Love

The novel presents love as central to personal fulfillment, but in keeping with its nuanced views of human experience, it also acknowledges the potential risks and pain that are concomitant with love. For example, Maurice experiences both pleasure and suffering in his life due to romantic and sexual attraction. Maurice’s long-term relationship with Cynthia was complicated in itself, as they provided each other comfort and companionship, but they also shared unhealthy habits such as drug addiction. In addition, they were both sexually unfaithful to each other. The novel describes Maurice’s infidelities almost as a type of compulsion, similar to drug addiction, and the infidelities caused him much pain and guilt. The narration states, “Of course [Maurice] wanted to be caught at his games and burned alive for them” (123). On a more abstract level, these dynamics illustrate how human needs and compulsions can lead to...