Maurice: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

The narrative notes that a person like Maurice can appear insensitive because it takes time for him to feel. But he eventually feels his emotions intensely. From the depths of his pain, he slowly begins to understand the joy he has lost. Durham and Maurice don’t speak for two days. When they play tennis together in a group, the agony is excruciating. On the way back, with Durham in the sidecar, Maurice becomes lightheaded and turns his motorcycle into oncoming traffic. He slams on the brakes at the last moment, narrowly avoiding disaster. That night, as he tries to sleep, Maurice is flooded with tears. What horror, he thinks, a man crying.

Madness affects each person differently, and Maurice’s proves to be the “thunderbolt that dispels the clouds.” The storm has been brewing not for the past three days, as Maurice thinks, but for the past six years. It becomes plain to Maurice: he lied. He has been fed lies through his boyhood, and he ate them greedily. He resolves to change. He decides, then, not to pretend to care about women when he knows that he is only attracted to men. He admits to himself only now that he has lost Durham, the man who loved him.