Maurice

Kishore Kumar

Author– E M Forster

In the beginning there was Maurice. Before Brokeback, before Tales of the City and before Stonewall. When most of the western world could only speak of homosexuality in hushed tones, Edward Morgan Forster, author of A Passage to India, sat down to write Maurice in 1913, though he did not allow its publication in his lifetime.

Maurice by E.M. Forster

Maurice is a story of love, bravery and rebellion, woven intricately in a time when England was very harsh to “acts of gross indecency” between adult men. It is the story of a young man and his sexual and emotional awakening, experienced through his love for Clive, his Cambridge friend, and later Alec, the gamekeeper on Clive’s estate. The novel is, besides, a condemnation of a pretentious and repressive British society.

The novel begins with 14-year old MauriceHall having a talk with his prep-school teacher, who deems it his duty to tell the young lad about marriage and sex. However, at the end of the discussion, Maurice feels cheated and thinks, “Liar, coward, he’s told me nothing.” He does not see himself adopting his teacher’s description of an adult life with marriage with a woman at its centre.

Maurice grows up to be a curious, insightful and brave young man. ‘To ascend, to stretch a hand up to the mountainside until a hand catches it, was the end for which he had been born.’ When he goes to college, he soon makes friends with fellow student Clive Durham, with whom he enters into a committed and deeply loving relationship, however chaste
and non-consummate. Though it is clear that Maurice looks forward to more than a platonic relationship, it is also clear that Clive’s predisposition to falling into well established social roles will never make it possible.

Disappointed and hurt by Clive’s rejection, Maurice seeks psychiatric help with a certain Dr Barry, who cannot even comprehend Maurice’s situation. This scene exposes the emotional limitations and helplessness of society, especially in matters relating to homosexuality. Later, a hypnotist labels Maurice’s condition as “congenital homosexuality” and claims to be able to cure 50% of his patients suffering from it. After Maurice’s first appointment with him, however, he realises that the endeavour was in vain. The hypnotist doubts if England will ever accept homosexuality, saying “England has always been disinclined to accept human nature.”

Maurice then meets Alec Scudder, the gamekeeper at Penge, Clive’s estate. The physical intimacy that Clive denied is what brings Maurice and Alec together. After their first night together, Maurice is sceptical of his position and tries to keep Alec at arm’s length. As a result, Alec writes a letter of blackmail to Maurice, threatening to expose his
homosexuality.

Alec and Maurice later meet at the British Museum, and in a moving scene, realise that they are both in love with each other. Alec however had already decided to go away to Argentina to start a new life away from Penge. Though resentful of this fact, Maurice decides to go to give him a send-off, but doesn’t find Alec on the ship. Panicking, he goes back to the boathouse at Penge where the two lovers were supposed to meet, and finds Alec there. Alec intends to stay with Maurice, telling him that they “shan’t be parted no more.”

Before the close of the novel, Maurice visits Clive one last time and tells him of his plans for his future with Alec, and then disappears into the woods to join him. The novel ends with a confused Clive, unable to understand, trying to devise a lie to tell his wife Anne.

Maurice is a novel written when it was still possible to live away from civilisation, in the “greenwood.” And Maurice and Alec rebelled against society only to the extent that they abandoned it. A contrast can be drawn between what Maurice wanted, and what the LGBT movements today envisage. We don’t ask for freedom to run away and live in the greenwood today; we ask for social acceptance and equality. We dream of a world where sexuality does not matter, where stories would be told about gay love without reference to homophobia or social and familial acceptance –and these stories would be true.