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Chapter 3
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
At 19, nearing the end of his time at Sunnington, Maurice wins a prize for reciting a Greek oration of his own composition. As the auditorium erupts in applause, Maurice realizes that he has become popular again, though doesn’t quite understand how. The school claps not so much because he is exceptional but because he is one of them and unremarkable. In the auditorium, Maurice sees his mother’s neighbor, Dr. Barry. Dr. Barry congratulates Maurice, and Maurice tells Barry that he’ll go to Cambridge next. After that, Maurice says, he’ll work on the stock exchange, where his father worked. Dr. Barry asks if a “pretty wife” will come after. Maurice laughs. As they part, under the guise of a friendly tone, Mr. Barry tells Maurice that “man is born from woman and must go with woman if the human race is to continue” and says much more that pains Maurice.
When he talks with Maurice, Dr. Barry reinforces heteronormativity and the strictures of masculinity. Barry also re-establishes Maurice’s father as a masculine ideal and suggests that finding a “pretty wife” is the goal Maurice should pursue. While Maurice does not directly contradict Barry, the conversation pains him, showing that Maurice is beginning, even if not entirely consciously, to recognize the oppressiveness of the norms he is supposed to accept as given.
Themes
