Sexual acts between men were still criminalized in England during the early 1900s. Although the law was rarely enforced, instead used as an add-on crime to incite humiliation or shame in those accused of other offenses, it still caused fear and shame in gay men and children for over four centuries. In Memoriam thus explores the societal stigma that Ellwood and Gaunt face as they navigate their feelings for one another.

From the start, Ellwood and Gaunt both hide their feelings for each other for their entire childhood and even into their time together in the military. Ironically, gay relationships still occur, with Gaunt noting that “what boys d[o] together in the dark [i]s only acceptable if obscure. It [i]s unspoken, invisible, and, crucially: temporary” (13). In other words, everyone knows that sexual relationships are happening, like that of Ellwood and Maitland, but it is kept private and never spoken of. The boys at school casually mention that men who are “sodomites […] ought to be shot” and how the boys will eventually turn to “marriage and respectability and the putting aside of boyish, immature desires” (10, 62). As a result, Preshute mirrors much of society by presenting sex between men as criminal and done only by immature youths or deviants, with everyone turning to heterosexual marriage to fit into society.