This mindset and scenario is one that many Anglo-Indian women in the 1920’s felt strongly. They were often even harsher than this scenario. The idea that if left alone with an Indian man he will rape, abuse, or even murder …show more content…
Mrs. Moore becomes sick by the caves and asks to sit out, but encourages Adela and Aziz to go on alone. So Aziz and Adela take a servant and go exploring in one more cave. So here again like the first scene is a Mutiny Narrative opportunity, a white woman alone in a dark cave with an Indian man. Adela the woman who had wanted to see the “real-India” this whole time was quickly losing interest. In fact she started to turn into the Anglo-Indian woman she kept claiming she did not want to be. The reader starts to see this when the narrator leads into a question from Adela, “she gave rein to the subject of marriage and said in her honest, decent, inquisitive way: “Have you one wife or more than one?””(169). When I think of giving rein, I think of someone whipping a horse and giving rein. So this word choice may imply that Adela is starting to take on the role of having power over Indians, and accept her role as an Anglo-Indian. This makes sense because this question is the last time that she speaks to Aziz before he is accused of raping her. When she gives rein she moves to the subject of marriage. This is something that she can’t hold the reins on in her own life so to speak. Throughout the cave she is debating to marry or not to marry and perhaps the battle truly is to be an Anglo-Indian or not to be. Clearly, in this moment she might be making a choice. It’s pure irony when it goes on to say that in her “honest, decent, inquisitive way” she asks the question. The question itself is more of a uneducated slam. So it’s ironic that it is said to be all of these things. She asks the question for her amusement. Perhaps, she even asks the question so she doesn’t have to think about her