RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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and chiffon dresses. The Banford would have
little iron breasts, he said to himself. For
all her frailty and fretfulness and delicacy,
she would have tiny iron breasts. But March,
under her crude, fast, workman's tunic, would
have soft, white breasts, white and unseen.
So he told himself, and his blood burned (p.132).
This certainly defines quite well the qualities of both women.
March though man-like, hides a feminine nature.
Only she has to
be discovered and that is what Henry is trying to do.
Banford,
on the other hand, hides her masculinity under her soft blouses
and light dresses. The girls are opposites. But even though
Banford hides her masculinity with 'delicacy', she cannot be
said to look like a female (in conventional terms).
Everything
she says sounds rough, authoritative, showing that she is in fact
much more manly than the other whose clothes disguise her as a
man.
When the night comes, March appears wearing a light dress,
just as if to prove everything Henry has been imagining.
In .her
feminine clothes, March stops hiding her femininity.
"And to
[Henry's] amazement March was dressed in a dress of dull, green
silk crape. His mouth came open in surprise. If she had
suddenly grown a moustache he could not have been more surprised"
(ibid).
Furthermore, she seems now to be blossoming like a
frail female: "She was blushing all the time..." (ibid) and
"Through the crape her woman's form seemed soft and womanly"
(p.133).
Besides this 1surprise' the night also brings hints of
Banford's death because of some words in the narrative:
'Oh, for goodness' sake, say something
somebody,' cried Banford fretfully. 'It might
be a funeral.' The boy looked at her and she
could not bear his face.
'A funeral!' said March with a twisted
smile.'Why, that breaks my dream.'
Suddenly she had thought of Banford in the
wood-box for a coffin (pp.133-4 - My underlining).