RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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is to warn Siegmund of the danger that women like Helena may
represent to men.
He also makes Siegmund aware of external
agents which are always present as a sign of conscience. In
other words, these agents are the conscience of repression.
For
example, Siegmund is told by Hampson to observe two .battleships,
a recurrent image in the book, in the bay.
These battleships
represent a kind of conscience which is ready to catch one if
one is not aware of what he is doing.
In Siegmund's case, they
may imply the idea of his unawareness of what Helena represents
to him.
If he does not become aware of her will-to-destruction,
the conscience of repression will catch him and he will be
destroyed.
I say this due to the next thread of conversation
Siegmund and Hampson take.
They talk about women-women who are
soulful like Helena.
The idea of Hampson being a projection of
Siegmund's mind relates to the 'perturbing intimacy' Siegmund
feels towards the man.
Hampson looks at Siegmund in the same
way Helena looks at him: evaluating details of his throat.
Furthermore,
"This Hampson seemed to express something in his
own soul" (p.82).
A simple acquaintance Siegmund has had in the
past, as the text explains, does not account for the deep
knowledge Hampson seems to have of him.
He is capable of
recalling in Siegmund the same idea he has had in the night
under the moonlight with Helena. Hampson says:
'I mean,' the man explained, 'that after all,
the great mass of life that washes unidentified,
and that we call death, creeps through the blue
envelope of the day, and through our white tissue,
and we can't stop it, once we've begun to
leak' (p.82).
This- is almost exactly what Siegmund said to himself previously
(quoted on page 112).
In the moonlight night Siegmund has gone
through a crisis and he was unconscious of what he said. Now his