RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

208
On the other hand, Lawrence gives too much evidence of
Gerald Crich's past.
It seems rather incongruous that Lawrence
has put so much effort in presenting Gerald's background so as
to explain his attitudes in the present while he says almost
nothing about his spokesman Birkin.
Gerald's home seems to be governed by an atmosphere of
pure anarchy.
There is no understanding between the parents.
The father seems to have no strength to educate the children. If
he punished one child the mother would shout at him, calling him
'coward' in front of the child destroying the father's authority.
This is the atmosphere in which Gerald was brought up.
Gerald's father has always been challenged by his wife in
his beliefs.
Being a rich man and very Christian, Thomas Crich
used to play charity among his workers.
Christiana, the
'unchristian' wife, would reject his charity and despise the
poor.
The more money Thomas got from exploiting the work of the
miners, the more guilty he would feel in relation to the workers.
Thus he gave them money so as "To move nearer to God”. Christiana,
on the other hand, denied his Christianity and sent the 'rats'
away from her house.
Lawrence says that the relationship of
husband and wife in fact did not exist.
What was alive between
them "was deep, awful, a relation of utter interdestruction" (p.
209) .
Gerald's personal bond with the family is defined in terms
of his deep attachment to his mother and contempt for his father.
Gerald is always presented in opposition to his father mainly
because of the latter's charity.
Such an ideal of life is not
in Gerald's personality.
He would rather destroy the miners in
order to feel more and more in contact with power.
He is often