Book Discussion Chapters 5 - 8

[into_the_greenwood]

Chapter Five begins with Maurice moving from school onto university. Here, he is as slow to become involved in Cambridge life, as he has been thus far with everything else. For the whole of his first year, he behaves as if university is an extension of school and it isn't until his second year, when he moves into college, that he begins to realise that the behaviour he both experienced and exacted at school is not what is expected of him as a man.

In his second year, he moves into college. He is introduced to Risley, who unsettles him, although he doesn't appreciate why at this point. The character of Risley was based on a friend of Forster's, Lytton Strachey, whose initial opinion of the novel was somewhat less than wholehearted approval. Of course, over the years, Forster made numerous changes to the original manuscript, so it can possibly be said that it is unproductive to tie in Strachey's comments with the book as it was published, over fifty years after Strachey had first seen it.

Back to Risley. He obviously stirs something in Maurice, although Maurice isn't sure exactly what. Whatever it is, it prompts him to call, something which is somewhat of an unusual thing for a second year student to do, Risley being both a third year and in a different college. Maurice may well be portrayed quite vociferously by Forster as banal and inherently lazy, however when sufficiently roused he obviously is capable of action. It is in Risley's room that he meets Clive Durham, and here again we are shown that something in Clive prompts unusual behaviour from Maurice – he hangs around longer than he intends, he stays out for an hour late at night in the hope of seeing Durham. Yet, the reasons for his interest in both Risley and Clive remain elusive.

By Chapter Seven Maurice and Clive are good friends. However when their relationship becomes playful in the physical sense, Maurice is too rough for Clive as he is a small, slight man. Clive comes across as being more cerebral than physical. When he takes Maurice to task about all the nonsense he's been spouting about religion, he ties Maurice in knots and gives him a headache. At least, though, he is forcing Maurice out of his torpidity and making him THINK at last. (We should all remain eternally grateful to Clive for doing that imo.) Later in this chapter, the Dean commands his students to omit references to homosexuality during his translation class. This enables Clive to bring up the subject with Maurice, and to suggest to him that he reads Plato's Symposium.

The last chapter of this week's discussion concerns Maurice at home. We presume he reads the Symposium although it's not stated explicitly here (Clive mentions it in the following chapter). Maurice seems to have taken on Clive's opinions about religion, without really considering them fully for himself, and is outspoken about his new beliefs to his family. The episode with Miss Olcott shows that, despite pinning Clive's letters into his pyjamas and taking them to bed with him, he is still completely at sea regarding who and what he is. Miss Olcott, however, knows that something is not right with the situation and, very sensibly, extricates herself from it. This could just be because Maurice has no clue and behaves like a stalker; it could, however, mean she has some innate concept of Maurice not being husband material.

Overall, these four chapters show us Maurice floundering at university in one way or another, but very slowly moving a little way forwards. He gets to grip with the growing up process and stops behaving like a schoolboy. However, he's shaky with the notion of having his own opinions and latches on to Clive's, still not aware of why he is so enamoured with the other man, and even a woman who probably has little concept of homosexuality seems to be a little more clued in than Maurice.

Some questions these chapters throw up:

*Maurice's college is not named, do you think this reinforces both its and Maurice's unimportance?

*It seems rather strange at the age of nineteen/twenty, as he must be by this point, to be worrying about fellow students breaking one's plates or insulting one's mother. However, it's stated that some of Maurice's contemporaries never grow out of Public School behaviour. Despite Maurice's slow growth, do you think that at this point he is showing any sign of the man he is by the end of the book?

*In chapter seven, do you think there is significance in Clive being unable to match Maurice physically, and Maurice being unable to match Clive mentally. Do you think this is showing that the two are fundamentally unsuited to one another?

*What on earth was he thinking with Miss Olcott? Did he deep within himself feel some kind of stirring and, because Miss Olcott was available, he transfers his unconscious feelings onto her? Was the Symposium to blame in that he felt something through reading it and translated those feelings into what was usual?

*Maurice says his mother wouldn't 'fag herself' to Clive, however when she is upset about Maurice's revelations, he claims he knew she would be…why the difference?

*It was obviously de riguer to be seen arm in arm with a fellow student, and even Maurice's stroking of Clive's hair goes unnoticed. How much do you think this helps or hinders Maurice on his voyage of self discovery?

Next week queen_ypolita brings you the next chapters in our discussion, details of which can be found HERE.

Comments

Re: Clive's self-assurance

[sweet_fallacy]

While Clive was certainly aware of his desire to some degree, he never actually crossed the line of Plato's ideal of a higher love, the platonic love. Perhaps he sought out Risley and Maurice's companionship as vindication, and putting Maurice's theological standings into question may have very well been Clive projecting his own insecurities. To convince Maurice would be to further convince himself.

Now, I must admit that while I didn't really see it this way until later in the book when Clive did his 180 and all of a sudden he's pro-marriage and "gay is wrong" and "it was just a phase." How can you swing from one extreme to another unless you're compensating for something?

Re: Clive's self-assurance

[queen_ypolita]

How can you swing from one extreme to another unless you're compensating for something?
Indeed. Clive at this stage seems composed and self-aware, (moving onto Ch12 territory here) having recognised who he is, fought with it and come to terms with and now willing to open up about it a little, and not just to anybody. And I think at this stage is genuine but why doesn't it last? Well, I'm sure we'll be back at this question several times later on.