caves, especially in its presentation as a natural and untainted (by colonial exploitation) land, to signify what Forster believes is the country's protest to colonialization and any hypocrisies of friendship it might inspire.

--Charlene (using a Borders edition so page numbers might not match)