Definition of Mood
Key Examples in A Passage to India
The mood of A Passage to India is both contemplative and intriguing. On the whole, the novel inspires feelings of awe, mostly because of its interest in exploring some of India's most compelling elements. However, the last passage gives the novel's ending a melancholy mood. In Part 3, Chapter 37, the narrator describes the many obstacles standing between Aziz and Fielding becoming genuine friends:
But the horses didn’t want it—they swerved apart; the earth didn’t want it, sending up rocks through which riders must pass single file; the temples, the tank, the jail, the palace, the birds, the carrion, the Guest House, that came into view as they issued from the gap and saw Mau beneath: they didn’t want it, they said in their hundred voices, “No, not yet,” and the sky said, “No, not there.”