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WAS DH Lawrence a suppressed homosexual, misogynist, hypocrite or simply a reckless writer who derived satisfaction from provoking people out of their conservative cauldrons through his expose’ of somewhat explicit sexual monologue presentations that very few would dare talk about?
Whatever one’s standpoint, it can not be disputed that DH Lawrence is a remarkable writer whose work is pregnant with insightful explorations of the subconscious and conscious, especially as these relate to relationships. Nowhere is DH Lawrence’s prowess in challenging society’s long-held beliefs on relationships and love more explicitly presented than in “Women in Love”, which by his own admission considered his best.
I am yet to come across a writer of DH Lawrence’s calibre who dealt more earnestly and accurately with obsessive emotions that “inspire, inflame and destroy human beings”. In brief, “Women in Love” is a story of two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun, who live and teach in a Midlands, UK colliery town. Ursula falls in love with Rupert Birkin, the school inspector while her sister has an intense affair with his friend Gerald Crich, son of the colliery owner. The conflicts and passions of the young quartet inevitably result in tragedy.
While “Women in Love” touches on various pertinent issues during DH Lawrence’s time, it is the gender is reflected in the novel that makes him a writer beyond his epoch. Gender issues that today have become topical as they refer to a wide range of physical, biological, mental and behavioural characteristics, and differentiating between masculinity and femininity, were pioneered by authors who included DH Lawrence. In modern parlance, the term gender may refer to the state of being male or female or intersex, including social structures, gender identity, assigned gender roles and other social constructs.
The mere presentation of the two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun as the main protagonists was in itself an act of unconventionality as leading roles in art were traditionally assigned to men during DH Lawrence’s time. The turn of the century ushered in a new wave of writings that challenged the conservatism and realism of the Victorian era with a somewhat modernist approach which also came as a result of the transformation from agricultural based society to industrialisation. It is that literary modernist movement that rejected the traditional literary forms and values of Victorian literature that gave birth to such seminal works like DH Lawrence’s “Women in Love”. Right from the onset, the two sisters are captured in a fairly casual but captivating conversation about marriage.
One gets the sense that the sisters’ attitude towards marriage is somewhat indifferent. It is presented as some kind of passage of rites that one has to enter despite it being dreary and “undesirable”.
Thus Gundrun asks Ursula whether she wants to get married whereupon her elder sister answers rather indifferently; “I don’t know.” Rather insistently, Gundrun is of the thinking that marriage will improve the fortunes of Ursula’s life which at the moment seemed uneventful and stagnant.
While the two sisters seem to agree that given their independent lives marriage would be undesirable, there is a sense that they somehow need the experience of having entered into matrimony.
They also question the idea that one must live with one man for the rest of her life, and the idea of bearing children makes them both uneasy. Besides the conversation about marriage, the wedding party at Shortlands also offers a glimpse into how gender roles were structured as women are shown making all manner of etiquette while men stand aloof. This is exemplified in Chapter 2 when the narrator states; “Meanwhile, the men stood in calm little groups, chatting, smoking, pretending to pay no heed to the rustling animation of the women’s world.” The world and demeanour of men is presented as calm while that of women is presented as “crackle animation,” thereby completing a picture of the former being calculative and substantive while the later is shallow and just a bubble. It seems as though while the two sisters Gundrun and Ursula have an indifferent attitude towards marriage, societal expectations puts more emphasis on a women getting married for both security and respect.
The text leaves a lot of room for multiple interpretations regarding the relationship between Birkin and Gerald. It seems the love between the two men is unified by “male homosocial desire”.
“Women become property with which to fill in the sexual (as in the act) gap. In other words, actual structure of gender and class within a society, especially including the role of women and the view of femininity determines the sensitivity of what is considered homosexuality.”
Online Reporter