Previous
Chapter 1
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
When Maurice arrives at his mother’s home outside of London, his sisters, Ada and Kitty, rush out to greet him. Maurice appreciates his mother’s home and recognizes her as the architect of its pleasantness and comfort. Without her, there would be no soft chairs to sit in or easy games to play. Maurice asks after George, the gardener at the house, and the second time he asks, his mother tells him that George was getting too old and has been let go. Maurice’s mother tells him that he’ll go to Sunnington to grow up like his “dear father in every way.” Maurice interrupts her with a sob but quickly insists that this emotional outburst is just because he is tired.
When Maurice’s mother tells him that he will grow up like his father in every way, she reinforces the masculine norms Mr. Abrahams suggested. The reinforcement of that masculine ideal is juxtaposed with one of Maurice’s first inklings that he might be gay. He may not be completely aware of his desire or want to acknowledge it to himself, but he is infatuated with George and devastated that George has left. Maurice’s attraction to George is the first hint that he might not, in fact, turn out like his father in every way. At first, Maurice’s inability to go along the norms he was taught will disturb him, but over the course of the novel, he realizes that there is something wrong with the heteronormativity that he was taught, not with who he is as a person.
Themes
Maurice asks Mrs. Howell why George was let go, and she says that he wasn’t fired—he quit to try and “better himself.” At night, Maurice goes to bed reluctantly. He is afraid of seeing his shadow on the ceiling reflected in the glass. He lies awake, thinking of George, reminding himself that the man was just a servant. He only falls asleep, though, after he lets himself feel his grief.
By reminding himself that George is “just a servant," Maurice seeks solace in two different ways. First, he tells himself that George is of a lower class and, therefore, not worthy of the same consideration that someone of Maurice’s class would be. Second, Maurice is also telling himself that George is not a family member, a lover, or someone he was attracted to. He is “just a servant,” nothing more, nothing less. By the end of the novel, Maurice will need to confront both of those ideas—his class prejudices and his resistance to his sexual orientation—to live a happier life.
Themes
