A Passage To India

Character List
Dr. Aziz
A Moslem doctor living in Chandrapore at the beginning of the novel, he is a widower with three children who meets Mrs. Moore, an elderly English widow who has three children herself and becomes friends with her. Although he is generous and loving toward his English friends, including Mrs. Moore and Cyril Fielding, after Adela Quested accuses him of assault he becomesbitter, vindictive and notoriously anti-British. A primary concern of A Passage to India is the shift in Dr. Aziz's views of the British from accommodating and even a bit submissive to an aggressively anti-colonial stance.
Cyril Fielding
The schoolmaster of Government College, Fielding stands alone among the British officials in India, for he is one of the few to treat the Indians with a sense ofdecency and respect. Fielding is an individualist who has no great allegiance to any particular group, but rather to his core set of liberal values and sense of justice. This quality allows Fielding to break with the English who support Adela Quested's charges against Aziz and side with the Indians in support of him. However, the events surrounding Aziz's trial cause Fielding to becomedisenchanted with India, despite his affection for the nation, and motivate him to leave India and return to resume a different post.
Adela Quested
Adela Quested arrives in India with the intention of marrying Ronny Heaslop, but changes her mind several times and eventually realizes that she does not love him and cannot marry him. She is a woman of conflicting character traits: although an intellectual,she is short-sighted. Although she foolishly accuses Dr. Aziz of assaulting her in the Marabar Caves, she finds the courage to withdraw the charge. She also suffers from hallucinations that are symptomatic of her somewhat unstable personality. However, Forster finally reveals her to be a woman of character and decency who accepts the difficulties she suffers.
Mrs. Moore
An elderly woman with threechildren, Mrs. Moore visits India with Adela Quested to see her son, Ronny Heaslop. Mrs. Moore is the paragon of Christian decency and kindness, but she suffers from anxiety concerning her own mortality. During the expedition to the Marabar Caves her confidence in the order of the universe is shaken by an echo that she hears in one of the caves. Afterwards, Mrs. Moore becomes sullen anddepressed. When Ronny suspects that she will aid Aziz in his defense, he arranges for Mrs. Moore to leave India. On the journey home, she dies from heat exhaustion.
Professor Narayan Godbole
A Deccani Brahmin who is a professor at the college in Chandrapore, Godbole represents Hindu philosophies in A Passage to India. He is a man of calm character and utter repose, showing no worry for the events aroundhim, no matter how significant. He leaves Chandrapore to start a high school in Central India after the trial of Aziz, who later joins him there.
Ronny Heaslop
The son of Mrs. Moore from her first marriage, Ronny typifies the "sun-dried bureaucrat" and Anglo-Indian. He is condescending and cruel toward the Indians, believing that he is not in India to be kind, but rather to rule over the nation.He becomes a martyr during the trial because of the ill treatment of Adela, but shows himself to be manipulative and callous when he pushes to have his mother leave India when he fears she may hurt the prosecution's case.
Mahmoud Ali
This friend of Aziz serves as one of the lawyers for his defense, and takes a defiant anti-British stance. His behavior during the trial is dangerously aggressive,however, and he threatens to provoke a riot after Aziz's acquittal. Later he refuses to clear up the misunderstanding concerning Fielding's marriage to Stella Moore.
Antony
One of Adela's servants, he was to accompany Adela and Mrs. Moore to the Marabar Caves, but since he was a spy for Ronny Heaslop, Mohammed Latif bribes him not to go. Later he follows Adela as she leaves India and attempts...