Maurice

The basis of Halperin’s article stems from a quote by Foucault stating that sexuality is “a great surface network in which the stimulation of bodies, the intensification of pleasures, the incitement of discourse, the formation of special knowledges, the strengthening of controls and resistances, are linked to one another…”( Halperin, 416). I agree with Halperin’s article that sexuality is not an identity that differentiates us or should be a characteristic that designates human life. Sexuality should be as Halperin describes “an intellectual discipline designed to analyze the cultural poetics of desire” (Halperin, 426). In the novel “Maurice”, the protagonist’s (Maurice) character is struggling with his sexuality in the first part of the book. I feel the author had neither Halperin’s view nor a general view of what sexuality is today. The author wrote the book in the 70’s when homosexuality was behind closed doors so to speak in society. Today, I feel there is a more accepted view of homosexuality than in Forester’s time, which probably influenced the way to novel portrays Maurice. Having stated this I feel that the author did not have to reiterate Maurice’s “normalcy” over in the book. I feel the character was always being portrayed as average, which would not matter in this case when I see the book as being more about desire. Like Halperin I feel that sexuality is about love and desire rather than a fixed way we should identify ourselves. I do like the way Forester paints a poetic picture of all the feelings that Maurice experiences juxtaposing his emotions before he realizes that he is homosexual and the sincere feelings toward Clive in the second half of the book. Human nature is portrayed rather than a constitutionalized fixed sexuality.