UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO CEARÁCURSO DE LETRAS- CENTRO DE HUMANIDADESDEPARTAMENTO DE LETRAS ESTRANGEIRASDISCIPLINA: LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA IVDocente: Profa. Dra. Luana Ferreira de FreitasDiscentes: Aleksandra Holanda da Nóbrega Sampaio, Matheus de Souza Rodrigues, Pedro Mendes Leão,

FORTALEZA 2013

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

E.M. Forster; MISHRA, Pankai, A Passage to India, ed. by Oliver Stallybrass (Penguin Classic, 2005).

“A Passage to India” film by British director David Lean.1984 • drama • 163 min

Introduction

Só esqueceram uma coisa na construção do nosso edifício social: a pedra fundamental.

Millôr Fernandes

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

Introduction

Só esqueceram uma coisa na construção do nosso edifício social: a pedra fundamental.

Millôr Fernandes

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation☆ London, 1 January 1879 † Conventry, 7 June 1970

Introduction

Só esqueceram uma coisa na construção do nosso edifício social: a pedra fundamental.

Millôr Fernandes

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

Edward Morgan Forster was born into a comfortable London family in 1879. His father, an architect, died when Forster was very young, leaving the boy to be raised by his mother and great aunt. Forster proved to be a ‑bright student, and he went on to attend Cambridge University, graduating in 1901. He spent much of the next decade traveling and living abroad, dividing his time between working as a journalist and writing short stories and novels.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

Edward Morgan Forster was born into a comfortable London family in 1879. His father, an architect, died when Forster was very young, leaving the boy to be raised by his mother and great aunt. Forster proved to be a ‑bright student, and he went on to attend Cambridge University, graduating in 1901. He spent much of the next decade traveling and living abroad, dividing his time between working as a journalist and writing short stories and novels.

Many of Forster’s observations and experiences from this time figure in his fiction, most notably A Room with a View (1908), which chronicles the experiences of a group of English people vacationing in Italy. Two years after A Room with a View, the novel Howards End (1910), in which Forster criticized the class divisions and prejudices of Edwardian England, solidified his reputation as a social critic and a master of incisively observational fiction.

Introduction

Só esqueceram uma coisa na construção do nosso edifício social: a pedra fundamental.

Millôr Fernandes

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

Long before Forster first visited India, he had already gained a vivid picture of its people and places from a young Indian Muslim named Syed Ross Masood, whom Forster began tutoring in England starting in 1906. Forster and Masood became very close, and Masood introduced Forster to several of his Indian friends. Echoes of the friendship between the two can be seen in the characters of Fielding and Aziz in A Passage to India. By the time Forster first visited India, in 1912, the Englishman was well prepared for his travels throughout the country.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

Long before Forster first visited India, he had already gained a vivid picture of its people and places from a young Indian Muslim named Syed Ross Masood, whom Forster began tutoring in England starting in 1906. Forster and Masood became very close, and Masood introduced Forster to several of his Indian friends. Echoes of the friendship between the two can be seen in the characters of Fielding and Aziz in A Passage to India. By the time Forster first visited India, in 1912, the Englishman was well prepared for his travels throughout the country.

At the time of Forster’s visit, the British government had been officially ruling India since 1858, after the failed Sepoy Rebellion in 1857, in which Indians attempted to regain rule from the British East India Company.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

Long before Forster first visited India, he had already gained a vivid picture of its people and places from a young Indian Muslim named Syed Ross Masood, whom Forster began tutoring in England starting in 1906. Forster and Masood became very close, and Masood introduced Forster to several of his Indian friends. Echoes of the friendship between the two can be seen in the characters of Fielding and Aziz in A Passage to India. By the time Forster first visited India, in 1912, the Englishman was well prepared for his travels throughout the country.

At the time of Forster’s visit, the British government had been officially ruling India since 1858, after the failed Sepoy Rebellion in 1857, in which Indians attempted to regain rule from the British East India Company.

The East India Company, a privately owned trading concern, had been gaining financial and political power in India since the seventeenth century. By the time of Forster’s visit, Britain’s control over India was complete: English governors headed each province and were responsible to Parliament. Though England had promised the Indian people a role in government in exchange for their aid during World War I, India did not win independence until three decades later, in 1949.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

Forster spent time with both Englishmen and Indians during his visit, and he quickly found he preferred the company of the latter. He was troubled by the racial oppression and deep cultural misunderstandings that divided the Indian people and the British colonists, or, as they are called in A Passage to India, Anglo-Indians. The prevailing attitude among the British in India was that the colonists were assuming the “white man’s burden”—novelist Rudyard Kipling’s phrase—of governing the country, because the Indians could not handle the responsibility themselves.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

Forster spent time with both Englishmen and Indians during his visit, and he quickly found he preferred the company of the latter. He was troubled by the racial oppression and deep cultural misunderstandings that divided the Indian people and the British colonists, or, as they are called in A Passage to India, Anglo-Indians. The prevailing attitude among the British in India was that the colonists were assuming the “white man’s burden”—novelist Rudyard Kipling’s phrase—of governing the country, because the Indians could not handle the responsibility themselves.

Forster began writing A Passage to India in 1913, just after his first visit to India. The novel was not revised and completed, however, until well after his second stay in India, in 1921, when he served as secretary to the Maharajah of Dewas State Senior. Published in 1924, A Passage to India examines the racial misunderstandings and cultural hypocrisies that characterized the complex interactions between Indians and the English toward the end of the British occupation of India.

Introduction

Só esqueceram uma coisa na construção do nosso edifício social: a pedra fundamental.

Millôr Fernandes

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

Introduction

Só esqueceram uma coisa na construção do nosso edifício social: a pedra fundamental.

Millôr Fernandes

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

“A Passage to India” film by British director David Lean.1984 • drama • 163 min

Cast

Judy Davis as Adela QuestedPeggy Ashcroft as Mrs. MooreVictor Banerjee as Dr. Aziz AhmedJames Fox as Richard FieldingAlec Guinness as Professor GodboleNigel Havers as Ronny HeaslopMichael Culver as Major McBrydeClive Swift as Major CallendarArt Malik as AliSaeed Jaffrey as Advocate HamidullahRoshan Seth as Advocate Amrit RaoRichard Wilson as TurtonAntonia Pemberton as Mrs Turton

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

Slide 1First chapter of the book, first scene: Aziz is talking to his friends.First scene of the movie: Adela is in the port preparing herself to embark.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

Slide 1First chapter of the book, first scene: Aziz is talking to his friends.First scene of the movie: Adela is in the port preparing herself to embark.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

Slide 1First chapter of the book, first scene: Aziz is talking to his friends.First scene of the movie: Adela is in the port preparing herself to embark.

In the book, there is no scene which shows Adela preparing herself moments before departing to India. And there is no scene of her arriving in Chandrapore.

In the movie, Adela is the first character to appear, but in the book Aziz and Mrs. Moore appear before her.

Slide 1“You’re superior to them, anyway. Don’t forget that. You’re superior to everyone in India except one or two of the ranis, and they’re on an equality.” (An English woman talking to Mrs. Moore) p.38

This excerpt is not seen in the movie, maybe because they didn’t want to shock the audience with such a prejudice.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

Slide 1“You’re superior to them, anyway. Don’t forget that. You’re superior to everyone in India except one or two of the ranis, and they’re on an equality.” (An English woman talking to Mrs. Moore) p.38

This excerpt is not seen in the movie, maybe because they didn’t want to shock the audience with such a prejudice.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

In the book, Mr. Fielding arrives late at the train station and is unable to get into the train to the Marabar Caves. He jumps, trying to get Aziz’ hand, but he fails.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

In the book, Mr. Fielding arrives late at the train station and is unable to get into the train to the Marabar Caves. He jumps, trying to get Aziz’ hand, but he fails.

In the movie, he doesn’t even try to jump into the train. (p. 122)

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

In the book, Mr. Fielding arrives late at the train station and is unable to get into the train to the Marabar Caves. He jumps, trying to get Aziz’ hand, but he fails.

In the movie, he doesn’t even try to jump into the train. (p. 122)

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

Slide 4In the movie, there is no narrator. In the book, there is. For example: “Unfortunately, India has few important towns. India is the country, fields, fields, then hills, jungle, hills, and more fields.”

This description is no character’s speech, it’s the narrator. In the movie, we actually see those fields, hills, jungle, so there is no need to have a narrator explaining it to us.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

Slide 4In the movie, there is no narrator. In the book, there is. For example: “Unfortunately, India has few important towns. India is the country, fields, fields, then hills, jungle, hills, and more fields.”

This description is no character’s speech, it’s the narrator. In the movie, we actually see those fields, hills, jungle, so there is no need to have a narrator explaining it to us.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

“Miss Quested had renounced her own people. Turning from them, she was drawn into a mass of Indians of the shop-keeping class, and carried by them towards the public exit of the court.” (p. 218)

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

“Miss Quested had renounced her own people. Turning from them, she was drawn into a mass of Indians of the shop-keeping class, and carried by them towards the public exit of the court.” (p. 218)

When Adela says Aziz is innocent, she is carried by the people outside of the court; in the movie, this doesn’t happen. Only Aziz receives this treatment from the people. Maybe the movie wanted to pass the image of union between Indian people, so Aziz was more valued than Adela.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

“Miss Quested had renounced her own people. Turning from them, she was drawn into a mass of Indians of the shop-keeping class, and carried by them towards the public exit of the court.” (p. 218)

When Adela says Aziz is innocent, she is carried by the people outside of the court; in the movie, this doesn’t happen. Only Aziz receives this treatment from the people. Maybe the movie wanted to pass the image of union between Indian people, so Aziz was more valued than Adela.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

This is not a difference, but an interesting thing to be mentioned: Aziz is a muslim, and he doesn’t like hindus. However, both muslims and hindus will get together to fight for his freedom. And they will celebrate when he is declared innocent.

They all celebrate together, and forget about any differences. On page 63, Aziz says: “Slack Hindus – they have no idea of society; I know them very well because of a doctor at the hospital. Such a slack unpunctual fellow!”

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

– Professor Godbole is a Brahman, and the caste system in India was very important at that time. There is a scene, on page 66, in which we can read: “He took his tea at a little distance from the outcastes”. In the movie, the outcastes are not mentioned. Maybe because they didn’t want to focus on this controversial aspect and make the outcastes be angry.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

– Professor Godbole is a Brahman, and the caste system in India was very important at that time. There is a scene, on page 66, in which we can read: “He took his tea at a little distance from the outcastes”. In the movie, the outcastes are not mentioned. Maybe because they didn’t want to focus on this controversial aspect and make the outcastes be angry.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

– Professor Godbole is a Brahman, and the caste system in India was very important at that time. There is a scene, on page 66, in which we can read: “He took his tea at a little distance from the outcastes”. In the movie, the outcastes are not mentioned. Maybe because they didn’t want to focus on this controversial aspect and make the outcastes be angry.

Just as a curiosity: The castes: the Brahmans, the Kshatriyas or warriors, the Vaisyas or agriculturists and traders, the Sudras, who were peasants and menials. The outcastes were associated with impure menial work.

The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

Awards and nominationsAcademy Awards[14]Academy Award for Best Picture (John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin, nominees)Academy Award for Best Director (David Lean, nominee)Academy Award for Best Actress (Judy Davis, nominee)Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Peggy Ashcroft, winner)Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (David Lean, nominee)Academy Award for Best Art Direction (John Box and Hugh Scaife, nominees)Academy Award for Best Cinematography (Ernest Day, nominee)Academy Award for Best Costume Design (Judy Moorcroft, nominee)Academy Award for Best Film Editing (David Lean, nominee)Academy Award for Best Sound (Graham V. Hartstone, Nicolas Le Messurier, Michael A. Carter and John W. Mitchell, nominees)Academy Award for Best Original Score (Maurice Jarre, winner)Golden GlobesGolden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film (winner)Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (Peggy Ashcroft, winner)Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score (Maurice Jarre, winner)Golden Globe Award for Best Director (David Lean, nominee)Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay (David Lean, nominee)

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The differences and similarities between A Passage to India by E.M. Forster and David Lean’s film adaptation

BAFTAsBAFTA Award for Best Film (nominee)BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Peggy Ashcroft, winner)BAFTA Award for Best Actor (Victor Banerjee, nominee)BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (James Fox, nominee)BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (David Lean, nominee)BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography (Ernest Day, nominee)BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design (Judy Moorcroft, nominee)BAFTA Award for Best Production Design (John Box, nominee)BAFTA Award for Best Film Music (Maurice Jarre, nominee)

Source: Wikipedia

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DA LINGUA AO DISCURSO

Obras usada nos slides da apresentação

Konstantin Somov - 1910 - Spring Landscape

Giacomo Balla - 1918 - Design for Living Room Furnishings

Eduardo Sarabia - Memórias Pintadas 4 (2012).

Leonilson -1989- S/T

Pablo Picasso - Woman Leaning Ahead - 1904

Self-Portrait with Arm Twisting Above Head- Egon Schiele - 1910

Hector Carybé - 1970 - Arrastão

Thomas Eakins - 1882 - Mending the Net

William Blake - Glad Day or the Dance of Albion - 1794

Collective artwork presented on slidesNanasaheb Yeole – water on paper / 35 x 51cm

Sixth-century painting at the Ajanta Caves in Aurangabad, Maharashtra

Sawant Prafull - 2007/8

Milindmulick- “Cartoon Man”

Paul César Helleu – “Madame Helleu at Fladbury”. oil on canvas 54 x 73 cm

Ananta Mandal - “The Journey III “. water colour on paper 22x 33 cm

Kamal-ol-molk – House of Mirrors

Unknown artist - East India Company

DA LINGUA AO DISCURSO

Obras usada nos slides da apresentação

Konstantin Somov - 1910 - Spring Landscape

Giacomo Balla - 1918 - Design for Living Room Furnishings

Eduardo Sarabia - Memórias Pintadas 4 (2012).

Leonilson -1989- S/T

Pablo Picasso - Woman Leaning Ahead - 1904

Self-Portrait with Arm Twisting Above Head- Egon Schiele - 1910

Hector Carybé - 1970 - Arrastão

Thomas Eakins - 1882 - Mending the Net

William Blake - Glad Day or the Dance of Albion - 1794

http://reelclub.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/whats-in-a-passage-david-leans-interpretation-of-e-m-forsters-a-passage-to-india/

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01818/a-passage-to-india_1818506i.jpg

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/passage/context.html

E.M. Forster; MISHRA, Pankai, A Passage to India, ed. by Oliver Stallybrass (Penguin Classic, 2005).

References