RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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dangerous helplessness, as if she were helplessly weighted, and
unreleased" (ibid).
Gerald and Birkin apparently fail to see
the ambiguity in the dancers' behaviour:
Gerald was excited by the desperate cleaving
of Gudrun to Naomi. The essence of that female,
subterranean recklessness and mockery penetrated
his blood. He could not forget Gudrun's lifted,
offered, cleaving reckless, yet withal mocking
weight. And Birkin, watching like a hermit crab
from its hole, had seen the brilliant frustration
and helplessness of Ursula. She was rich, full
of dangerous power. She was like a strange
unconscious bud of powerful womanhood. He was
unconsciously drawn to her. She was his future
(pp.84-5).
This long passage plus Hermione's observation deserves careful
comment.
The first point relates to Hermione's perspicacity in
seeing Gudrun not as ' Ruth but as a 'treacherous*
personality.
Thus, Gudrun unconsciously does not see Ursula
as her sister but as a female.
Hermione perceives both Gudrun's
sensual appeal to her sister and Ursula's helplessness to
prevent the passionate clinging of her sister.
The second
point refers to Gerald seeing with pleasure the mockery of
Gudrun's cleaving to Naomi. He does not see Ursula. He only
sees in Gudrun the woman who attracts his maleness.
The final
point relates to Birkin who not only fails to see both Naomi and
Ruth: he only sees Ursula's defense of herself as woman.
She is
ready to flourish as the woman he needs and craves.
Despite the
fact that the men have failed to see the ambiguity of Gudrun's
passion for Ursula, it seems to me that this dance symbolically
presents the disguised woman-to-woman relation.
Besides, I
think that in presenting Gudrun as the 'scapegoat' of this
alternative
Lawrence may be implying that she is more decadent
than Ursula, but that both women have bisexual potentialities.
Thus, this 'female bonding' plus the Blutbrtiderschaft may be seen