RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

criticizing her.
He is not a 'man' criticizing a woman. Birkin
becomes a voice - which proves perhaps that the man with a body
does not exist.
his inner self.
What is present is the theorist, the voice of
He is not trying to convince Hermione of her
vices but trying to convince himself that he must escape from
her.
Hermione, on the other hand, seems to take no notice of
his criticism for she mocks at him and looks at Ursula trying to
find an ally:
'He is such a dreadful satanist, isn't he?'
she drawled to Ursula, in a queer resonant voice,
that ended in a shrill little laugh of pure
ridicule. The two women were jeering at him into
nothingness. The laugh of the shrill, triumphant
female sounded from Hermione, jeering at him as
if he were a neuter (pp.36-7).
It seems therefore that Birkin's deep effort to annihilate his
lover in front of Ursula is in vain.
He is not yet ready to
escape from her.
Furthermore, Hermione knows she is the
strongest and that the man depends on her.
Though she
recognizes in Ursula a rival, her triumph is stronger because,
although Birkin has criticized her, she is leaving the
classroom with him: "It always gave her a sense of strength,
advantage, to be departing and leaving the other behind.
Moreover she was taking the man with her, if only in hate" (p.
37). Birkin's criticism thus has only been an angry but useless
wind-storm of ventilation.
The whole scene has happened in a
classroom where knowledge is supposed to be taught, not to be
used as a weapon to destroy enemies, as Birkin has tried to do
with Hermione.
The second scene which places Birkin's relation to
Hermione in an ironic light occurs in Breadalby, in Hermione's
boudoir when she tries to kill Birkin with a ball of lapis
lazuli.
Some important events which occurred previously lead