THE INTERTWINING FLUX: THE IMAGERY OF RELATION IN THE MAJOR NOVELS OF D. H. LAWRENCE
Abstract
D. H. Lawrence's major novels define relationship between individuals as the willful domination of one person over another, as submissive acceptance of another's self-assertion, or as the setting aside of willfulness to experience the life-giving passion and spirit of the circumambient universe. Lawrence enriches his depiction of what he calls "relation" by means of poetic imagery. An investigation of sewing and weaving patterns, with related aspects of binding and fusing, and of dance and struggle, reveals Lawrence's concern with the individual's place in a meaningful universe. Lawrence's poetic use of these patterns reveals furthermore his developing artistry. In the major novels before his masterpiece, Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928)--Sons and Lovers (1913), The Rainbow (1915), Women in Love (1920), The Plumed Serpent (1926)--sewing, weaving, dance, and struggle are used in individually meaningful ways to reinforce the notion of a character's isolation in self-assertion or his or her integration with another and with the life-giving cosmos. This relationship Lawrence will call "tenderness" in Lady Chatterley. The imagery of relation, however, is not always in the major novels integral to their structure as it is in Lady Chatterley and The Man Who Died. In these two works, Lawrence reveals his poetic mastery of this imagery with his integration of it into the structure of the novels. The imagery in both novels becomes one with the meaning; there is in these two works no need for a didactic overlay, as in The Plumed Serpent, his flawed masterpiece. Based on close readings of Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love, The Plumed Serpent, the three versions of Lady Chatterley's Lover, and The Man Who Died, this study explores the poetic imagery Lawrence employs to portray his dominant theme, relation. Sewing, weaving, dance, and struggle patterns not only allow him to depict his characters but to define the essential truth of his characterizations. Furthermore, an investigation of these image patterns permits the reader to appreciate more fully Lawrence's singular contribution to the English novel.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
British and Irish literature
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