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
In spring one Sunday, while the family sits at the breakfast table, Maurice’s mother receives a letter from Mrs. Durham saying that Clive is engaged to be married. Maurice smokes half a cigarette in the garden. The news has come so abruptly that it “nearly” upsets him. He goes upstairs to check on their visitor, Dr. Barry’s “young nephew” Dickie Barry, who is still asleep after going to a dance the night before. When Dickie comes downstairs, Maurice thinks that he looks “extraordinarily beautiful.” Maurice walks with Dickie arm in arm to the house of his uncle, Dr. Barry, and secures an invitation for tea. Later that night, as Dickie is going to his room, Maurice says that he is in the room above him, if he wants anything, and that he is always alone all night. Dickie’s first instinct is to latch the door as soon as Maurice leaves.
Maurice tells himself that the news of Clive’s engagement has “nearly” upset him, but it clearly upsets him a great deal. While Maurice wants to think of himself as numb and believes he has moved on from losing Clive, news of the engagement rattles him to the point that, in an attempt to distract himself from his pain, he propositions Dickie, Dr. Barry’s “young nephew,” who seems to be a teenager or not much older and doesn’t welcome Maurice’s romantic interest. Maurice’s recklessness shows how much he is still reeling from losing Clive and that he is still grasping to get his life and emotions under his control in the aftermath of their breakup.
Themes
