RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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see the gate shut; then Gerald trotting on a red Arab mare. The
animal seems to be pleased with her master till she hears the
approaching noise of the locomotive.
The mare then becomes
frightened and uneasy and soon "she was rocking with horror"
(p.103).
Gudrun and Ursula observe the scene and see how Gerald
manages to control the animal.
Gerald, as he notices the
uneasiness of the mare, shows in his face a light of
satisfaction because now he must control her using his power and
also because he could perhaps feel the presence of the women's
eyes directly on his masterful figure.
He treats the mare like
a sadist would treat his woman.
Gudrun, seeing this, "was
looking at him with black-dilated, spellbound eyes" (ibid).
She
is fascinated by Gerald's violence with the animal.
It is the
way she would like a man to treat her.
Her feelings are
masochistic and together with Gerald's sadism, they form a pair
of "perfect" lovers.
Gudrun feels as if she were the mare/
submitting to the powerful male over her.
It is as if she were
in the ecstasy of sexual intercourse and her sensations are
described like a painful but pleasurable orgasm:
Gudrun looked and saw the trickles of blood on
the sides of the mare, and she turned white. And
then on the very wound the bright spurs came down,
pressing relentlessly. The world reeled and
passed into nothingness for Gudrun, she could not
know any more.
When she was recovered, her soul was calm and
cold, without feeling (p.104).
When the locomotive passes and Gerald goes away almost riding
over Gudrun, the emotions of the man are of one who feels proud
for having had the opportunity to show off his thirst for
violence.
Ursula is angry at him but Gudrun seems hollow or
blind to everything, morally uncritical:
Gudrun was as if numbed in her mind by the sense
of indomitable soft weight of the man, bearing