Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Maurice, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Sacrifice
Sexual Orientation, Homophobia, and Self-Acceptance
Masculinity and Patriarchy
Religion
Class
Summary
Analysis
Because he has missed so many lectures, and has acted rudely in the process, the Dean expels Maurice and says he will not recommend readmission to the college until Maurice writes a formal letter of apology. Durham receives no punishment; he is too good of a student for the Dean to be worried. The professors took note when students became especially close and felt it right to “spoil a love affair when they could.”
While the Dean says that he expels Maurice—or “sends him down”—because of his absence at lectures and his impertinence, the novel implies that he really does so because Maurice is gay, and those in positions of power at Cambridge feel that it as their responsibility to break up love affairs between men if they detect them. That reality shows the cost that Maurice pays for being gay and also foreshadows other aspects of his life that he will have to give up if he embraces who he is.
Themes
