T H E S I S

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man to be capable of a tender sexuality e; He is really the keeper
of the ’phallic mystery”.
Connie says he is the only different
and true man in the world because of his tenderness;
,r 1 Shall I tell you?' she said, looking into his face,
•Shall I tell you what you have that other men don't have,
and that will make the future? Shall I tell you?'
'Tell me then', he replied8
'It’s the courage of your own tenderness, that's what it
iss like when you put your hand on ray tail and say I've
got a pretty tail*»” (LCL 290)
Biis is ’phallic tenderness”.
Lawrence feels it necessary
now, but his early idea of the ’primitive” man was a bit different*
On page 20 of this thesis, we have seen Lettie
scold
George, (”you primitive man”), because he looked only at a woman
*s physical features. At the same time Lawrence the puritan
scolded Jessie Chambers because she only ”felt” and did not
"think”, as I have shown on page 36.
Vfhat Lawrence was denouncing
in George (and Jessie) is now a characteristic virtue in his
symbolic Mellors.
Since Mellors stands so much for Lawrence, his residual
puritanism is also evident in the character. Mellors is tender
because he tenderly observes Connie's external features and most
of all her tail. Here lies Lawrence's difficulty in reconciling
his puritan morality with a healthy sexuality entirely based on
the bocjy's life. A real puritan (ingrained) would not admit the
supremacy of the body and sex over the mind.1
So Lawrence is
both more anti-puritanical and more rigidly moral in LCL. "Mental
consciousness” has to be replaced by "phallic consciousness”.
Both Annable and Mellors, despite their he-man image, despise
"brutish activity” and are in retreat from masculine women