RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

much violence.
Thus, her love for her father or for any other
man may have the same fierce desire for destruction, unless she
finds somebody with the same strength as hers to counterbalance
her power.
This idea of will-to-destruction may be better
explained when Ursula meets her first love Skrebensky.
This
scene of the swingboat may also be compared to the scene of the
swing in Sons and Lovers in which Paul and Miriam play.
In
Paul's turn in the swing, he loses himself, enjoying to the maximum
the play.
Miriam, on the other hand, cannot enjoy herself
because she is frightened.
The scene implies a metaphor for
their sexual experience which is a failure.
When they become
lovers, Paul, as in the swing, physically loses himself whereas
Miriam cannot because she is sexually frigid.
sexual life fails because it is unilateral.
Hence, their
In the case of
Ursula, the swingboat also implies a metaphor for her sexual life
in which violence and destruction are involved.
Before going to the love section of Ursula's life it is
important to take a look at her feelings towards religion.
Religion for her, up to a certain point is shaded by her mother's
scepticism and cynical views.
Anna did not care for the church's
teaching but it is in Ursula that Lawrence specifies what this
teaching is.
Ursula does not believe in the saying that "Jesus
died for me, He suffered for me".
In fact, she has a distaste
for all kinds of teaching that force her to believe that she is
a humble mortal in view of Christ's sufferings.
For her he is a
simple man, as human as she is.
The only 'teaching' that she
seems to consider is the one which says that "The Sons of God
saw the daughters of men that they were fair: and they took them
wives of all which they chose" (p.276).
This teaching attracts
her, but soon she becomes disillusioned because she realizes by