RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

102
One must remember that while up to this point Siegmund
and Helena have slept separately, the man has slept deeply
whereas Helena, the dreaming woman, "had tossed, and had called
his name in torture of sleeplessness" (p.42).
This implies that
though Siegmund could not make love to her, he had fallen asleep
heavily without questioning the rejection.
Helena, on the other
hand, is frustrated and cannot sleep because she, too, wants sex
but her repressive mind consciousness does not allow her to have
it. Consequently she is a bad sleeper.
This implies that for
her it is better to be awake "dreaming" than to sleep because in
sleeping she would release her unconscious sexuality which her
conscience rejects.
The split between the couple is so strong that while one
goes to the sea the other remains at home.
First Siegmund meets
the sea, alone, and later on Helena goes without him.
It is a
game in which the pieces can never meet and be in communion to
finish the game. On her going to the sea by herself Lawrence
presents us with the idea that in his early stories there is no
connection between the world outside and the characters' lives.
In fact, the only real connection of the lovers with the outer
world is through the landscape, but they are out of contact with
any realistic social context, they are abandoned to purely
inward and selfish concerns. This is perceived through Helena's
selfish assertion that she does not care for people.
She lives
in a world of her own, built on the basis of her dreams.
Even
Siegmund does not really enter the reality of her world; he is
there but without flesh and blood. It is a world of fairies
which is a childish escape from the real world:
She wanted to see just as she pleased, without
any of humanity's previous vision for spectacles.
So she knew hardly any flower's name nor perceived