The characters of Dr. Aziz in A Passage to India and Paul Morel in Sons and Lovers have some similarities but more differences. Both are young men with pleasant personalities who come to realize that they are out of place in their own society. The numerous differences between them include their nationality and class status: Aziz is an Indian subject in the British colonial Indian “Raj,” while Morel is a white Englishman born and raised in England. As a physician, however, Aziz would have a higher class status than Morel, who comes from a working-class family. Religion is another difference, as Aziz is Muslim while Morel is Christian. The way they come to understand their outsider status is also different. In Aziz’s case, his efforts to interact with White English colonizers lead to disaster. Morel, however, learns about life through holding different jobs and having love affairs.

E. M. Forster and D. H. Lawrence present young men who are struggling to find meaning in different parts of the British Empire. Forster’s novel takes place in the large British colony of India, where Aziz has achieved considerable success by becoming a doctor. Nevertheless, as a Muslim in a predominantly Hindu society and as an indigenous Indian in a European colony, he faces distinct obstacles. Forster makes this clear in Aziz’s terrible experience with the justice system, where a word from a White woman is enough to put him on trial. His illusions about England are shattered by his experience. For Morel, being a working-class man has inherent limitations but he comes to a deeper understanding of his own capabilities and limitations without the kind of ordeal that Aziz must endure.