Book discussion: chapters 22-25

[queen_ypolita]

Chapters 22-25
These four chapters are focused on the break-up: at first we have Clive after he's made the decision to call it a day with Maurice, then we get Maurice's response by letter, and finally in Ch25, we have the break-up in person, and it's not pretty.

This is also one of the most puzzling sections of the novel. Clive insists he's changed, against his will. Do we take this at face value after seeing how unhappy he's been for the past few chapters?



The image of Clive alone at Dionysos's theatre on Acropolis at sunset in Ch22 is a powerful one. He's spent years of his life building something from the past but now he's only seeing the ruins and emptiness: "But he saw only dying light and a dead land." Now he feels the past is "refuge for cowards" as he's realising what he got from the Greeks and modelled for himself isn't really possible or compatible with the life he's set out to lead. You can make a reconstruction of the statue of Pallas Athene in Parthenon but you cannot reconstruct the world where she looked after her people. And Clive's not one of hers.



In the few preceding chapters, it seemed to me Clive had reached a breaking point where something must give, and Ch22 reinforces this idea. I don't believe the influenza caused a fundamental change in him, but it gave him time to reflect on his circumstances, and changed the way he looked at his life. It certainly doesn't look like he's suddenly attracted to women, in Ch24 it seems it's the whole idea of conventional courtship and relationship that seems more attractive. Without wanting to get into the debate of whether one's sexual orientation is something one is born with and therefore cannot change, or something that develops from your experiences, environment and social interaction, whichever way you look at it will impact the way you see various statements in Ch24, and therefore interpret Clive's change.

For me, the most plausible explanation I can construct for Clive is not something fundamentally changing in him, but changes in the ways of life and options he sees open to him. It seems to me the absolute certainties he had as a teenager may be crumbling, and he's not willing to live his life as an "outlaw", in no matter how small and careful way. He wants to conform.

And he's certain of feelings to the extent that knows that this part of his life is over, so he breaks up with Maurice by letter from Greece. From Maurice's reply (in Ch23) we know he cannot take it in and suspects Clive's ill. But Clive's not determined, doesn't heed to the request to return to England straightaway. When he does, the first thing he does is to head to the Halls' to finish off for good. Clive still wants to be friends with Maurice, but isn't quite sure Maurice will want to take it that way. And the final confrontation is pretty ugly.

Questions:

• How do you interpret Clive's change?


• Was it cowardly of him to break up with Maurice by letter?


• What do you make of Clive's momentary attraction to Ada?

Photo credits
Theare of Dionysos, Acropolis by Zoe52 on flickr, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence.
Reconstruction of Pallas Athene from Parthenon by Maia C on flickr, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivate works licence.

Comments

[trueriver]

I read this when you posted and then realised I hadn't commented - sorry! It's a thoughtful post with wonderful pics once again.

It certainly wasn't pretty - and very hard to read without cringeing for Maurice. I'm not sure how Clive could have got his message across - clearly he was agonising inwardly, with the responsibilities his life entailed pressing more heavily upon him, and in the vain hope Maurice would not play up in exactly the way he did!

The attraction to Ada seems to be a spontaneous kind of elation that there might be a way out for him, like an unrealistic *high*, from which, of course, he came down quickly, unfortunately not without causing subsequent pain to Ada.

[sweet_fallacy]

+ When Clive went to Greece, he probably thought that if the ancient Greeks and their high ideals couldn't last, then how could his?

+ I think that this exaltation he experienced was more about finally allowing himself to mingle with people rather than turning to heterosexuality. Clive had always sought a connection, but Maurice was the only one to have answered that for him. Now that he looked to women, he found that they looked at him rather than through him as most men do. The answering "call" came so much easily.

+ What do you make of Clive's momentary attraction to Ada?
I don't see the point of asking since Clive quite clearly answers that question for himself. He felt that she may be the the answer to transcending into heterosexuality, being so alike Maurice as his sister. Not to mention that she seems rather easily manipulated, as Mrs. Durham had earlier concluded.

+ Hah! I love how he sought out "someone utterly unlike Maurice Hall." I'm reminded of a movie (will not say for potential spoiler reasons) in which a man hoping to convert to heterosexuality was advised to avoid doing anything that reminded him of his unnatural impulses. Anne is Clive's Mrs. Edna May, what he's supposed to want.