Comparing excerpts

[storyfan]

The window imagery is particularly powerful in "Maurice." The windows signify an opening, an opportunity if you will, to allow spirit and desire the freedom they need to flourish. Keep the window open and what you want most will reach you; close it and you've kept it at bay

Comments

[sweet_fallacy]

There's also that bit about him walking about the campus at night, observing people through their windows. It may not exactly coincide with your line of thought here, but it's interesting that it's the windows that give him a look into who these people really are behind closed doors, people that are more than just the cardboard cutouts he always took them to be.

[storyfan]

It does, in a way, apply to what I was thinking. It's almost as if Maurice has to be on the other side of the window to understand what it is he wants and doesn't want. If he's in the same room, he becomes confused. The window allows him to separate himself from what's going on in the other worlds behind the windows.

Thanks for the observation.

[storyfan]

It's almost as if Maurice looks through windows to see what he wants and doesn't want. It's almost like shopping in a way. He knows what he wants to buy - a life in which he can follow his inclinations without societal repercussions. But that life is too expensive in so many ways. I am glad that he finds the courage in the end to 'buy' what he wants, though, or this would have been nothing more than yet another tragic story about the life of a homosexual man.

Thanks for the comment. :)

[creativepseudo]

Thanks so much for the insight! I've read the book literally a hundred times and I didn't think of the connection between the window scenes -- Maurice embracing life while Clive shuts himself away.

[storyfan]

I'm sorry I never replied to this. For a while there, I wasn't getting LJ emails.

The last movie scene with Clive is particularly good for that connection. He looks through it and sees what he really wants, but the glass provides the physical and mental barrier he needs if he is to even make a go at the repressed life he's chosen for himself.

[topsyturvytown]

i always loved forster's use of the window imagery and the way he mirrors the first romantic encounters maurice has with each man. it's rather subtle - i didn't catch it until a second or third reading. it's the sort of thing you wouldn't necessarily catch on the first read, too, which is why it irks me when people read maurice and are underwhelmed. i wonder if when people say maurice isn't one of forster's best works it's because they're missing nuances like this.

i never thought about that line that describes clive as weak - nice catch. i interpret as foreshadowing for the direction their relationship would take. up until that point, clive was actually the stronger one, the one who confessed his love before maurice was even able to fathom such a thing, who questioned traditional societal mores, etc. so yeah, foreshadowing, though i could be wrong, it could just mean that clive was weak in that moment.

[storyfan]

I didn't catch the window connections until the second reading, either. I agree; Maurice needs to be read more than once, like any great novel. The changes in the characters are subtle and reasoned and they don't occur with the flashes and bangs that so many readers seem to need. This is a quiet novel of great beauty and deserves a wider audience.

I like the idea of Clive's weakness as a foreshadowing of what was to come. The irony of that just about did me in. Maurice comes to accept his nature, which was awakened by Clive, only to have Clive end up denying his own.

I should have replied to this comment much sooner, but for a while there I wasn't getting LJ comment updates. I just happened to check back here for something else and noticed there were more replies.

[ea_calendula]

Great observations. You're certainly not spamming the group - this is great :) I've been a little busy with RL stuff lately, wish I could devote more tiime to "Maurice" :)

Great comments from all of you. And ass for this:
"I'm not sure if I'm reading the right intent into the first passage. I don't know if Forster mean that Clive was only weak at that very moment or that his nature was inherently weak, and would not be strong enough to see the relationship through the pressures of society."

I've always taken it to mean to show not that Clive is weak, but that Maurice is strong and courageous at that moment. That is why he can climb into Clive's room and succeed at seducing Clive.

And now that I think about it; Maurice is really very courageous in whatever he choose to do.

[storyfan]

And Maurice will certainly need his new-found strength. At this point his problems are only the beginning.

I like this book for so many reasons, but the primary one is that different readers can find different ways to view all these passages. The more I read, the more I change my mind about the characters and situations in this book. Forster certainly knew how to keep a story fresh.

I should have answered this earlier, but I wasn't getting LJ updates for a long time. I'm sorry for the delay.