I think Maurice was written when homosexuality wasn't fully defined yet. After the Wilde trials people had a certain image in mind when they thought of sodomites but a mere decade before sodomy meant all sorts of sexual deviances, mainly buggery between men and women, men and men and men and animals. Sodomy referred to sexual acts not a specific sexual identity. Maurice is remarkable because he is decidedly different from Risley and his set of friends. Forster made Maurice a character that was nothing like homosexuals were supposed to be like (in the public mind which always thought of Wilde when they thought of sodomites), e.g. artistic, effeminate, aesthetic, eloquent and brilliant.
When Clive gives him the Symposium Maurice doesn't get it. That's why he reacts so brusquely and derisively when Clive confesses his love for him. And later, when Maurice tells Clive that he loves him back he stammers something about being like the Greeks but he cannot elaborate what he means with that. Because Maurice doesn't build his identity around Greek texts, Clive does. And their communication frequently fails because Clive uses a certain code and Maurice doesn't. They converse on different levels, even after Maurice read the Symposium.
So when Maurice goes and sees his doctor later on, he doesn't start about paederastic love and Plato but identifies with Oscar Wilde. He does, however, not identify with Risley, for whom Wilde is so clearly a role model. He doesn't want to be like Risley. Maurice just connects the name of Oscar Wilde with his unspeakable desires because that's what society as a whole does. He cannot put it in words because there are none.
Clive's shock when he hears about Maurice and Alec isn't entirely hypocritical when one considers that he had accepted his same-sex desires only in terms of his interpretation of Plato. For Athenians, sexual relationships were predominantly about power. They had sex with slaves, women and adolescents. They did not have sex with other male citizens of Athens. And in theory, their relationships with their social inferiors were only acceptable as long as they were on top. It was unthinkable that a slave would have done the fucking. So Maurice, by falling in love with Alec, his social inferior, and calling him is equal with whom he 'shared', violates the rules that Clive always considered vital. And Maurice violates the rules of the English class system as well, which is why he and Alec have to live in the 'greenwood'.
Eloquently put! Perhaps I should have stressed that Forster was possibly alluding to the above mentioned point when referencing The Symposium.
You're right that Maurice just didn't get it. Though it would make sense that he wouldn't instantly make the connections since a) he's a bit slow b) a bit self-repressed and c) the Ancient Greeks are often spoken of like they're a different species; "The vice of the Greeks," "the Greek way of thinking," and so forth.
At first it seems that Clive is the more progressive of the two because he identifies himself with the Greeks. However, it's clear that he wanted an excuse for believing that male-male love was virtuous and not wrong, but the Greek way of life no longer coalesces with the conventions of the 1910s. Outside of university, it became clear just how disconnected his world was from that of Ancient Greece. Even in Greece itself (as Maurice pointed out) all that's left of the ancient way of life is rubble.
So as you see, it may have helped Maurice in the end that he didn't connect with the Greeks as Clive had. He wasn't making excuses for his "sinful" nature, but trying to ignore it. When it was apparent to him that there was no ignoring his own nature, he left to a place where he wouldn't have to.
As for your input on Maurice's further infringement of conventions in regards to treating his social inferior as equal... Yes, yes, and yes! However, The Symposium itself doesn't really talk about love outside of class, and therefore it was okay for a young man to be the 'loved one' as long as it was in pursuit of bettering himself. Alcibiades talks about wanting to gratify Socrates in the way that society would expect of him, to make their (hoped for) relationship of give-and-take fair.
When Clive gives him the Symposium Maurice doesn't get it. That's why he reacts so brusquely and derisively when Clive confesses his love for him. And later, when Maurice tells Clive that he loves him back he stammers something about being like the Greeks but he cannot elaborate what he means with that. Because Maurice doesn't build his identity around Greek texts, Clive does. And their communication frequently fails because Clive uses a certain code and Maurice doesn't. They converse on different levels, even after Maurice read the Symposium.
So when Maurice goes and sees his doctor later on, he doesn't start about paederastic love and Plato but identifies with Oscar Wilde. He does, however, not identify with Risley, for whom Wilde is so clearly a role model. He doesn't want to be like Risley. Maurice just connects the name of Oscar Wilde with his unspeakable desires because that's what society as a whole does. He cannot put it in words because there are none.
Clive's shock when he hears about Maurice and Alec isn't entirely hypocritical when one considers that he had accepted his same-sex desires only in terms of his interpretation of Plato. For Athenians, sexual relationships were predominantly about power. They had sex with slaves, women and adolescents. They did not have sex with other male citizens of Athens. And in theory, their relationships with their social inferiors were only acceptable as long as they were on top. It was unthinkable that a slave would have done the fucking. So Maurice, by falling in love with Alec, his social inferior, and calling him is equal with whom he 'shared', violates the rules that Clive always considered vital. And Maurice violates the rules of the English class system as well, which is why he and Alec have to live in the 'greenwood'.
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You're right that Maurice just didn't get it. Though it would make sense that he wouldn't instantly make the connections since a) he's a bit slow b) a bit self-repressed and c) the Ancient Greeks are often spoken of like they're a different species; "The vice of the Greeks," "the Greek way of thinking," and so forth.
At first it seems that Clive is the more progressive of the two because he identifies himself with the Greeks. However, it's clear that he wanted an excuse for believing that male-male love was virtuous and not wrong, but the Greek way of life no longer coalesces with the conventions of the 1910s. Outside of university, it became clear just how disconnected his world was from that of Ancient Greece. Even in Greece itself (as Maurice pointed out) all that's left of the ancient way of life is rubble.
So as you see, it may have helped Maurice in the end that he didn't connect with the Greeks as Clive had. He wasn't making excuses for his "sinful" nature, but trying to ignore it. When it was apparent to him that there was no ignoring his own nature, he left to a place where he wouldn't have to.
As for your input on Maurice's further infringement of conventions in regards to treating his social inferior as equal... Yes, yes, and yes! However, The Symposium itself doesn't really talk about love outside of class, and therefore it was okay for a young man to be the 'loved one' as long as it was in pursuit of bettering himself. Alcibiades talks about wanting to gratify Socrates in the way that society would expect of him, to make their (hoped for) relationship of give-and-take fair.
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