RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE
RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE
317 Quetzalcoatl and choose not to follow it. Lawrence, in a clear symptom of nervous breakdown, introduces human sacrifices which are performed by the living god Hut'zilopochtli, the bloody executioner of Quetzalcoatl. madness in writing this book. It is the apex of Lawrence's The choice of the new religion which replaces Catholicism is, instead of a regained freedom, a regression to barbaric rituals of murder where Cipriano incarnates the power to decide people's lives. imposes an acceptance of the murders on Kate. Lawrence also Her acceptance is a denial of her previous refusal to see the bullfight in the beginning of the novel which, compared to the human sacrifices, is only minor brutality. These two different moments in Kate's life show two Lawrences: the sane author who treated his character as a human being showing the nauseating sensation Kate felt in seeing a spectacle of violence in the bullfight and the insane one who transformed the woman into an accomplice of human violence. In the bullfight Kate was horrified by what men made the animals do: Kate had never been taken so completely by surprise in all her life. She had still cherished some idea of gallant show. And before she knew where she was, she was watching a bull whose shoulders trickled blood goring his horns up and down inside the belly of a prostrate and feebly plunging old horse. The shock almost overpowered her. She had come for a gallant show. This she had paid to see. Human cowardice and beastliness, a smell of blood, a nauseous whiff of bursten bowels 1 She turned her face away (p.13 - My underlining). And she ran way from the place unable to face the stupidity and violence of the show. with human sacrifices! And then we see a new Kate who agrees It is as if Kate herself had forgotten her senses to feel herself superior to the sacrificed people. She is a goddess:
i 318 ... when she remembered [Cipriano's] stabbing the three helpless peons, she thought: why should I judge him? He is one of the gods... Why do I care if he kills people? ... He is Huitzilopochtli, and I am Malintzi. What do I care, what Cipriano Viedma does or doesn't do? Or even what Kate Leslie does or doesn't do! (p.431) - My underlining). What she considered in the bullfight as 'human cowardice and beastliness1 becomes in the human sacrifices a thing of the gods. Kate does not care, she does not judge. Lawrence, to fulfil his purpose, divides Kate into two different entities: the conscious self rejects the sacrifices, but the unconscious one (Huitzilopochtli and Malintzi) accepts them as part of the game. And as different entities the characters are allowed to do whatever their instincts demand them to do. Summarizing: the new religion is only a change of one kind of domination for another version: and women, and men dominate women. Quetzalcoatl dominates men The dictatorship of the God of 'the Morning Star' rejects its opponents murdering them in front of a frightened crowd of followers. Finally, Lawrence divides the characters into two: Ramon is the thinker through Quetzalcoatl; Cipriano is the executioner through Huitzilopochtli and Kate disguises herself as Malintzi as a way to approve the murders and to hide from her conscious self that as Kate she cannot accept them as she could not accept the bullfight. When Kate decided to stay in Mexico she seems to have decided to forget the old Kate who was married to Joachim and who represented a woman without great yearnings in relation to her soul and body. Yet she was too spiritual up till Mexico. That Kate she left in Europe and the new Kate will attempt to discover in herself a new seed of life which must be exclusively fed by the soul. However, it seems, that underneath the surface of this new self, there are special yearnings related to her
- Page 275 and 276: 266 be sure that she will put an en
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- Page 309 and 310: 300 She looked up at him with tears
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i<br />
318<br />
... when she remembered [Cipriano's] stabbing<br />
the three helpless peons, she thought: why should<br />
I judge him? He is one of the gods... Why do I<br />
care if he kills people? ... He is Huitzilopochtli,<br />
and I am Malintzi. What do I care, what Cipriano<br />
Viedma does or doesn't do? Or even what Kate<br />
Leslie does or doesn't do! (p.431) - My underlining).<br />
What she considered in the bullfight as 'human cowardice and<br />
beastliness1 becomes in the human sacrifices a thing of the gods.<br />
Kate does not care, she does not judge.<br />
Lawrence, to fulfil his<br />
purpose, divides Kate into two different entities: the conscious<br />
self rejects the sacrifices, but the unconscious one (Huitzilopochtli<br />
and Malintzi) accepts them as part of the game.<br />
And as different<br />
entities the characters are allowed to do whatever their<br />
instincts demand them to do.<br />
Summarizing: the new religion is only a change of one kind<br />
of domination for another version:<br />
and women, and men dominate women.<br />
Quetzalcoatl dominates men<br />
The dictatorship of the God<br />
of 'the Morning Star' rejects its opponents murdering them in<br />
front of a frightened crowd of followers. Finally, Lawrence<br />
divides the characters into two: Ramon is the thinker through<br />
Quetzalcoatl; Cipriano is the executioner through Huitzilopochtli<br />
and Kate disguises herself as Malintzi as a way to approve the<br />
murders and to hide from her conscious self that as Kate she<br />
cannot accept them as she could not accept the bullfight.<br />
When Kate decided to stay in Mexico she seems to have<br />
decided to forget the old Kate who was married to Joachim and<br />
who represented a woman without great yearnings in relation to<br />
her soul and body. Yet she was too spiritual up till Mexico.<br />
That Kate she left in Europe and the new Kate will attempt to<br />
discover in herself a new seed of life which must be exclusively<br />
fed by the soul.<br />
However, it seems, that underneath the surface<br />
of this new self, there are special yearnings related to her