Mrs. Hall- Maurice’s mother, very doting mother in this chapter
Ada Hall- oldest younger sister, adores Maurice to the point of “worshiping” him
Kitty Hall- youngest sister, likes Maurice but does not “worship” him in the same way Ada does, is described by Dr. Barry as having “hints of grit” in her.
George- one of the servants hired by the Halls, he has left to “better himself” when Maurice comes home from school
Mr and Mrs. Howell- servants employed by the Halls, Mr. Howell is a coachman
Dr. Barry- old family friend, his favorite Hall is Kitty due to her slightly different personality from the rest of the Halls
Slight side note: Literally why has no one written fanfic about Kitty that isn’t focused around Maurice? Literally two chapters in and there’s already so much potential for her character??? There’s some Kitty/Violet fics on AO3, but all of them still have focus on Maurice (fair enough with him being the title character but still).
Points of Note:
The Halls are essentially the 1910’s version of your white nuclear suburban family. Like Forester goes through a lot of effort to insist how painfully average the Halls are. Kitty is the only one who stands out amongst them, but that isn’t much of an accomplishment considering how boring they’re described as.
Maurice is compared to his father even more in this chapter. It comes up four times from three separate conversations (Mrs. Hall, Mr and Mrs Howell, and Dr. Barry). Once again, this is not in a ‘he’ll be a great success’ way; but in a ‘he’ll be just as plain and boring’ kind of way.
George is arguably Maurice’s first childhood love. Though we get very little description of George, I’ve come to the conclusion that Alec and George are parallels. There’s something hauntingly similar between the two and as we go on with the summary I’ll go more in depth.
Summary:
This chapter starts with Maurice coming home from school. He’s greeted by his sisters and mother who all dote on him and welcome him home. While walking the garden with his mother, he asks where George is. His mother ignores this at first to tell him,
“Such a splendid report from Mr. Abrahams. He says you remind him of your poor father…” (Pg. 17)
After a bit more talking (mostly about vegetables) Maurice asks again about George. His mother lies to him and tells him that George had gotten too old and was given notice (basically laid off/fired) from Mr. Howell. She then changes subject to what they should do while Maurice is home and about how proud she is about him going to the same public school as his father.
“(...) you see, your father was at his school too, and we are sending you to your father’s old public school too- Sunnington- in order that you may grow up like your dear father in every way.” (Pg. 17)
Maurice then begins to cry. When asked why by his mother, Maurice claims he doesn’t know why he’s crying. However, we can assume it’s probably because George is gone. Though when his sisters ask why Maurice is crying, his mother claims that he is tired and he agrees. After this he plays Halma with his sisters (a board game that’s kinda like checkers but a bit more complicated) and then runs out to Mr. Howell to ask about George. It’s here that he learns the truth.
According to Mr. Howell, George left on his accord to better himself (cough cough foreshadowing cough cough). Maurice then makes a rude and snobbish comment to Mr and Mrs. Howell and runs off in true shithead kid fashion. Once again, he’s compared to his father.
Dr. Barry and his wife stop by to join the Halls for dinner. He also sees the Halls as plain and somewhat boring but he’s nicer about it. This is where we get this interesting quote though,
“Kitty he liked- she had hints of grit in her- but the girls were in bed, and he told his wife afterwards that Maurice ought to have been there too. ‘And stop there all his life. As he will. Like his father. What is the use of such people?’ ” (Pg. 19)
Basically saying, Maurice is as boring and unremarkable as his father he might as well just went to bed instead of joining the adults for their dinner. I think he also just called Maurice useless which is such a harsh thing to say about a fourteen year old like damn.
When Maurice does go to bed, we get a scene with him arranging the candle so the light doesn't cast shadows into the mirror. As mentioned in the previous chapter, young Maurice is scared of the dark. In this chapter we learn that it isn’t so much darkness as it is the odd shadows that are cast against the ceiling and walls by low light.
In his fear of the dark he calls out for George (cough cough foreshadowing cough cough). Maurice questions his own actions (essentially: why should he care about some servant???) and then he falls asleep.
River’s Extra Notes:
So when I read this chapter, all I really thought of George was that he was Maurice’s first crush. But as I was writing this review I had a little light bulb moment as I was looking over the chapter. George is Alec. Alec is foreshadowed from the very beginning and it drives me batshit insane. I didn’t make the connection the first or second time reading the book, but the third times’ the charm I guess. George and Alec are both working class men who move onto another job to better themselves. Maurice, in the darkness/in his darkest moments, calls out for them. Alec answers the call, George does not.
(Maybe I’m the last to figure this out and now I just look stupid lmao.)
Anyways, I wrote this instead of studying and now my brain will be going feral for the rest of the day. Feel free to tell me I’m wrong about anything honestly.
That time when Kitty said "I see a great deal of little boys who think they're little men" talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference, put it in a blender, shit on it, vomit on it, eat it, give birth to it.
You guys should read it before reading this, this is just a bunch of spoilers.
It’s in Kitty’s POV
(just the most badass woman in the story, no less)
(i also feel like her character was so well established in the movie/book that even though she didn’t make that much appearance, we still have a good impression of her, fully fleshed out)
(so much so that it wasn’t a surprise to me at all that she would be the kind of woman to stay single at 27 in such time and place, and to travel alone. and i’m so happy she wasn’t homophobic, that’s what I expected about her all along)
In other words, Kitty was the perfect narrator of this epilogue
Kitty wasn’t homophobic?! The queen we don’t deserve
Her emotions upon seeing her brother were so well described: “She spoke not what she felt, but what her training ordained” as she was insulting him
And Maurice understood her without uttering a word! We stan an empathetic and mature king
“Which saw?”
Kitty found out the truth - or speculated the truth - pretty quickly. Girl has both IQ and EQ and she is not afraid to show it
Epilogue Maurice tho
(you just have to read it)
And even Kitty wanted to get some of epilogue Alec
(don’t we all queen?)
Arthur our darjeeling king might have known it all whole time and didn’t tell
(honestly Kitty and Arthur are strong contenders for best characters in Maurice)
I’m just really glad Kitty felt happy for Maurice - or at least, wasn’t disgusted by the fact that he was gay
And i’m really happy for Maurice and Alec
The way E.M. Forster told it in this epilogue tho, it felt so hopeful and positive - no one was against Maurice and Alec: Kitty obviously; Arthur was allegedly in contact with Clive the whole time and seemed to know things, but didn’t tell; the landlady who hired Maurice and Alec either didn’t know about them or didn’t want to tell on them, but she was described as “vaguely answering Kitty’s questions”; Clive obviously knew the whole truth but never told on them for years
It’s the perfect epilogue
I know Forster didn’t like this epilogue, for it was not historically compliant, but it was really the perfect after story that we all needed, or at least I needed. Thanks to this movie I rediscovered my fascination with fanfiction just because I wanted to know about their life after the ending so badly. And a lot of fanfictions do capture their spirits perfectly (I love this fandom so much, y’all are such geniuses). But a canon epilogue where Kitty isn’t homophobic is just so great and perfect and I love it with all my heart
I really want to see this scene in the movie, Kitty riding her bike alone where she meets this strong attractive young man and he asks her to tell his partner to bring him a saw, her outburst when confronting her brother, Maurice’s “which saw?”, her realization as she reflects on the meeting, her smile when she realized her brother is in a better place and better hands now
I can already see the screenplay
Also now I need an epilogue to this epilogue where Kitty is happy goddamnit
