Question: Give a description of a Marabar Cave in A Passage to India.
Answer: The ‘Marabar Caves,’ as presented by E. M. Forster in A Passage to India, are mysterious and extraordinary. Why they are so strange is never clearly explained. We are told that the Marabar Caves are prehistoric. They predate Islam, Christianity, and even Hinduism—some of the oldest religions in the world. They symbolize chaos, darkness, and evil. In the caves, the Western visitors come face to face with a disturbing reality that seems to be a part of the universe itself.
While visiting the Marabar Caves, Mrs. Moore is shaken both spiritually and physically. The echo inside the cave destroys her faith and sense of order. Adela Quested is driven to the brink of madness, and Aziz’s life is temporarily ruined because of the accusation that follows the visit. Thus, the “passage to India” that the two women undertake appears to fail.
A Marabar Cave consists of a tunnel about eight feet long, five feet high, and three feet wide, leading into a circular chamber approximately twenty feet in diameter. The interior walls are smoothly and mysteriously polished. The caves are extremely dark. Even when the entrance faces the sunlight, very little light penetrates through the narrow tunnel into the inner chamber. The emptiness and confined space of the cave produce a strange echo—a monotonous and meaningless “boum” or “bou-oum” sound.
This echo has a terrifying effect. When Mrs. Moore and Adela hear it, it seems to reduce all words and meanings to the same dull sound. The echo symbolizes the negation of values such as love, kindness, religion, and morality. It creates confusion and releases a sense of evil that spreads throughout the novel. As a result, hopes of understanding, unity, sympathy, and friendship are shattered, at least for a time.
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