T H E S I S
T H E S I S T H E S I S
26 Lawrence) is sensitive in a rather girlish way. '1 (TD3 28) Looking and touching as described through Cyril's eyes do not pass the limits of lyricism and the veiled style which is usually associated with feminine fiction is present throughout the book. Full contact between Cyril and Emily is always avoided: uHe looked at her again, his eyes flickering. Then he took her hand. She pressed his fingers, holding them a little while.”(TWP if5) R.H.Poole maintains that Lawrence’s first novel shows an •’original feeling*’ for sexuality: "In January 1911 Lawrence published his impressive first novel, The White Peacock, (which is) notable for its fresh capture of the moods of landscape and season, and for an original feeling for the sexuality of man and woman.”(SPS XIV) W We see that no small part of the originality here lies in Lawrence’s (or Cyril’s) “voyeuristic" ability to project sexual content into observed nature* His first novel is a book of a country boy who has little experience of life, and if it has already been experienced, than it has not been digested, understood. This "voyeurism” and this treatment of sex in nature is the first seed of sex as a Lawrentian theme. But his techniques of description are still idealistic and sex is indirectly treated, sublimated or veiled: ”We crossed the tangle of fern and bracken, bramble and wild raspberry canes that spread in the open space before the house, and we went down the grassy slope to the edge of Nethermere, The wind whipped up noisy little wavelets, and the cluck and clatter of these among the pebbles, the swish of the rushes and the freshening of the breeze against our faces roused us.
27 The tall meadow-sweet was in bud along the tiny beach and we walked knee-deep among it, watching the foamy race of the ripples and the whitening of the willows on the far shore. At the place where Nethermere narrows to the upper end, and receives the brook from Strelley, the wood sweeps down and stands with its feet washed round with waters* We broke our v/ay along the shore, crushing the sharp-scented wild mint, whose odour checks the breath, and examining here and there among the marshy places ragged nests of watter-fowl, now deserted.“(TWP 23) This passage like many others in the novel shows how Lawrence’s early treatment of sex appears in his description of the landscape and many details cloak sexual meanings. There is an overabundance of adjectives to reinforce the quality of the verbs of perception which are used to give clear auditory, visual, olfactory, and tactile impressions, but a sexual excitation is really concealed* What "rouses“ the narrator is certainly the "whipping” of the wind, "the swish of the rushes and the freshening of the breeze“, the “watching" of the‘tipples“, the "sweeping" of the wood, and the “odour" of the "wild mint", but he transfers to other senses the sexual feelings which are evoked or excited through these impressions. What Eudora Welty says of Lawrence’s short stories is also valid for his first novel: “It is in the world of the senses that Lawrence writes in, works in, thinks in, takes as his medium - and if that is strange to us, isn’t the loss ours?...“(WIS llU-) According to Mr. Gadjusek,^ counting symbols ±n The White Peacock he found “1H-5 different trees, bushes and plants which are presented; 51 animals are introduced} *+0 different birds slide, hover, flutter, fly and change direction through the un
- 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 and 34: or inhibited action we are tempted
- Page 35: 25 And about Cyril (himself) he sai
- 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
26<br />
Lawrence) is sensitive in a rather girlish way. '1 (TD3 28) Looking<br />
and touching as described through Cyril's eyes do not pass the<br />
limits of lyricism and the veiled style which is usually associated<br />
with feminine fiction is present throughout the book. Full<br />
contact between Cyril and Emily is always avoided:<br />
uHe looked at her again, his eyes flickering. Then he took<br />
her hand. She pressed his fingers, holding them a little<br />
while.”(TWP if5)<br />
R.H.Poole maintains that Lawrence’s first novel shows an<br />
•’original feeling*’ for sexuality:<br />
"In January 1911 Lawrence published his impressive first<br />
novel, The White Peacock, (which is) notable for its fresh<br />
capture of the moods of landscape and season, and for an<br />
original feeling for the sexuality of man and woman.”(SPS<br />
XIV) W<br />
We see that no small part of the originality here lies in Lawrence’s<br />
(or Cyril’s) “voyeuristic" ability to project sexual content<br />
into observed nature* His first novel is a book of a country<br />
boy who has little experience of life, and if it has already<br />
been experienced, than it has not been digested, understood.<br />
This "voyeurism” and this treatment of sex in nature is the first<br />
seed of sex as a Lawrentian theme. But his techniques of description<br />
are still idealistic and sex is indirectly treated, sublimated<br />
or veiled:<br />
”We crossed the tangle of fern and bracken, bramble and<br />
wild raspberry canes that spread in the open space before<br />
the house, and we went down the grassy slope to the edge of<br />
Nethermere, The wind whipped up noisy little wavelets, and<br />
the cluck and clatter of these among the pebbles, the swish<br />
of the rushes and the freshening of the breeze against our<br />
faces roused us.
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