D. H. Lawrence

1
D. H. Lawrence

• Rachel Tseng, Vivian Lu, Claire Su
• Birdie Chang

2

• D.H.Lawrence is one of the 20th centurys most
  prominent writers. A novelist, playwright, poet
  and artist, his impact on the way we think about
  love, sex, and cultural decay has been very deep.
  His novels and poetry explore the social ills
  created by the Industrial Revolution and the role
  of sexuality in human relationships. The
  dialectic between man and woman is a chief theme
  in Lawrences work.

3
(From 1885 - 1912)

• David Herbert Richards Lawrence was born on
  September 11 1885, in a small house in Victoria
  Street, Eastwood, near Nottingham.

4

• Lawrence's early education was at Greasley
  Beauvale Board School, near Eastwood. (top)
• Won a scholarship to Nottingham High School
• Made few friends, Frieda Weekley, his future wife
  
• Lawrences father was a miner
• Brinsley Colliery - source of the Lawrence family
  income. (bottom)

5
Lawrence and Frieda on their wedding day!

• In January 1911, his first novel, The White
  Peacock was published.
• At the end of 1911, Lawrence became critically
  ill with pneumonia .
• Lawrence in Europe

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Fiction

• The White Peacock (1911)
• The Trespasser (1912)
• Sons and Lovers (1913) - published in Great
  Britain
• The Rainbow (1915)
• Women in Love (1920)- a homosexual relationship
  between William Henry Hocking and Lawrence.
• During his last years Lawrence spent much of
  his time in Italy making only brief visits to
  England, the last in 1926. He died on 2 March
  1930 at Venice in the south of France.

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Fiction

• The White Peacock (1911)
• The Trespasser (1912)
• Sons and Lovers (1913)
• The Rainbow (1915)
• Women in Love (1920)
• The Lost Girl (1920)
• Aaron's Rod (1922)
• Kangaroo (1923)
• The Boy in the Bush (1924)
• St Mawr (1925)
• The Plumed Serpent (Quetzalcoatl) (1926)
• Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928)
• The Escaped Cock (The man who died) (1928/1929)
• The Virgin and the Gipsy (1930)
• Mr Noon part I and part II (1984)

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Short Stories

• The Prussian Officer and other stories (1914)
• England, My England and other stories (1922)
• The Ladybird, The Fox, The Captain's doll (1923)
• Sun (1926)
• Glad Ghosts (1926
• The Woman Who Rode Away and Other Stories (1928)
• Rawdon's Roof (1929)
• Love among the Haystacks and Other Pieces (1930)
• Travel writings
• Twilight in Italy (1916)
• Sea and Sardinia (1921)
• Mornings in Mexico (1927)
• Etruscan Places (1932)

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Plays

• The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd (1914)
• Touch and Go (1920)
• David (1926)
• The Fight for Barbara (1933)
• A Collier's Friday Night (1934)
• The Married Man (1940)
• The Merry-go-round (1941)
• The Complete Plays of D H Lawrence (1965)
• Reference
• http//mss.library.nottingham.ac.uk/dhlbiog-chp1.h
  tml
• http//www.mantex.co.uk/ou/a319/dhl-04.htm

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Summary

• Part I
• It was a winter day, the miners, single,
  trailing and in groups, passed diverging home at
  dusk. A woman, Elizabeth Bates, went out and
  watched the miners as they passed along the
  railway. After a moment her son, John, was called
  back to his house. He was unhappy to follow his
  mother. The mother and son stood at the foot of
  the three steps looking across the bay of lines
  of the miners going home. Suddenly, the engine
  stopped opposite the gate.

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• An old man, Elizabeth Batess father,
  asked a cup of tea from his daughter and talked
  to her about her husbands drunken behavior. She
  felt very bitter. Then, her father left but her
  husband did not come home. At 430 She waited for
  her husband to begin tea in the kitchen. She
  thought her husband probably was drunk and slunk
  past his own door. 445-- She scolded her
  daughter for coming tea late. Her husband didnt
  come home. They sat down to tea and she felt a
  little angry. 540-- She complained of her
  husbands drunk behavior and thought he was drunk
  in the pub. Then, she cleaned the desk. 540-630
  Children played the game and the mother sewed a
  singlet. Her heart burst with anger at their
  father, who caused all three such distresses.
  Then, children went to bed, but their husband
  didnt come home. She was not only angry but
  also fearful.

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• Part 2
• 800 Elizabeth Bates went out and looked
  for her husband. She saw a pub and thought her
  husband maybe was in this pub. But, she didnt
  enter. Then, she went to John Rigleys house but
  he was not at home. His wife went out to look for
  her husband and Elizabeth Bates entered their
  house. When they came, John Rigley told her that
  her husband might have still stayed at the pit.
  Then, John Rigley continued to look for Walter
  and Mrs. Bates went home. At 903 She sat and
  listened the sound from the mine and felt uneasy.

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• 945 Her mother-in-law went to keep Elizabeth
  company. They both felt uneasy. 1030- Matthews
  and Jim carried Walters corpse into the parlor.
  Walters mother and Elizabeth felt so sad. Then,
  Annie woke up and wanted to see her father, but
  her mother didnt want her to go downstairs.
  After the colliers left, they stripped his
  clothes and washed his dead boy. When they
  touched his body, they had different feelings.
  His mother felt the lie was given to her womb
  the wife felt the utter isolation of the human
  soul, the child within her was weight apart from
  her. At last it was finished. They put clothes on
  him and locked the parlors door. Then, she
  realized something and felt peaceful. Her
  responsibility now is to her children.

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Characters

• Elizabeth Bates
• -a Housewife, a tall woman of imperious mien
• -a handsome woman with definite black eyebrows
  
• -a serious mother. (She doesnt allow her son
  to go down at wet brook.)
• -a pregnant woman. (She is five or six months
  pregnant.)
• -mother love. (She loves her children.)
• -serene/calm (When she faces her husbands
  corpse, she keeps from weeping.)
• -pertinacious (She thinks her husband may just
  stay in a pub, but she refuses to enter.)
• -genteel (She is better educated than her
  husband.)
• -neat (When a man knocks off a vase, she picks
  up the broken vase and the flowers quickly)

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• Walter
• -Elizabeth Batess husband who likes drinking
  
• -a miner
• -a man of handsome body (He is blond,
  full-fleshed, with fine limbs.)
• -a dead body now, half naked, all grimed with
  coal-dust

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• John
• -Elizabeth Batess son
• -a small, sturdy boy of five
• -with silence and pertinacity (like his mother)
• -indifference to all but himself (like his
  father)
• (When he is sullenly struggling with the wood,
  her mother sees his personality from herself and
  his father.)

17

• Annie
• -Elizabeth Batess daughter
• -a solicitous daughter (She shows great
  solicitude about her father.)
• -a naïve girl. (She likes odor of chrysanthemum
  and thinks fire is beautiful.)

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• Elizabeth Batess father
• - the engine-driver
• - a short man with round gray beard
• Elizabeth Batess mother-in-law
• an elderly woman about sixty years old (She has
  wrinkles all of her face.)
• loves her son, Walter, as most of mothers do.
• Jealous toward Elizabeth, her daughter-in-law
• Jack Rigley
• - a miner
• - Elizabeth Batess neighbor
• - a big man (He is with very large bones and
  his head looks particularly bony.)
• has a blue scar (The scar is across his temple,
  caused by a wound gets in the pit.)
• uneducated (known from his conversation.)

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• Mrs. Rigley
• a housewife who is Jack Rigleys wife
• the raw-boned woman, with many children and has
  happy family
• has many children and has happy family (It is
  from the shoes on the doorway
• uneducated (It is from her conversation.)
• Matthews
• - the manager of the pit
• - a short, white bearded man
• - carries Walters corpse
• Jim
• a miner
• carries Walters corpse

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Human Relationship

• 1. Elizabeth isolated herself from Walter.
• -She was dissatisfied with her marriage. She
  kept judging her husbands indifference to all
  but himself as a drunkard since their wedding
  ceremony. (2321)
• what a fool Ive been, what a fool! And this
  is what I came here for, to this dirty hole, rats
  and all, for him to slink past his very door.
  (2321)
• what a separate stranger he was to her.Each
  time he had taken her, they had been two isolated
  beings, far apart as now (2329)
• She saw this episode of her life closed. They
  had denied each other in life. (2330)

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• --Elizabeth and Walter never tried to comprehend
  each other caused the failure of their marriage
  (2329).
• she had never seen him, he had never
  seen her, they had met in the dark.Whereas he
  was apart all the while, living as she never
  lived, feeling as she never felt. (line 6)
• She had denied him what he was- And
  this had been her life, and his life. (line 4)
• She was a mother- but how awful she knew
  it now to have been a wife.how awful he must
  have felt it to be a husband. (line 6)

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• 2. Elizabeth vs. her Mother-in-law
• Elizabeth and Walter's mother are alike in
  their relationship with their children. They
  reveal mother love and bring great strange
  emotions when touching Walters dead body.
  For example, the mother-in-law keeps crying, but
  feeling the lie was given to her womb. By
  comparison, Elizabeth feels the utter isolation
  of the human soul, the child within her is a
  weight apart from her (2328). She is
  emotionally strong, not only protecting John and
  Annie, but trying to calm her mother-in-law as
  now Walter is dead. (2322, 2326)

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• However, though the children did not unite she
  and Walter, they are my business, as she said.
  At last, only the children belonged to life,
  this dead man had nothing to do with them. He
  and she were only channels through which life had
  flowed to issue in the children. (2399 line 5)

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(3) Elizabeth revealed her alienation in human
relationship.

• Elizabeth vs. her father
• -She didnt expect her fathers care and help.
  (2318)
• Elizabeth vs. her husband
• -She never would go into Prince of Wales,
  although she knew her husband might be there.
  (2322)
• Elizabeth vs. her husbands co-worker
• -She wouldnt think of brothering Mr. Rigley
  to look for husband. (2323)

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Thematic Analysis

• Elizabeths awakening after her husbands death
  She realizes the failure of her marriage and
  starts to think about her identity.
• -- p. 2329, para. 3, L 8, L10, L15
• -- p. 2329, para. 4, L 7
• For Elizabeth, death helps her to see the truth
  of the failed marriage.

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• Chrysanthemums in Elizabeths mind
• 1. Chrysanthemums and her attitude towards them
  
• --p. 2318, L1 from the top
• --p. 2327, L3 from the top
• 2. The times chrysanthemums appear bring
  Elizabeth some good and bad memories
• -- p.2321, L3 from the top
• -- p.2326, para.8, L3