RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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the two because somehow he accepts that "'Life has all kinds of
things... There isn't only one road'" (p.268).
With this
statement he implies his belief in another kind of love, other
than that for a woman.
But Gerald cannot understand this
outwardly.
alternative.
His male ethic forbids him from accepting such an
Thus, he, too, rejects Birkin.
At the same time that Lawrence presents Blutbrttderschaft
as an alternative to the man-to-woman relation, he also seems
to propose an alternative for the female.
It is what can be
called a 'female bonding', a relation between women.
This
proposition .is presented in Breadalby in form of a dance on a
Biblical theme, performed by Gudrun, Ursula and the Contessa.
The idea of 'female bonding' may be seen quite clearly by the
way Ruth/Gudrun comforts Naomi/Ursula who has lost her men:
Ursula was beautiful as Naomi. All her men
were dead, it remained to her only to stand alone
in indomitable assertion. Ruth, woman-loving,
loved her. Orfah, a vivid, sensational, subtle
widow, would go back to the former life, a
repetition. The inter-play between the women was
real and rather frightening. It was strange to
see how Gudrun clung with heavy, desperate
passion to Ursula, yet smiled with subtle
malevolence against her, how Ursula accepted
silently, unable to provide any more either for
herself or for the other, but dangerous and
indomitable, refuting her grief (p.84).
The dance may pressupose that Gudrun's unconscious tendency for
homosexuality is focussed on her sister.
Consciously it seems
that she would deny it (as she has done with her second lantern),
but the music perhaps blinds her and she clings passionately
to Ursula.
The audience perceives the deep implication of the
dance because Hermione could see the flaw in both sisters.
She
could see "Gudrun's ultimate but treacherous cleaving to the
woman in her sister" and she could also perceive "Ursula's