RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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a symbol of his creative power.
When she gets it at the novel's
end, she is already involved in another affair with Cecyl Byrne
who is described as a potential Siegmund.
Byrne, like his
predecessor, is aware that he is in love with the 'dreaming
woman', although he somehow knows that he will suffer: "'I might
as well not exist, for all she is aware of me'" (p.213).
This
has happened with Siegmund too.
Helena could only realize her
former lover in her mind. Physically she was miles away from him.
"'History repeats itself'" says Byrne, implying that he, although
he knows how his predecessor ended his life because of Helena,
wants to be the new Siegmund.
Byrne sympathizes with Helena's
dead lover: "[Byrne] always felt a deep sympathy and kinship
with Siegmund; sometimes he thought he hated Helena" (p.214).
Siegmund was a victim, Helena a victimizer.
Byrne knows about
this and that is why he thinks he hates Helena.
One may ask then
why he remains with her, hovering like an insect, a shadow by her
side.
It is the reworking of the myth of the mother goddess who
is both the preserver and destroyer of her consort (son-husband).
One can take Helena again as the 'femrne fatale' exerting her
strong influence upon her successive partners.
Perhaps the
difference between Helena's previous and her new lover lies in
the fact that Siegmund's weakness forbade him to defy Helena,
even in ironic comments as Byrne does.
He knows he is in love
with Helena but this fact does not prevent him from mocking at
her or from saying things which Helena takes as fretful.
One interesting fact to mark is that the new affair begins
exactly a year after Helena has met Siegmund.
The woman and
Byrne go to the same place where the mother-goddess destroyed
her first son-lover. This implies that still the woman commands
the action between the lovers because it is she who leads Byrne