Summary:
By examining the character of Olivia in Heat and Dust and Miss Quested in A Passage to India, shows how Jhabvala and Forster explore the influences of India upon the English in the early part of the twentieth century.
Set in colonial India during the 1920s, 'Heat and Dust' by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala tells the story of Olivia, a beautiful woman suffocated by the propriety and social constraints of her position as the wife of an important English civil servant. Longing for passion and independence, Olivia is drawn into the spell of the Nawab, a minor Indian prince deeply involved in gang raids and criminal plots. She is intrigued by the Nawab's charm and aggressive courtship, and soon begins to spend most of her days in his company. But then she becomes pregnant, and unsure of the child's paternity, she is faced with a wrenching dilemma. Her reaction to the crisis humiliates her husband and outrages the British community, breeding a scandal that lives in collective memory long after her death. Olivia's story is told.....
This is a free excerpt of 135 words. There are 1,846 words (approx.
6 pages at 300 words per page) in the full essay.
Read the rest of this Essay with our Comparison of Heat and Dust and a Passage to India Access Pass.
