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Chapter 20
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
Over the next few days, it becomes clear that the attack was not as serious as it initially appeared. Clive recovers physically. His mood, though, remains gloomy, and he grows even more determined to travel to Greece. Maurice grows to hate the idea of Clive going, and Clive, noticing the antipathy, teases him about it in an unkind way. On the night before Clive’s departure, they get into an argument, and Maurice is sure that Clive still hasn’t recovered from his illness enough to be fit for travel.
Tension begins to creep into Clive and Maurice’s relationship as the two seem to want different things and are unable to communicate and resolve those differences. Clive wants to travel; Maurice wants to be with Clive, and, sensing that Clive is pulling away, reacts by being unkind to Clive until they argue, foreshadowing the even greater stressors and fractures they are about to have in their relationship.
Themes
