T H E S I S

More documents

Recommendations

Info

2b in the novel, as the embodiment of the natural violence against civilization and he is the precursor of other important gamekeeper, Mellors, in Lady Chatterley's Lover. The relationships between Lettie and George grow for a long time, but Lettie, wanting more than animal attraction from a man, marries the higher-class industrialist Leslie« The effect of her perverse decision on George - which she never fully realizes. - forms a great part of the theme of the book. George's slow degradation begins with his marriage, out of despair at Lettie*s rejection, to Meg of the Ham Inn and ends up with his degeneration through drinking. Cyril, the narrator and watcher, fails in his love for Emily, and indeed he seems to be more interested in Emily's brother* George. The novel's main interest is in the triangle George-Let- tie-Leslie* At the end of the story everybody is more or less unfulfilled, but only Cyril is really frustrated and left alone* Even Emily marries somebody else. Lettie and Meg were not able to make the right choice but reign over their husbands. Cyril is left watching life, frustrated and quite unnoticed. From a letter to his friend Blanche Jennings, ^ we can see that Lawrence himself admitted that most of the characters in The White Peacock are people from Eastwood: "Today - Bank Holiday, we are having a picnic at Beauvale Abbey - not far away. Mother and the weary will drive. Alice Gail (Hall) is going - Emily (Jessie Chambers) - George (Alan, Jessie's brother) - a fellow something like Leslie - Louie (Burrows) - ...; Louie, Emily, and George will be there (these are not their proper names, and the people are not like the fictions)* - We shall have some fun..."(SPS 62) * This last parenthetical observation is not mine but Lawrence's.
25 And about Cyril (himself) he said: "If you think it worth the trouble, I will write the thing again (the novel), and stop up the mouth of Cyril - I will kick him out - I hate the fellow. " (SP3 63) He probably hated Cyril because, as the critics say, Cyril is too much Lawrence himself* Certainly this is one of the many early hints :of Lawrence’s contradictory nature. As I have already said, Cyril and Lettie are frustrated because of their sexual unfulfilment, and according to J*Chambers they "are each aspects of Lawrence", Lettie*s representation, based on Lawrence's favourite sister Ada, is the embodiment of the intellectualized woman who makes the wrong choice and remains as an inaccessible love-object, frigid but dominating, the magna mater, "reigning supreme" as Pritchard says. Undoubtedly she is the peacock symbol of the book, looking like the white peacock that "perched on an angel" of the churchyard, "as if it were a pedestal for vanity."(TWP 17*+) Cyril is too timid, passive, "merely childish, mentally clever but emotionally undeveloped", as G,Hough says.(IDS 28) As a watcher and narrator he seems to be more a woman than a man, which is what caused Lawrence to have the novel reviewed as if the author were a woman. As G.H.Ford points out, "Lawrence ought to have been entitled to a high rank in Mrs. Woolf’s hierarchy" (DDM 58), for Virginia Woolf argued that the most satisfactory writers are neither masculine nor feminine, but androgynous. Indeed, in Woolf’s sense of the word, the early Lawrence of The White Peacock is androgynous, as I will presently argue. The critics could never separate Cyril from Lawrence, both as narrator and watcher. G.Hough comments that "he(Cyril - or
Page 1 and 2: Mo ï»e THESIS D. H0 IAWBENGE: SEX
Page 3 and 4: Esta Tese foi julgada adequada para
Page 5 and 6: TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations Mbs
Page 7 and 8: vil PGB - Portrait of a Genius« Bu
Page 9 and 10: R E S U M O D« H. Lawrence fez do
Page 11 and 12: Chapter I INTRODUCTION A, A, Victor
Page 13 and 14: 3 misunderstood sexual theme, is go
Page 15 and 16: 5 identical reasoning: nThere can s
Page 17 and 18: 7 attitudes. In this respect, it is
Page 19 and 20: 9 rence ’s works in his book The
Page 21 and 22: Chapter II PURITANISM DEFINED Histo
Page 23 and 24: 33 The actual meaning we find in di
Page 25 and 26: 15 and lie alone right. Having run
Page 27 and 28: 17 presents the Freudian imbroglio
Page 29 and 30: 19 it is perhaps worth noticing tha
Page 31 and 32: 21 but in many other parts of the b
Page 33: or inhibited action we are tempted
Page 37 and 38: 27 The tall meadow-sweet was in bud
Page 39 and 40: 29 genitals. Certainly Lawrence's p
Page 41 and 42: 31 Of course, one can imagine how i
Page 43 and 44: 33 'Good Lord, Emily! But he is dea
Page 45 and 46: 35 cock just quoted in the two prev
Page 47 and 48: 37 frustrated: Mr, and Mrs. Beardsa
Page 49 and 50: 39 So far, Lawrence’s early views
Page 51 and 52: hi rainbow arch; it is the “toget
Page 53 and 54: ^3 Lawrence said in his defence: "T
Page 55 and 56: ubbing passage of The White Peacock
Page 57 and 58: eautiful."(TRB 238) Why afraid? Bec
Page 59 and 60: Chapter V LAURENCE AND PORNOGRAPHY
Page 61 and 62: 51 sions then is Freud’s theory o
Page 63 and 64: 53 male, in a negative or sundering
Page 65 and 66: 55 he directly faced the censors an
Page 67 and 68: 57 "the whole question of pornograp
Page 69 and 70: 59 Girordias, (11) famous editor an
Page 71 and 72: 61 secret".; Neither can be of any
Page 73 and 74: 63 by January 1928 and is now widel
Page 75 and 76: 65 So the general subject matter of
Page 77 and 78: 67 The real theme, which recurs in
Page 79 and 80: 69 built of rusticated sandstone an
Page 81 and 82: 71 who want to dominate them, Mello
Page 83 and 84: 73 question Lawrence puts to himsel
Page 85 and 86:
75 the mechanical images are deflec
Page 87 and 88:
77 lies, navels, and breasts* (It h
Page 89 and 90:
79 Maybe they are the truth some cr
Page 91 and 92:
81 heave her loins, and throw the m
Page 93 and 94:
83 ’'darkness” is present in M
Page 95 and 96:
85 11ty shook her to her foundation
Page 97 and 98:
87 some kind of ’'arrest'** In al
Page 99 and 100:
Chapter ¥11 CONCLUSIONS Host of th
Page 101 and 102:
91 in a passionate love affair and
Page 103 and 104:
93 distinguished from normal conduc
Page 105 and 106:
95 presentative of most people's ex
Page 107 and 108:
97 easy to say* I think that he has
Page 109 and 110:
APPENDIX NOTES 1 Title of the work
Page 111 and 112:
BIBLIOGRAPHY •* Aldington^ Richar
Page 113 and 114:
103 Lawrence, D«E., (cont.) -"SunJ
show all

T H E S I S

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?