RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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laurels of having given Siegmund a good time. In her words is
implicit the sense that she is the fatal female because she has
guided him to the island; she has kept him under her control.
Again her role is the one of the mother-figure, responsible for
the well-being of her little child:
'I did well, didn't I, Siegmund?' she asked.
Helena felt the responsibility of this holiday.
She had proposed it; when he had withdrawn, she
had insisted, refusing to allow him to take back
his word, declaring that she should pay the cost.
He permitted her at last (p.116).
To Siegmund is left only the submissive answer:"'You are
everything,'" which certainly avoids the problem of evaluation.
She did everything. He did nothing. She is the goddess to whom
he must bow and submit. His submission is asserted when she
presses "his head on her bosom" soothing him and, at the same
time, counselling him not to say anything anymore. Next he must
consider her total competence versus his own cowardice, selfpity
and nothingness:
'She is sufficient to herself — she does not want
me. She has her own private way of communing with
things, as is friends with them'... 'She cannot
render herself to the intelligence. So she is alone
a law unto herself: she only wants me to explore
me, like a rock-pool, and to bathe in me. After a
while, when I am gone, she will see I was not
indispensable...' (pp.119-20).
He finally seems to understand what Hampson told him about the
soulful women.
Helena, now, in his eyes, is a clear example of
those who make use of men for their own sake.
He seems aware
of his own destruction.
Only it is too late to remedy the
situation.
He is entirely at her mercy and cannot escape except
through death.
And this death progressively takes hold of his
soul.
The woman is responsible for his whole emotional sickness:
the sense of humilliation, which he had got from
her the day before, and which had fixed itself,