The relationships run the range from bohemian to easygoing to proper, passionate to presumptuous to unrequited.
There are also stale, sweet, odd, jealous, and invented relationships.
He was truly an observer of human nature.
I consider Maurice and Alec from Maurice to be, ultimately, his most everyday, ordinary couple. Their circumstances make them unusual, not their personalities. Although Forster proposed a kind of D.H. Lawrence-fly to the countryside-ending for them in an earlier draft, he was too good a writer to settle for such silliness in the final draft (published after his death).
The characters are themselves, not icons. Maurice is somewhat literal minded, physically passionate, only introspective by the demands of his experiences, loyal, and a reasonably hard worker. Alec is belligerent, somewhat more reflective, creative and quick on the mark, loyal, and a reasonably hard worker.
Truths that activists and romance lovers should remember: the stigmatized relationship may be stigmatized because of outside forces. Or, because others are using the stigma to their own ends (to shore up status, for instance). In addition, what constitutes stigma changes.
Stigma, by itself, is not a marker of personality. Nor is it a marker of artistic achievement. Nor an indicator of where a relationship is supposed to end up (two people fighting the system forever).
So when people complain about the lack of kissing between men in a Japanese film, it behooves them to remember: it could be because of stigma. It could be because the culture doesn't go in for kissing in the same way as American television and film.
Not every choice is feinted with meaning. And some people truly do want the ordinary life.
