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Chapter 40
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
Maurice goes to visit Mr. Lasker Jones to undergo another session of hypnosis. After a brief attempt, Lasker Jones says Maurice might be a “sudden disappointment” and advises him to go to a country like France or Italy, where “homosexuality is no longer criminal.” He then tells Lasker Jones that, since he last visited, he “went wrong with a—he’s nothing but a gamekeeper.” Before they try hypnosis one last time, Lasker Jones burns Alec’s letter. When he tries to put Maurice in a trance, nothing happens.
When Lasker Jones’s hypnotism fails, Maurice seems to confirm, at least for himself, that he is gay, and there is no point in trying to change that. He continues to struggle, though, with internalized homophobia, as he still thinks he did something by sleeping with Alec. Those feelings of guilt are then compounded by his class prejudices, thinking he made a double error by sleeping not just with a man, but with a man of a lower class.
Themes
