RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

140
Tom proposes marriage to Lydia: Tom is being reborn.
She
represents to him a half-way towards fulfilment: "He must, in
the starry multiplicity of the night humble himself, and admit
and know that without her he was nothing" (p.41).
With Lydia in
his arms, he finds his way towards a new life. He keeps her
close to him and
Then, for a few seconds, he went utterly to sleep,
asleep and sealed in the darkest sleep, utter,
extreme oblivion.
From which he came to gradually, always holding
her warm and close upon him, and she as utterly
silent as he, involved in the same oblivion, the
fecund darkness.
He returned gradually, but newly created, as
after a gestation, a new birth, in the womb of
darkness" (p.46).
The passage is very rich in overtones of fecundity, warmth and
security.
Darkness here implies the connection between the woman
and the unknown.
The unconscious is present in the sense that
both appear as if hypnotized by the situation of complete
unawareness of each other.
Lydia is the mother, both in the
sense that she is older than Tom and in that she makes Tom not
feel fear or guilt.
Tom, closely connected with his mother, is
now turned to her substitute.
The fear of the prostitute does
not revisit him because Lydia is not an ordinary woman.
Their
relation seems blessed by God because of this symbolic rebirth.
They are both complete in their total ignorance of each other's
past.
In fact, it seems that there is a sense of mutual respect
in their strangeness.
This implies a strong hint that their
relation is going to be a balanced one.
What seems important to
them is what they can build from their acquaintance on.
Their
past is ignored.
There is only their present and the coming
future.
However, the sense of completeness between them does not