Book Discussion - chapters 37 to 39

[into_the_greenwood]

At the beginning of Chapter 37, Maurice now cares 'less for Clive, than Clive for him'. The hand kissing and Clive not paying him any attention has at last freed Maurice from the confines of his previous feelings and loyalty towards his first love. This, alongside his hypnosis session in London seems to have set something free inside Maurice. He looks at the Durhams with fresh eyes. And not just them, but also the society in which he moves.

The outdoors seems to be more real, its sights, sounds and smells no longer drift by Maurice. At this point they seem to be more real than the 'dry' people he has to interact with indoors. Everything about his life seems incongruous, and his mind at last is rid of voices and confusion. What indeed does the correct dress matter when one is stuck with dull people? It's almost as if an abscess or boil has burst open after a long period of putrification, and now the mess is cleared away new, healthy skin can grow.

This healthiness comes in the form of Alec Scudder. He enters the story as merely a gamekeeper mentioned in passing, then progresses to Scudder before, in chapter 38 becoming Alec. His imminent departure to the Argentine makes Alec brave, yet he only considers that he and Maurice will have sex before he is sent on his way. Maurice, of course, has reached full realisation of who and what Alec is by this point and they spend the entire night together, waking early 'in each other's arms'.

They form a bond that night which is continued the follwing day during the cricket match. Alec and Maurice make perfect partners for each other. However, when Clive appears and takes over Alec's position Maurice is knocked out immediately. Following this, Maurice seems to be plagued with doubt about what happened the night before. He panics, and runs away, vomiting profusely when he reaches his room.

*In bed, when Maurice and Alec are seemingly talking of the fairly innocuous, Maurice damns the church and Alec mentions that he had never put his head under water. There is a similar mention of ducking under water and its relation to baptism in 'A Room with a View' in the scene when the men are skinny dipping in the pond. What do you think Forster is trying to say here?

*What do you think Alec feels when they are partners at cricket? Is he aware of something happening above and beyond a quick fuck with a man he takes a fancy to?

*What do you think Alec is thinking about Maurice's question 'Did you ever dream you had a friend? …Someone to last your whole life…'

*When Maurice runs away and is sick because of the panic he feels, what thoughts about the situation do you think are going through his mind?

*Also, Anne confesses something to Clive - I wonder what *that* was?!

Cricket on the Village Green painting by Kevin Walsh

Comments

[angie-sylvie.livejournal.com]

I do think Alec becomes aware of something emotional happening between them during the match, because of the letter he writes in the next chapter that says, "I since cricket match do long to talk with one of my arms round you, then place both arms round you and share with you, the above now seems sweeter to me than words can say."

Forster gives no real indication of Alec's reaction to Maurice's "friend" comments, and I think maybe he doesn't really consider the full meaning of Maurice's words until later on. He's more concerned with getting on with his duties at the time.

When Maurice runs away, it's as if Clive showing up has poisoned his "fragile" understanding with Alec. He's just lost his virginity after all, in very unexpected circumstances and then he's expected to act completely normal in front of all those people - with Alec there too - the next day and it's all too much. Also I think he feels he's dishonoured his host's home in his absence.

I tend to think myself that Maurice's "full realisation of who and what Alec is" actually happens somewhat later, during their talk at the British Museum. There's a glimmer of understanding on the cricket pitch, but then he loses it again for a while when his class-consciousness comes to the fore.

[into_the_greenwood]

When Maurice runs away, it's as if Clive showing up has poisoned his "fragile" understanding with Alec.

Oh yes, I agree. Clive does come blundering in and spoiling things for them both when they were complementing each other so beautifully. I think that must have kick-started all the worried feelings and the panic about what was happening.

Yes, you're right. I think in the next chapters when Maurice completely misunderstands Alec's first letter is one of the saddest parts of the novel, because Alec is laying himself bare too, but Maurice doesn't see it...but that's for a future discussion!

[sweet_fallacy]

*In bed, when Maurice and Alec are seemingly talking of the fairly innocuous, Maurice damns the church and Alec mentions that he had never put his head under water. There is a similar mention of ducking under water and its relation to baptism in 'A Room with a View' in the scene when the men are skinny dipping in the pond. What do you think Forster is trying to say here? Interesting connection! Especially since Alec called the act of going underwater 'unnatural'.

*What do you think Alec feels when they are partners at cricket? Is he aware of something happening above and beyond a quick fuck with a man he takes a fancy to? Despite the fact that Maurice is the gentleman and everyone wished him to be captain, Maurice gave it up to the better man. To Alec. Okay, so maybe Maurice isn't a great fan of cricket, but even so simple a gesture can mean more than it may at first appear. Maurice was recognizing Alec's strength and treating him as an equal. Alec responded to this by putting Maurice in a higher position than requested, which in a way demonstrates his own faith in his lover's capabilities. So yeah, above above and beyond. They were answering one another, in a manner of speaking.

*What do you think Alec is thinking about Maurice's question 'Did you ever dream you had a friend? …Someone to last your whole life…' It obviously resonated with him, for he would later mention "sharing" in his letters to Maurice. Though he didn't say anything while they were in bed, it may very well have been because he was a) preoccupied by the duties he should be getting to lest he get caught and/or b) he couldn't answer as he would have liked what with his leaving and all.

*When Maurice runs away and is sick because of the panic he feels, what thoughts about the situation do you think are going through his mind? Read Angie's comment above. I think the only thing she left out was the obvious. That Maurice had come to the realization that he had exposed his weakness to a man that he hardly knew and he was fraught with worry over what said man would do with this over his head. Not to mention his earlier bought of self-disgust when his Lust reared it's ugly head, so it may have (in part) been a relapse into that.

*Also, Anne confesses something to Clive - I wonder what *that* was?! Peccadillo is defined as a petty misdeed. It was probably nicking her mother's favorite ribbon or something similarly ridiculous.

[into_the_greenwood]

They were answering one another, in a manner of speaking.

I hadn't considered the significance of Maurice making Alec captain and Alec putting Maurice higher up than he asked. I appreciated they played together as a kind of mini-team against the world during the game itself but nothing further.

I agree with both of you that Alec had the rather pressing concerns of his employment to think about, which Maurice doesn't. Though Alec is very sweet and generous about Maurice getting more sleep and not having to get up, he certainly doesn't resent having to go to work.

I expect you're right about the peccadillo, it seems an odd word to use though because of its more salubrious interpretations.

[angie-sylvie.livejournal.com]

I always thought the peccadillo referred to a minor, and of course absolutely innocent, romantic dalliance of Anne's, before she met Clive.

Sweet Fallacy, your analysis of the batting order/captainship is really interesting. I hadn't thought of it that way, either.

And to think that later on Alec is worried because he thinks that placing Maurice higher in the batting order actually offended him!

PS: Cute pictures!

[into_the_greenwood]

Glad you like the pics :)

[queen_ypolita]

The cricket is interesting. In a way, it's their first chance to find that they work well together (beyond the bed, which is presumably what they discovered the night before :)). In fact, it would be very hard for them to establish that kind of rapport in any other context. I'm not sure what Alec makes of Maurice asking Simcox to make him captain, because he's the best player--I suppose that might depend on what Simcox actually says! Of course, Clive's entrance disturbs the situation, and severs the connection they've been having. Stupid Clive!

Re "The Friend"--I don't think Alec gets it (and I don't think he'd get it even after 20 years sharing his life with a man) as the whole discourse of The Friend seems to be so tied up with Plato and Cambridge and all that. Yes, I know Maurice first has the dream before going to Cambridge but it even so, it's not really something that Alec can easily have the frame of reference for.

Anne's peccadillo... I've always thought that in the context it was probably a girlish crush on someone (why else would Clive immediately think of his relationship with Maurice there?).

[into_the_greenwood]

I think Simcox will treat the suggest with suitable contempt, and when he passes the message on to Alec, he will do so in a way that relates to Alec that Simcox thinks he's been treated well above his station in life. But, of course, Maurice is master whilst Clive is in absentia so he has to get on and do it. Much gritted teeth, though, I imagine...

Hmm, I disagree about the 'friend' reference. I think Alec does get it, perhaps not when Maurice says it, but when he meets Maurice at the boathouse at the end of the book, I think he knows he's thrown everything in for this chance to be with a 'friend' for life. I also disagree that it's a Uni/Classics reference, simply because it predates that time and as youngster it was Maurice who lacked the frame of reference of what the 'friend' actually meant, and didn't realise that it was a 'life partner' he was looking for ( and meaning) until much later.

[queen_ypolita]

I was thinking that I'm sure Alec gets the friend=life partner, but Maurice seems to be capitalising it in a way that goes beyond what I'd expect Alec to assign to the term without having years of public school, Classics and Cambridge as a frame of reference. I'm not sure, to be honest. Didn't Maurice have the dream telling him "this is your friend" when he was still young but he wasn't sure who it would be, so he thought it might be Jesus... and it was only afterwards that he started assigning other meanings to it. Not unlike to the way that Clive spent his youth assigning a very specific and personal meaning to his type of Platonic friendship (I'm not suggesting that Clive's and Maurice's interpretations of "friend" are that much like or connected, just that the way those concepts become meaningful for them are not entirely dissimilar).

[into_the_greenwood]

You may have a point there...but I think Maurice, up until the point when he sleeps with Alec that first time, has tried himself to work out what the 'friend' means, and it's his lack of knowledge on this that makes him assign various meanings to it as he goes through his young life. When he meets Alec I think everything he had thought about the matter was swept aside and he fully realised that it was a person such as Alec (or George) who he had been dreaming about. I don't think he would carry on with any other meaning after that. I think he capitalises it because it's one of the most important things in his life, not because of any Classical references. In fact, I can't remember if Maurice has eschewed the Classics by this point, but I'm positive he believes they are pretty pointless in real life and, as such, I think he would challenge the idea that 'friend' had a Classical aspect after he'd worked it out.

[queen_ypolita]

it's his lack of knowledge on this that makes him assign various meanings to it as he goes through his young life
That's a good point, and that's essentially what trying to understand something is about. And I suppose that's what I'm trying to get at: he capitalises it because it's important, and because it seems important he seeks to understand it by relating it to other things he knows about (first Christian religion, then classics, then who knows what). The end result (of the meaning of "Friend" to him) may or may not bear resemblance to the ideas that he used to try to understand it along the way but some of the qualities of those ideas may remain in his "Friend" because they've become part of it even if he no longer sees the influencing idea as important/valid/true. I'm not sure I'm explaining this very well.

Lovely pics as always, by the way.

[into_the_greenwood]

I think I see what you're getting at. :) That's perfectly possible, especially since he would have no awareness that this is what he's doing.

I'm not sure, though, that during the night he and Alec sleep together that all of this isn't swept away and he is taken back to his original dream, and relates that dream to Alec.

Maurice had quite a negative view of the Classics, and wasn't completely immersed and obsessed by them in the same way Clive was, so I think it would have been relatively easy for him to cast aside any particular thoughts on the Classical meaning.

I really do believe that Maurice, through Alec, was able to see Friend in its true context.