Status Anxiety In A Passage To Indla

As one of the most renowned novelists in 20th century, E. M. Foster has rendered a multitude of novels which are not only featured by classical traditional novels, but also imbued with innovative elements of modern literary works. He has contributed significantly to English literature at the turn of 20th century. Besides, Foster integrated the spirit of human liberalism into his novels as well, therefore he attached great importance to the theme of"only connect"between human beings of different areas, cultures and religion background. A Passage to India is hailed as one of the most famous novels composed by Foster, which is threaded by two English ladies'trip to India. In this story, the communication and connection between different people fail due to characters'psychological disturbances and uneasiness during the process of constructing and maintaining all kinds of relationships.This thesis explores the ultimate causes that lead to the failure of interpersonal relationship by analyzing the mental status of three protagonists from a distinctive point of view—the Existential Psychology, founded by many psychologists, including R. D. Laing and Rollo May. The conclusion could be drawn that it is their anxiety that results in their frustrations in communication. This thesis is composed of five chapters: the introduction briefs the experiences and works of E. M. Foster, the argument, theoretical framework and organization of this thesis; chapter one, two and three, parallel in structure, analyze respectively the different psychological experiences of Mrs. Moore, Miss Adela Quested and Mr. Aziz from three perspectives, namely, Unwelt, Mitwelt and Eignwelt.Chapter one introduces Mrs. Moore's implosion angst. Firstly, it gives the definition of implosion angst and its manifestations in reality. Secondly, it lists examples of Mrs. Moore's anxiety in the novel to testify that her mental status falls into one particular form of ontological insecurity which is implosion angst. She is the one who loves God and nature; however, in the end her communion with the nature is doomed. The third section discusses her suspicion of faith, Christian in particular, which results from her status anxiety.Chapter two elucidates Adela's engulfment angst. The first part introduces Laing's definition of engulfment angst as well as its representation. Then there is an enumeration of Adela's behaviors and psychological experiences, which shows her unsuccessful connection with environment, including the nature and the exotic cultural surroundings. Her uneasiness and disquiet can be concluded as engulfment angst that is in consistent with Laing's theory. The last section deals with ineffectiveness of her rationality which characterizes English middle class.Chapter three begins with definition of petrification angst. Aziz is an Indian doctor with good intention and benign personality, both of which are wounded and even destroyed by a series of psychological attacks in this alienated world. His status anxiety is the most significant among all the characters, which could be categorized as petrification angst. Then the second section gives an account of Aziz's performances when he confronts with his compatriots and foreign fellows. The petrification anxiety pressed so hard on him that he fails to merge into any kind of cultures, and eventually he abandoned all hopes that kindness generates. Aziz is the one to whom Foster devotes the most affection in this story, so the elucidation of the failure of communication with herds caused by his psychological tension could be the best proof for the central point of this thesis.The last chapter draws a conclusion that the status anxiety is inclined to occur to modern people due to diversified cultural, religious and regional backgrounds, and this kind of psychological disturbances ultimately lead to frustration and failure of communication between people, who become vulnerable to the loss of sense of relationship, love, even basic value.