The major theme of Maurice focuses on homosexuality to the extent that one school of criticism argues that the work is a propaganda piece on behalf of freedom for homosexuals.

Aesthetically, the form of this as an autobiographical novel creates problems developing the theme of homosexuality; the social struggles undergone by the characters sometimes stifles the development of plot, character, setting, and form as devices of fiction.

1. In his 1960 "Terminal Note" to Maurice, Forster argues that the attitudes of heterosexuals toward homosexuals has changed "from ignorance and terror [in 1914] to familiarity and contempt [in 1960 and after]." Does that comment in any way apply to the reactions of those who read Maurice in the current decade?

Why or why not? How can, or should, readers react to a novel such as Maurice that emphasizes certain social concerns of one age that then change radically a halfcentury or...