Life After Life

Life After Life

by

Kate Atkinson

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Life After Life makes teaching easy.

Maurice Todd Character Analysis

Ursula’s older brother and Sylvie and Hugh’s son. Maurice is the eldest of the five Todd children, and he is not very close with any of them. As a boy, he is a troublemaker and constantly gets into fights with Pamela because he believes that girls are both weaker and less intelligent than boys. He also does things like throw Ursula’s toy out of the window, which ultimately leads to her trying to climb out onto the roof, resulting in her falling and dying from the roof. Maurice isn’t much better when he is older: he works at the Home Office as Ursula does, but in a much higher-up position. He rarely sees his family except for events like Hugh’s birthday and funeral. When Teddy dies, Maurice is the one to tell Ursula, but he is completely unsympathetic to her grief. He becomes an example of how Ursula’s family members, when they do not love and support her, cause her depression and sometimes even her death.

Maurice Todd Quotes in Life After Life

The Life After Life quotes below are all either spoken by Maurice Todd or refer to Maurice Todd. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Life, Reincarnation, and Alternate Possibilities Theme Icon
).
Like a Fox in a Hole, May 1926 Quotes

Ursula had seen her brothers naked, knew what they had between their legs— wrinkled cockles, a little spout—and it seemed to have little to do with this painful piston-driven thing that was now ramming inside her like a weapon of war. Her own body breached. The arch that led to womanhood did not seem so triumphal anymore, merely brutal and completely uncaring.

Related Characters: Ursula Todd, Maurice Todd, Howie
Page Number: 188
Explanation and Analysis:
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Maurice Todd Quotes in Life After Life

The Life After Life quotes below are all either spoken by Maurice Todd or refer to Maurice Todd. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Life, Reincarnation, and Alternate Possibilities Theme Icon
).
Like a Fox in a Hole, May 1926 Quotes

Ursula had seen her brothers naked, knew what they had between their legs— wrinkled cockles, a little spout—and it seemed to have little to do with this painful piston-driven thing that was now ramming inside her like a weapon of war. Her own body breached. The arch that led to womanhood did not seem so triumphal anymore, merely brutal and completely uncaring.

Related Characters: Ursula Todd, Maurice Todd, Howie
Page Number: 188
Explanation and Analysis: