D.H.LAWRENCE AND HIS WORKS

张艳

【Abstract】D.H.LAWRENCE was one of the most controversial novelists in English literature， he believed the modern civilization corrupted mans emotional life and hungered for the mystical ideal-free flow of the passionate life. So the relationship between two sexes was always the theme in his works. He is quite unique and never spared writing on the scene of sexual intercourse. While we read his novels， there is nothing evil or dirty to be felt， but holy and beautiful， for the sexual love is the symbol of beauty， hope and flames of life.

【Key words】industrialization； society reform； human emotion； relationship between two sexes

D.H.LAWRENCE， one of the most controversial novelists in English literature， was born in the midland mining village of Eastwood， Nottinghamshire. He grew up in a miner family， in which the father usually over drank and cursed everyday expect for working time. Fortunately he owned a better-educated and genteel mother， who fought all her married life to lift her children out of the working class. He became the center of his mothers emotional life and played in his own relation to her a loving and protective role. His mothers claims on him kept frustrating his relationship with girls， which resulted in the theme of his later works.

Lawrence escaped through education from the mining world of his father and completed his education career smoothly. He used to work as a clerk and then a schoolteacher. All this ended up till he met his German wife and went to Germany. He took up as a professional novelist and proser. His first novel， THE WHITE PEACOCK（1910） was received with respect. During his abroad time with his wife， he finished his autobiographical novel SONS AND LOVERS. The World War I broke out， he had to return to his motherland， where his next novel THE RAINBOW（1915） was banned and made him feel that he was not accepted by the authority. As soon as he could leave England after the war he sought refuge in many countries， and finally in Venice， he died of tuberculosis on the 2nd of March， 1930， at the early of 44.

D.H.LAWRENCE was a controversial figure because of his frank treatment of sex and his insistence upon a need for a readjustment in the relationship between two sexes. He believed the modern civilization corrupted mans emotional life and hungered for the mystical ideal-free flow of the passionate life. His language was of great originality for it broke away from convention and highbrow. The simple， everyday language caused no obstacle between the writer and reader. Lawrence was often criticized for the didactic elements in his novels and the looseness in structure. But all above could not deny him being a great writer.

When we try to explore the theme in his novels， we can easily dig out two major ones： his criticism of the industrialized society； seeking for a harmonious relationship between men and women. Strongly influenced by his family background， Lawrence concerned more about the life of lower class workers. In his LADY CHATTERLEYS LOVER， he described the miners and their living condition black， which was the color of death. The workers were victims of industrialization. In this point Lawrence didnt conceal his ideas. He took a hatred attitude towards the modern society. In Chapter I he wrote， “ours is essentially a tragic age， so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened， we are among the ruins， we start to build up new little habitats， to have new little hopes.” This was Connies position and also the writers criticism. Lawrence didnt mean to call on the working class fighting against the capitalist. In his view point， the industrialization led all ranks of the whole society into a tendency of decay and death. The difference was only lied on the forms of various classes. Compared with the lower-class the upper-class as the conqueror seemed to approach closer to collapse. Clifford Chatterley， a noble man with the character of being selfish， artificial， arrogant， greedy and cold， was a representative of the upper class. The lower half of his body was paralyzed forever， which symbolized the lifeless flesh； yet his upper half was still living， which symbolized his mind. He always drove the wheel chair and visited his kingdom， which also had a symbolic meaning： An empty mind combined with a cool machine constituted a monster in industrialized society. On the surface they could conquer the society by the industrial machine， actually they were weak and vacant in their mind. After Lady Chatterley claimed to divorce， Clifford was frustrated totally and put himself into Mrs. Boltons breast crying like a helpless infant， which exposed his hollowness and fragility.

Contrasted with upper class the gamekeeper-Mellows was the “son of nature”， who lived in the wood lonely. Though he was well educated and could speak standard English， he insisted in using the dialects and slang that were popular among miners and refused the fossilized language to show his rebellion against the civilization deliberately. Lawrence gave hints to readers that the Derbyshire dialects were derived from the real life without any decoration， while to so-called upper class language lost the life in modern civilization. When the scene that Connie saw the chickens opened up， Lawrence gradually put forward his idea： Don't be destroyed by society； living close to nature； reducing the level of civilization. As Connie was spiritually afflicted by her husband， she fled as much as possible to the wood. “Now she came everyday to the hens， they were the only things in the world that warmed her heart. Cliffords protestations made her go cold from head to foot.” “She had only one desire now， to go to the clearing in the wood.” To escape from society seemed to be the only way to solve the problems. In the woods her instinct of love was inspired by the lively chicken. She suddenly realized what she wanted was the real life. She needed to love and to be loved. This episode directly caused her first love course with Mellows， who also ended up his hermit life. He had to come out from his cave to face the life and society， fighting against the industrialization， the civilization and the reason. He wanted to put more energy into the human society with his bravery. Connie delivered all herself to him. She needed to be reborn under his help. Its he who led Connie into the real life. There was a dialogue between them two after their intercourse that could unveiled their psychological state.

“And are you sorry？” she said.

“In a way！” he replied， looking up at the sky. “I thought I ‘d done with it all. Now Ive begun again.”

“Begun what？”

“Life.”

“Life！” she re-echoed， with a queer thrill.

“Its life.”He said. “Theres no keeping clear. And if you do keep clear you might almost as well as die. So if Ive go to be broken open again， I have.”

If we took this scene as the germination and beginning of Connies love reborn， then her dancing with nothing on in the rainy night crazily symbolized the maturity of love. The erotic feeling kept burning in their body till the spirit and flesh reached the peak of harmony as if the Gods in heaven played the symphony for them. The heavy rain poured Connie on her mind and brought a new Connie out like a phoenix reborn.

D.H.LAWRENCE didnt see the right way of the society reform. He couldnt understand the development of the industrialization would benefit the new society. So his works impressed up not very optimistically. He put a bright ending only to RAINBOW（1915）. Soon after the World War I broke out， Lawrence insisted the war would smash the existing situation， and change the tendency of human walking death-ward. A new world would come into being after the war in Europe. With this attitude he let the rain bow （symbol of hope） running over the sky. Actually the reality after the war made him very much disappointed. He acknowledged later that the ideal rainbow should not appear so early. Later in his LADY CHATTERLEYS LOVER（1928）， as he rewrote the war， what the war brought was not the “rainbow”but “paralysis”， which was quite near the death. In face， RAINBOW is a novel about psychology of three generations in a family. He described their humanistic and emotional shift from the erotic life to marriage， discovering the spiritual fragility caused by smash of the the traditional life style. Anyway the chief symbol was both indicated in the title and appeared at the end. Its not only the symbol of unity for social being but also integration in the renewed consciousness. It implied the heroine Ursula would be strong in mind over many difficulties and win her happiness.

SONS AND LOVERS（1913） perhaps his most popular novel was often taken to be largely biographical， its subject matter paralleling much of his early life. The theme of SONS AND LOVERS was usually said to concern the effect of mother love upon the development of a son. To put it further， the crippling effects of mothers love on the emotional development of the son caused the split between the kinds of love he developed physical and spiritual. In this book， against a background of paternal coarseness and vitality conflicting with maternal refinement and gentility， he described the demanding mother who had given up the prospect of achieving a true emotional life with her husband and turned to her sons with a stultifying and possessive love. The Oedipus Complex was one of the aspects of his character. Lawrences own experience made him utter a sad sigh. After he grew up he came to feel that he had misjudged his father， whose coarseness represented after all a genuine vitality and some wholeness of personality， even if these qualities were impoverished and distorted by the civilization in which he lived.

WOMEN IN LOVE（1912） was also very popular. It told of two couples searching for ideal emotional life. Lawrence set the theme of struggle between he called will and he called the will of being. The social beings were all left with nothing and equal with shell or “hollow man.” Here he designed an ideal relationship structure between two sexes： star equilibrium. Its a famous theory he put forward， carrying the meaning of each should remain individual yet depend on each other. This was both a combination and independence. Ursula and Birkin tried hard for reaching the goal but still away from it. Another couple， Gudrun and Gerald were in different situation. Gerald was rich but hollow. He was in chase of Gudrun while she gave him up and threw herself into another young man. The strong will control or possess made him die and frozen in Alps valley.

Besides those works， Lawrence also wrote ARONS ROD， KANGAROO， THE PLUMED SERPENT etc. He can not be counted as a flourishing novelist， but he is quite unique and spent all his life crying in human wildness full of passion. Its impossible to ignore such a man who occupies a position appealing for human respect. He never spared writing on the scene of sexual intercourse for “its nothing shameful for human being.” Thats natural enough like eating and sleeping. He believed that the hurt caused by civilization could be recovered under the new relationship between men and women. Its not easy to characterize Lawrence into any group. He was both realistic and modernist（in terms of content）. Also he showed romantic flavor in his work.

Lawrence didnt care about the social reform， what he cared was the human emotion. He looked upon the relation between sexes as the major reason not the result that effected the social development. So the relationship between two sexes was always the theme in his works. Some people called him pornographic writer. Actually as we read his novels， there is nothing evil or dirty to be felt， but holy and beautiful. The sexual love is the symbol of beauty， hope and flames of life. He longed for perfect and humanistic life to let off his anger towards the society. Lawrence is often criticized for the didactic elements in his novels and the looseness in structure. An American critic John Macy used to criticize that his works can be read even from the end. But LADY CHATTERLEYS LOVER is an exception. It has a very strict structure and full of logic. The famous Chinese scholar Zhu Ziqing took LAWRENCE together with E.M.Foster， James Joyce and Aldous Huxley as “the four greatest English writers in 20th century. Anyway， he can be rated as a pioneer of modern novels， exploring hitherto forbidden territory and opening up a new frank approach to life.

References：

[1]SONS AND LOVERS by D.H.LAWRENCE[M].外文出版社，2000.4.

[2]LADY CHATTERLEYS LOVER by D.H.LAWRENCE[M].外文出版社，2000.4.

[3]WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H.LAWRENCE[M].外文出版社，2000.4.

[4]RAINBOW by D.H.LAWRENCE[M].外文出版社，2000.4.