LINGUA INGLESE 2010 1) The “Ladies” Mrs Moore refers to in line 1

TEMA DI: LINGUA INGLESE
TESTO LETTARIO – LINGUA INGLESE 2010 1) The “Ladies” Mrs Moore refers to in line 1, are the native people, in this case a group of Indian Women.
2) The English ladies who participate in the conversation are Mrs Moore, Adele and Mrs Turton. While Mr and Mrs Bhattacharya, Mrs Das and a group of Indian ladies, are the native ones.
3) She is extremely contemptuous and narrow minded of them and patronising in her attitude. “You’re superior to them….everyone in Indian except the Ramis.” 4) She shakes hands with the group of women and says a few word s of welcome in Urdu. She had learned the language so that she could speak to her servants. Expressions for giving orders. “She knew none of the politer forms… only the imperative mood.” 5) Mrs Moore wishes that the Indian ladies could speak English. When this is revealed, Adele is delighted because she believes she will be able to communicate with them. Both Adele and Mrs Moore want to be friendly, but they talk to them on what they believe to be an equal stance, but the fact that they speak English, shows this is not the case. 6) The fact that Mrs Turton expects the Indian ladies not to know her language shows her sense of superiority “why fancy”. 7) No she isn’t. Mrs Turton is afraid that speaking the same language, the Indian ladies will be able to judge her rudeness towards them. “Her manner had grown more distant …. own standards to her.” 8) Mrs Turton associates the natives with animals, in this case, birds. Line(24‐25)”As if she was describing the movements of migratory birds.”
9) The Indian ladies appear to be embarrassed and don’t know what to do exactly “Uncertainty about their gestures” “Cowering, recovering, giggling, making tiny gesture of atonement…. All that was said”. 10) Miss Quested doesn’t succeed in establishing a relationship with the Indian ladies, because there is a lack of communication of understanding. “She strove in vain against the echoing walls of their civility.” SUMMARY In this passage the narrator’s description of the linguistic relationship between British and Indians tells us something deeper about the rapport between Indian and British culture. Although the English and Indian ladies understand each other, the gap which separates them, is even deeper than language. The fact that the conversation between Adele and the ladies never go beyond formal greetings and “civilty”, shows that the culture of the Indians remains inaccessible.