Word: echoing
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...magisterial critic, has been pondering since Forster published in 1924. All we know is that on the trek to them the conversation between man and woman drifts uncomfortably toward matters of the heart, that they enter different caves, that Adela becomes frightened and disoriented as the result of an echo she hears, and that suddenly she is stumbling hysterically back down the hill, giving the distinct impression that she has been assaulted. What we will never know is whether Aziz followed her into her cave and made sexual advances to her or whether the whole thing was a hallucination...
That is because though the point may seem crucial to the narrative, it is actually insignificant thematically. What is important is, of all things, the echo. " 'Boum' is the sound as far as the human alphabet can express it, or 'bou-oum,' or 'ou-boum'?utterly dull," is the way Forster rather unhelpfully describes...
...symbolically it meant everything to him. For in his view the universe was a hopeless "muddle," and India, in its vastness and variety, was the dangerous and seductive symbol of that universe. Finally, the echo, with its capacity to undermine one's hold on reason, to reduce everything, the good and the bad, to the same level of meaninglessness, symbolized India. The echo, in the novel, speaks thus: " 'Pathos, piety, courage?they exist, but are identical, and so is filth. Everything exists, nothing has value.' If one had spoken vileness in that place, or quoted lofty poetry, the comment would...
Only two characters understand the dreadful disorienting power made manifest by the echo, and their answer to it is withdrawal from the world. One is a Hindu sage, Professor Godbole, a lively cricket of a man, hopping to some music only the brilliant Alec Guinness can hear. As Fielding busies himself with Aziz's defense, Godbole's comment is merely "You can do what you like, but the outcome will be the same." The other is Mrs. Moore, Adela's traveling companion, almost comically regal at some moments, uncannily vulnerable in others, but always touched by mystery as Peggy Ashcroft...
Leonardus strides into the class of 24 small pupils and delivers an imperial greeting. "Salvete, discipuli!" he booms. "Salve, magister," replies the chorus. The sound is an echo from Pompeii: Health to the teacher, health to the pupils...