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
Clive returns to England at his leisure. He goes to the Hall house to find Maurice, but Maurice is away on business. With Kitty, Ada, and Maurice’s mother, Clive attends an ambulance class, volunteering to be the sample patient. When Maurice returns home, he demands that Clive tell him why he wrote the initial letter. Clive tells him that he has “become normal—like other men” and that the change is “merely physical.” Maurice tells him that he’s confused, that it can’t be true. Clive says it’s true, that he is more in love with Ada, for example, than with Maurice. “What an ending,” Maurice says as he begins to sob. Clive leaves the house, suffering, but he assures himself that he will find someone else, a “goddess of the new universe that had opened to him,” a woman utterly unlike Maurice Hall.
To Maurice, Clive insists that the change is physical; being attracted to women isn’t something he has chosen, but something that happened to his body. Maurice is reluctant to accept this explanation. After they break up, as Clive leaves, he resolves to find someone new, a woman completely different than Maurice, a “goddess of the new universe,” showing again that Clive might have more than just attraction on his mind. He is looking for a “goddess,” someone who will either confer power on him or with whom he can share power, something he could never do with Maurice because they were forced to keep their relationship secret.
Themes
