Relationships in Women in Love Novel - Term Paper Example

Relationships in Women in Love The novel Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence is a novel about the relationships that people have with each other. It is not a simple relationship story, however, as it probes the depths of the ways the men and women relate to each other and to themselves: “The action of the novel consists of but little more than the fluctuations, the advances, the retreats, the alacritous surrenders, the agonized revulsions, the alternate and simultaneous orgasmic loving and murderous hating through which these two women come finally to their unions” (Myers 89). The novel focuses on the Brangwen sisters, Ursula and Gudrun, who meet and have relationships with Rupert Birkin and Gerald Crich. Birkin and Crich must also deal with their relationship with each other, as the attraction between the two was considered inappropriate during the time period. These four characters’ relations with each other are contrasted with each other, and by examining them we can learn more about each character and the way that they relate to other people. Gudrun eventually begins a relationship with Gerald Crich. Their relationship ends in tragedy as Crich commits suicide at the end of the novel. Early on in the novel, though, we can see that Gudrun is not a character who believes in longevity: “Nothing materializes! Everything withers in the bud” (8). This line was spoken by Gudrun to Ursula in the opening scene of the book. As they are talking about the possibility of getting married, Gudrun makes this statement. It is obvious that she is not a person who is going to be looking to have a long lasting relationship with another person; she will begin one relationship, and when it begins to bore her, she will simply move onto the next relationship that she feels suitable to her. When asked to explain what was meant, Gudrun responds by saying “Everything--oneself--things in general” (8). This is the kind of attitude that Gudrun is aligning herself with at the beginning of the novel, and it is no wonder that the man that she chose to have a relationship with commits suicide by the end of the novel. The kind of language that Gudrun associates with her relationship is that of death: “She was rarely alone, he pressed upon her like frost, deadening her” (808). Notice at this point Crich is related to frost. As it always frosts before a hard snow falls, and winter is generally associated with death, we can see that Gudrun is feeling that this is the beginning of the death and end of the relationship. As it is now starting to deaden her and she wishes to not be held within the confines of a dead relationship, Gudrun ends her relationship with Crich and begins another with Loerthe, another artist who relates to the artistic side of Gudrun. He is described as a puny, unattractive man, and from Gudrun’s interest in him, we can see that she is more interested in something new , in constant renewal, because she feels that everything will eventually die, and this is including relationships. Crich seems to be the character who is most affected by relationships. As such he can bee seen as the most sensitive character of the four. As Gudrun felt that she was “rarely alone,” we can understand that Crich as a character was the most needy. Whereas Gudrun felt deadened by Crich’s presence, Gudrun’s eventual rejection of Crich became the death of him. This was not the only relationships that Crich was part of in novel, though as we will come back to later, we can see why this was not a relationship that could have saved Crich as well. Ursula, by the end of the novel, ends up marrying Birkin, and we can see how the relationship between these two is sharply contrasted between that of Crich and Gudrun. Birkin shows the attitude of a man who does not consider women to be equal: “And woman is the same as horses; two wills act in opposition inside her. With one will, she wants to subject herself utterly. With the other, she wants to bolt, and pitch her rider to perdition” (250). Obviously a comparison to a horse would not be flattering for any woman. Beyond this, the way that women are descried further shows Birkin’s distaste of women. Instead of thinking that a woman might want to be in a relationship in which she is an equal, Birkin can only think of a woman being absolutely submissive. The absolute only other alternative that Birkin can think of is for a woman to not wish to be in any sort of relationship in order to never be dominated. Considering that Birkin made these statements to Birkin, we can come to understand her as a person that is comfortable being with a person who displays these attitudes. She might have stated that she was a bolter (250), yet that would describe her sister Gudrun and not her. This is not the only statement that Birkin made in regards to his attitudes towards women. Again said directly to Ursula, Birkin states that “I don’t want to see you. I’ve seen plenty of women, I’m sick and weary of seeing them. I want a woman I don’t see” (252). This is the man that Ursula marries. Considering Birkin’s attitude towards women, it is not difficult to make the assumption that there must be some other sort of incentive for him to marry Ursula: “There is the constant use of women characters merely as agents in the growth and career of a man, rather than as individuals in their own right” (Miles 77). This fits with what Birkin plainly says himself, and we can see how possibly Birkin’s statements reflected the author’s attitudes and the way he used women in novels himself. It can be rather difficult to try to determine an author’s attitudes and intentions, so the easier course is to simply examine characters, and Birkin hardly needs to be closely examined in regards to his attitudes towards women. However, there might be more to Birkin’s statements when we consider the relationship between him and Gerald. The novel takes place during a time when homosexual relationships were not considered appropriate. Because of this, the natural feelings that Birkin and Crich had for each other became something that they became ashamed of for reasons that only had to do with societal standards. The relationship between the two is described in very natural, sensual language: “Gerald glanced at him, and saw him, his suave, golden coloured body with the black hair growing fine and freely, like tendrils, and his limbs like smooth plant-stems” (137). He was so healthy and well-made, why did he make one ashamed, why did he feel repelled? Why should Gerald even dislike it, why did it seem to him to detract from his own dignity” (137). In this statement we can see how society has ingrained into him the perceived wrongness of this attraction. There was no physical affront; it was a matter of dignity for him. This is an idea that is developed throughout the book: “And Gerald, watching, saw the amazing attractive goodliness of his eyes, a young, spontaneous goodness that attracted the other man infinitely, yet filled him with bitter chagrin, because he mistrusted it so much” (374). As we can see, Crich is to the point where he cannot even trust his own feelings. Obviously there is something wrong with a society that forces people to mistrust their own feelings. Birkin too must struggle with these kinds of feelings as well: “Birkin is sickened by his obsession with Gerald; he is repulsed by his overwrought, exclusively mental relationship with Hermione” (Oates 37). The desire for physical closeness is obviously frustrating for Birkin as it for the most part goes unsatisfied. He is unable to do anything about his attraction to Crich, and the relationship he had at the beginning of the novel was “exclusively mental.” To an extent we can understand more why Birkin expressed some of the attitudes that he did. The relationships of these characters all inform each other. We cannot simply try to understand one character’s thoughts and actions separately; we must consider the thoughts and actions of all of the character in order to understand why these characters are relating to each other in this way. Works Cited Beynon, (ed) D.H. Lawrence: The Rainbow and Women in Love. Cambridge, Icon Books, 1997. Lawrence, D.H., Women in Love. Oxford University Press, 1998, available from http://books.google.com/books?id=wuHonHZxJ20C&printsec=frontcover Miles, Rosalind, The Female Form: Women Writers and the Conquest of the Novel. Routledge, 1987, available from http://books.google.com/books?id=9U0OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA77&dq=%22women+in+love%22+miles&lr= Myers, Walter L. The Later Realism: A Study of Characterization in the British Novel. Ayer Publishing, 1973, available from http://books.google.com/books?id=eHk09HFRPDUC&pg=PA89&dq=%22women+in+love%22&lr=#PPA90,M1 Oates, Joyce Carol, Lawrence’s Gotterdamerung: The Apocalyptic Vision of Women in Love. Critical Inquiry, 1978, available from http://jco.usfca.edu/womeninlove.html Read More