T H E S I S
T H E S I S T H E S I S
28 folding of this novel."(ABL 166) I would not only say that Lawrence writes in "the world of the senses", but that he recreates a complete pastoral setting in The White Peacock. Later on, in Lady Chatterlev's Lover he cannot describe the lyric rural environment of Uethermere as quoted on pp. 26-27i because it (Eastwood) becomes Tevershall, "the utter negation of natural beauty."(LCL 158) However, in this early world of the senses, visual perceptions play a very important role. The necessity of "voyeurism” and touching at the time of adolescence is neither infrequent nor unnatural, as we have learnt from Freud. These are common traits of the sexual impulse. Although touching is always in the centre of Lawrence's themes, in The White Peacock it is still inhibited, because the puritanical young man still objected to people who wanted to "gather" and to "fondle" things. Jessie Chambers tells us a passage from the time Lawrence was writing The White Peacock when he scolded her, resenting her touching and kissing some daffodils s « »Why must you always be fondling things!* he said irritably. ‘But I love to touch them*, she replied, hurt. ‘Can you never like things, without clutching them as if you wanted to pull the heart out of them? Why don't you have a bit more restraint, or reserve, or something? You wheedle the soul out of things. I would never wheedle - at any rate, I'd go straight*."(ETJ 229) Maybe his love of flowers made him jealous of her touching or maybe it was one of his perverse moods, but this touching of flowers is so frequent in The White Peacock that we remember Freud’s assertion that flowers are symbols that stand for female
29 genitals. Certainly Lawrence's puritanic mind could not admit this explanation, but this is one of the indirect descriptions of sexual feelings transferred to nature that we find in his first novel. Flowers, bindweeds, and brambles combined are indications of Lawrence’s early ideas of sex: they are tangled, twisted, intertwined, and scattered among the fallen leaves on the soil: "Under the groves of ashes and oak a pale primrose still lingered, glimmering wanly beside the hidden water. Emily found a smear of blood (Cyril and Emily were on the track of a wounded dog) on a beautiful trail of yellow convolvulus. We followedthe tracks on to the open, where the brook flowed on the hard rock bed, and the stony floor of the quarry was only a tangle of gorse and bramble and honeysuckle."(TWP 8*+) And unlike Mellors in Lady Chatterlev’s Lover, who adorns Connie’s navel and vagina with flowers, Cyril makes a garland for Emily: "I plucked a few bunches of guelder-rose fruits, transparent, ruby berries." •eft "She thrust the stalks of the berries under her combs. Then, with the ruby bunches glowing through the black mist of curls, she looked up at me, brightly, with wide eyes. I looked at her, and felt the smile winning into her eyes. Then I turned and dragged a trail of golden-leaved convolvulus from the hedge, and I twisted it into a coronet for her.“(TWP 85) The young couple is still immature and virginal and sex for them, as well as for Lawrence, is seen in a kind of lyrical haze, obscure, and inaccessible. However, Cyril (Lawrence) develops this visual sex, this "voyeurism", this talking and feeling with the eyes. As Aldington saysj (Lawrence is) tirelessly observant, his eager eyes taking everything in," (PGB 3*f) Sometimes even the "voyeurism" is
- 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 and 36: 25 And about Cyril (himself) he sai
- Page 37: 27 The tall meadow-sweet was in bud
- 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
29<br />
genitals. Certainly Lawrence's puritanic mind could not admit<br />
this explanation, but this is one of the indirect descriptions of<br />
sexual feelings transferred to nature that we find in his first<br />
novel. Flowers, bindweeds, and brambles combined are indications<br />
of Lawrence’s early ideas of sex: they are tangled, twisted, intertwined,<br />
and scattered among the fallen leaves on the soil:<br />
"Under the groves of ashes and oak a pale primrose still<br />
lingered, glimmering wanly beside the hidden water. Emily<br />
found a smear of blood (Cyril and Emily were on the track of<br />
a wounded dog) on a beautiful trail of yellow convolvulus.<br />
We followedthe tracks on to the open, where the brook flowed<br />
on the hard rock bed, and the stony floor of the quarry was<br />
only a tangle of gorse and bramble and honeysuckle."(TWP 8*+)<br />
And unlike Mellors in Lady Chatterlev’s Lover, who adorns Connie’s<br />
navel and vagina with flowers, Cyril makes a garland for Emily:<br />
"I plucked a few bunches of guelder-rose fruits, transparent,<br />
ruby berries."<br />
•eft<br />
"She thrust the stalks of the berries under her combs. Then,<br />
with the ruby bunches glowing through the black mist of<br />
curls, she looked up at me, brightly, with wide eyes. I<br />
looked at her, and felt the smile winning into her eyes.<br />
Then I turned and dragged a trail of golden-leaved convolvulus<br />
from the hedge, and I twisted it into a coronet for<br />
her.“(TWP 85)<br />
The young couple is still immature and virginal and sex for them,<br />
as well as for Lawrence, is seen in a kind of lyrical haze, obscure,<br />
and inaccessible.<br />
However, Cyril (Lawrence) develops this visual sex, this<br />
"voyeurism", this talking and feeling with the eyes. As Aldington<br />
saysj<br />
(Lawrence is) tirelessly observant, his eager eyes<br />
taking everything in," (PGB 3*f) Sometimes even the "voyeurism" is
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