She hallucinated an attempted rape cause she was tired and sweaty?
No. She was a repressed and inexperienced young girl. She had experienced probably her first sexual feeling only days beforehand, when she visited the abandoned temple and saw the statues in sexual positions. She was definitely interested in what was going on there, but then she was frightened away by the monkeys - so her sexual awakening was accompanied by feelings of terror. It makes her as horny as hell, and Ronnie is looking like her best chance, so as soon as she gets back, all flushed and sweaty, and not entirely from the bike ride, she embraces him and calls the wedding back on again.
However, Ronnie ain't putting out and, anyway, as she says in court, when she sees the city so far away through binoculars she realises she doesn't love him anymore.
So, her thoughts turn to the very eligible young man sitting next to her. He's good-looking, well-educated, pleasant company; he has gone to immense expense to impress her and Mrs Moore - a huge entourage, painted elephants, the works, and she is duly impressed. She is nervous about her engagement, and feels intimate enough with him to ask him some personal questions, which reinforces their intimacy. When he gives her his hand to help her up the ravine, it's probably the most physical contact she has had with a man, apart from dancing. It's a beautiful day and they are alone. Such a pity he's the wrong bally colour, what?
Basically then, when she gets into the cave, she is totally worked up. She doesn't understand what is happening, but his footsteps coming nearer and nearer and his echoing voice calling her name tip her over the edge. And that freaks her, particularly as she has come to associate sex with fear.
I'd say by the time she got down to the car she was only half conscious. She was scared, cut and bruised and stuck all over with cactus spines. She probably babbled something about Aziz, the Calenders jumped to conclusions and put words into her mouth, and then the whole Raj machinery, including her Magistrate fiancé, sparked into action and she couldn't back out.
A girl capable of having a spontaneous orgasm like that (I don't think she masturbated) is some sensual woman. It's a pity she is too scared to explore that aspect of her sexuality, and her entire society is set up to prevent it just as surely as if they made her wear a burkha.
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joe-armenta
15 years ago
Wow - That's a very illuminating explanation of what happened at the Caves, Irlandesa. It all makes sense. Thanks.
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edwardholub
15 years ago
That kind of reminds me of the scene in Last Tango in Paris where Jean is telling about the incident when she was a young girl and she orgasmed while running. "The more I ran the more I came. Then I tried it the next day, but no dice."
There is no "off" position on the genius switch.
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odo5435
15 years ago
I came here to have some light shed on exactly what did happen in the caves, as I was also confused. To be honest, the idea of spontaneous orgasm never occurred to me, even with the (obviously too subtle) hint of water dropping on rocks. (Then again, being male, that scene only suggested water dripping on rocks to me.)
Thank you Irlandesa for your insightful explanation. It is as plausible as any others I have read here.
From the OP's comments, I take it that the book doesn't shed any light on the subject?
That wasn't very sporting, using real bullets.
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Acceler8
14 years ago
One thing about the incident in the cave no one seems to have noticed: When Adela sees Aziz at the mouth of the cave, he is silhouetted against the bright outdoors. At the same time, he makes certain motions, almost crouching towards one side then the other, as he tries to see inside the cave. To Adela's fevered imagination, these movements may have reminded her of the monkeys that had frightened her before.
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springhill49635
14 years ago
It wasn't spontaneous orgasm, it was a panic attack! If it had been spontaneous orgasm Adela would have floated down the mountain afterwords in an afterglow of bliss and hopped into bed with Aziz ASAP. Instead she flees frantically and tears herself up in a bed of thorns getting to the car.
In Forster's novel Adela tells her nurses: "I went into this detestable cave and I remember scratching at the wall with my finger-nail, to start the usual echo, and then there was this shadow, or sort of a shadow, down the entrance tunnel, bottling me up. It seemed like an age, but I suppose the whole thing can't have lasted thirty seconds really. I hit at him with the glasses, he pulled me around the cave by the strap, it broke, I escaped, that's all. He never actually touched me once."
In the novel Forster says nothing about Aziz going into the cave and finding Adela. He searches desperately outside for her until he is at last relieved to see her getting into the car and leaving, and he is utterly astounded to be arrested for rape. Later Adela tells her fiance: "Ronny, he's innocent; I made an awful mistake." In the trial she testifies: "Dr. Aziz never followed me into the cave." In the novel there is no sexual attraction between Adela and Aziz and Forster uses her simply as a hysterical match to ignite the race war between the English and Indians.
In the film Lean develops Adela character in the way he does Lara's in Doctor Zhivago. He presents Adela as a virgin with ambivalent feelings about marriage and sex. When she arrives in India and is greeted by her fiance she expects a warm embrace. Instead he just gives her a quick peck, leaves, and she decides marriage isn't for them. Then in the episode with the sculptures depicting sexual intercourse she is fascinated and aroused until the monkeys attack,she flees in fear but she has also discovered her own sexuality and decides upon marriage again.
From the outset in the film she is intrigued by the Marabar Caves and when Godbole describes them he lifts a peeled banana to his face its phallic symbolism hinting at their sexuality. In the film Adela finds herself attracted to Aziz and when they arrive at the cave she hovers flirtatiously and invitingly at the entrance, but once inside alone she sees Aziz at its mouth. Suddenly she succumbs to a disastrous panic attack, urinates in fear (shown by the trickle of water from the pond), flees down the hill in terror and in her confusion allows Aziz to be accused of rape.
In the trial she admits that Aziz did not enter the cave and afterwords she turns to Fielding who shields her from the mob. We expect they will marry but at the end years later in both the novel and the film we discover she is a spinster apparently never having resolved her issues with sex.
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Piperson
13 years ago
I like your explanations. But I also agree with the OP who stated that Lean handled the whole incident in the cave with such Goddamn good taste that it was impossible to say what had happened. You would have expected Adela's flashbacks to have clarified SOMETHING of what actually happened. Instead, they only clarify that NOTHING happened. Aziz didn't do anything.
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