A Passage to India

Mrs. Turton and Ronny arrange for Mrs. Moore to leave India with the wife of the Lieutenant-General, Mrs. Mellanby. She leaves before the trial and the wedding “at her son’s suggestion, and by her own desire, she departed” (230). Despite finally achieving what she wanted, Mrs. Moore is apathetic. She travels by train first, taking in the Indian countryside that she did not have the chance to fully explore with indifference. Her mind is with her family at home and the spiritual concerns of insignificance that her time in Chandrapore inspired. The heat is not unbearable during her journey to Bombay, and she is relieved that no servant or companion from Chandrapore accompanies her.

She arrives in Bombay, “the huge city which the West has built and abandoned with a gesture of despair” (233). As she proceeds, the echo from the Marabar Caves is continually in her mind, particularly how it reduced all sounds to the same one. She is haunted by this idea, and how it applies to the entire country of India. She meets Lady Mellanby in Bombay, and they board a ship bound for England. Lady Mellanby advises Mrs. Moore to stay out of the heat on the sea.