RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

248
'finger-tips'.
The couple decides to quit their jobs and run
away from the old world.
They sleep in Birkin's car in Sherwood
Forest.
They have finally found an 'equilibrium':
She had her desire fulfilled. He had his desire
fulfilled. For she was to him what he was to her,
the immemorial magnificence of mystic, palpable,
real otherness (p.312).
The marriage subject returns again as an important subject.
Gerald and Birkin have already discussed it previously and their
ideas were quite different.
Birkin has told Gerald: "'It seems
to me there remains only this perfect union with a woman - a
sort of ultimate marriage - and there isn't anything else'"(p.
51). Gerald does not seem to agree with Birkin, perhaps because
he cannot take women as a serious subject, but as a mere object
of pleasure.
Now, after Birkin has had his bloodbrotherhood with
Gerald, and has taken his 'dark knowledge' of Ursula, he changes
his mind.
Marriage is then seen as purely a convenience, it is
not the last word: "'I believe in the additional perfect
relationship between man and man, additional to marriage'" (p.
345). Gerald cannot accept this. For him it is better to
"pledge himself with the woman: not merely in legal marriage,
but in absolute, mystic marriage" (pp.345-6).
This is only
because his male-ethic forbids him from accepting Birkin's
offer and, furthermore, this marriage he wants certainly is not
with Gudrun because she is 'born-mistress' not fit for marriage.
Gerald, thus, rejects Birkin once more.
2.2. Old vs New World
Before Ursula and Birkin marry they go to a market wishing
to find some furniture for their new household.
The interesting