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
349 JDorn. The next two endings which I have put together under the same classification, "ambiguous closed ending in narrative", are from Sons and Lovers and The Rainbow. The reason for this connection is that both novels end in narrative. The author does not let the characters speak because he does not want to lose control of his intention. The point of this incisive control of the narratives at the end of the novels means that the author wants unconsciously to impose the motif of rebirth on both Paul and Ursula. This imposed solution may signify Lawrence's wish not to end the novels as tragedies, even though the experience of the protagonists has been primarily tragic. The sequence of negative episodes in the two novels must be recalled — separately — to make my point clear. In Sons and Lovers we recall that Paul has gone through a whole set of negative experiences which have provoked but not resolved the conflicts in his tormented mind. The environment of his birth and upbringing is responsible for the split in his conscience. His mother, a very spiritual woman, has mistreated her lower class husband in such a way that she destroyed any possibility for a happy relationship with Walter Morel. He, for her, was an inferior being because he was a man conscious only in the blood, whereas she was a woman led by mental consciousness. These are two extremes which, according to Lawrence, cannot relate but as antagonists. In the essay "Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter" he says: Blood consciousness overwhelms, obliterates, and annuls mind-consciousness. Mind-consciousness extinguishes bloodconsciousness, and consumes the blood. We are all of us conscious in both ways. And the two ways are antagonistic in us...
350 There is a basic hostility in all of us between the physical and the mental, the blood and the spirit. The mind is "ashamed" of the blood. And the blood is destroyed by the mind. Hence pale faces (Beal, pp.349-50). Therefore, there can never be a reconciliation between these two poles. The mother, as the powerful mind, has destroyed the blood-conscious father. Thus, the mother gathers her children by her side against the father who becomes an intruder in his own family. The strong woman swallows her eldest son, William, in the sense that she indirectly makes him live with his mind connected with her and his body connected with a 'blood-conscious' girl. The split kills him. Hence the mother who has rejected Paul, the third child, when she was pregnant with him, turns, after William's death, to Paul and makes his inner life like hell. Paul being very sensitive, with a .hyper-conscious mind, is deeply attached to the mother. This prevents him from developing any connection with a woman apart from a 'soul' communion. When he meets Miriam, his first girlfriend, he meets his mother in a younger version. They fall in love, but this love is only spiritual with the aggravation that the mother recognizes herself in the girl and fights her off. The triangle goes then through a terrible battle for the soul of the young man. The mother wins because of the strong tie which connects her with Paul: the blood. Paul then seeks passion with Clara Dawes. But he fails because in reality what he was looking for in Clara was a remarriage between his parents. When he gets tired of the woman, he returns her to Baxter, her husband. All these troubles are due to his mother's excessive love. Paul fails with Miriam, fails with Clara and, in order to get rid of his mother's oppression, he 'kills' her when she is already being consumed by cancer. Even in her death Paul is not yet ready to
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350<br />
There is a basic hostility in all of us between<br />
the physical and the mental, the blood and the<br />
spirit. The mind is "ashamed" of the blood. And<br />
the blood is destroyed by the mind. Hence pale<br />
faces (Beal, pp.349-50).<br />
Therefore, there can never be a reconciliation between these two<br />
poles.<br />
The mother, as the powerful mind, has destroyed the<br />
blood-conscious father.<br />
Thus, the mother gathers her children<br />
by her side against the father who becomes an intruder in his<br />
own family.<br />
The strong woman swallows her eldest son, William,<br />
in the sense that she indirectly makes him live with his mind<br />
connected with her and his body connected with a 'blood-conscious'<br />
girl. The split kills him. Hence the mother who has rejected<br />
Paul, the third child, when she was pregnant with him, turns,<br />
after William's death, to Paul and makes<br />
his inner life like<br />
hell.<br />
Paul being very sensitive, with a .hyper-conscious mind,<br />
is deeply attached to the mother.<br />
This prevents him from<br />
developing any connection with a woman apart from a 'soul'<br />
communion.<br />
When he meets Miriam, his first girlfriend, he meets<br />
his mother in a younger version.<br />
They fall in love, but this<br />
love is only spiritual with the aggravation that the mother<br />
recognizes herself in the girl and fights her off.<br />
The triangle<br />
goes then through a terrible battle for the soul of the young<br />
man.<br />
The mother wins because of the strong tie which connects<br />
her with Paul: the blood.<br />
Paul then seeks passion with Clara<br />
Dawes.<br />
But he fails because in reality what he was looking for<br />
in Clara was a remarriage between his parents.<br />
When he gets<br />
tired of the woman, he returns her to Baxter, her husband.<br />
All<br />
these troubles are due to his mother's excessive love.<br />
Paul<br />
fails with Miriam, fails with Clara and, in order to get rid of<br />
his mother's oppression, he 'kills' her when she is already being<br />
consumed by cancer.<br />
Even in her death Paul is not yet ready to
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