ROMANTIC NATURE IN THE MAJOR NOVELS OF D. H. LAWRENCE

MARILYN ELAINE TANGER, Purdue University

Abstract

Using Romanticism as a basis for study, this dissertation examines the uses of nature in the major novels of D. H. Lawrence from Sons and Lovers to The Man Who Died. In his best work, Lawrence uses nature both as a character in itself and as an essential element in the creation of his "other" main characters. As well as acting in the Wordsworthian fashion as mentor and nurse, nature is capable of functioning as both mirror (reflector) and/or lamp (contributor). In a character's unconscious relationship with nature, his true unconscious self is laid bare; that is, in comparison with nature's vitality and completeness, the character shows himself to be equally or potentially as vital and complete, or else he is revealed as unsubstantial--perverting or denying the life-force within him. Furthermore, a character's direct contact with natural phenomena can result in the bringing to consciousness of his deepest life urges and desires and illuminating them for the reader and often for the character himself. Thus the reader finds himself constantly looking to nature as setting, background, or single object of attention in the novels of Lawrence in order to deeply understand, to interpret, and to judge the main characters. Lawrence not only depends upon nature for getting at the basic and essential self of his characters, but also for the meaning and validity of his major arguments. The need for singleness and integrity, star polarity, the need for growth, death, and rebirth come directly from their source in the organic, dynamic universe which is constantly kept before the reader's eye. When Lawrence uses a natural analogue such as a cat or a flower to demonstrate and make interesting an idea, the idea is lent a power and attractiveness which it does not necessarily have in the abstract. When Lawrence fails to use a natural phenomenon as both occasion and metaphor for his argument, it is usually discovered that the argument fails to fascinate and/or convince. In his life and in his art, Lawrence was searching for what he called a "new connection" between mankind and the forces of life. Since Lawrence consistently put so much of himself in certain of his main characters, one can watch his own personal struggle to find this connection going on throughout the novels in the evolution of the typical Lawrentian character. One discovers the three basic stages of the circular pattern which M. H. Abrams has referred to as the "circuitous journey" of the Romantic Quester. In the first stage, the character is unconsciously a part of the "source"--which for Lawrence is the creative life mystery; in the second stage, the character travels away from this source in order to differentiate himself from it and to develop thereby his own separate identity and integrity; finally, the third stage describes a return to the source, but on a higher level of awareness, and a re-integration which often requires a surrender of the self in order to bring about a finer and more vital self. This pattern of developing character is found in Lawrence's earliest novels and is retained with appropriate variations and increases in subtlety and complexity through all his works. The well-known influence of the war upon Lawrence temporarily undermined but did not completely destroy the writer's basic faith in the validity of this pattern of character development.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

British and Irish literature

COinS