Discussion #3: Themes in Lady Chatterley's Lover

[Alisa Cooper]

Last week we started the discussion of themes in Lady Chatterley's Lover. This week we will continue this discussion now that you have had a chance to finish the novel. What themes do you see in the novel? Do you recognize the themes mentioned in the handout? Add your thoughts and add your own themes discovered.

Themes:

• Love and Relationships between Men and Women,
• Rebirth/Renewal
• Industrialization

[Hana Izuka]

Like i said in my blog, I really see the theme of rebirth/renewal and degeneration. Connie and Clifford are in one relationship that branches off into two, or you could say even more, branches. For Connie, her affair with Michaelis, feeling of a need, emotions of seeing Mrs. Flint's baby, and finally, her relationship with Mellors shows how she is renewed. With Clifford, she didn't see much reason to change, to do something because he gave her no reason to. Seeing the child, she wanted one. Seeing Mellors, she wanted HIS child. In this way, she grew.
Clifford, on the other hand, saw Connie as submissive, but not entirely submissive, so he was at a standstill. Yet, when he saw how Mrs. Bolston could be so submissive, he enjoyed it and turned into a sniveling child, growing backwards as one would say.

[Jacquie Kemper]

Hana,

I agree with you. You can not really say it is a theme of Rebirth and Renewal without adding degeneration. Rebirth and Renewal does not cover the depth of the story.

Clifford's process is one of clear degeneration. He really did "grow backwards" as you wrote. His relationship with Mrs. Bolton became perverse and very childlike. His mental faculties were leaving him quickly.

Connie, on the other hand, I didn't really see degeneration from. Although, I thought it was very sad that she had to live with someone she had no feelings for while she waited for Oliver's divorce. How is that different than living with Clifford? The story did not divulge what her life was like after she left Wragby Hall so we do not know that side of story. We can only speculate.

[Julie]

Jacquie,

If I were to speculate on how her life may differ if she were to join with Mellors, I would guess that we would see a growth from her whether it was from degeneration or her unrealized potential. Some clues that hinted this to me was Connie made the effort to be with Mellors. She didn't do that for her other bed mate, plus she set Mellors up to meet with her father and sister. I think if she was having a fling with some one she didn't care about she wouldn't've gone that far. She may have been using sex as an escape from her unhappiness at first, but it seems that it eventually became something that Mellors and Connie bonded over. It meant more than just the fun and the pleasure of it. Connie had matured by the end of the story, and even though she's still a free spirit, she's a free spirit with a "real man" by her side, and I think that was what she needed to find fulfillment all along.

[Jake Lough]

I agree with your comment on how Connie grew threw out her relationship with Mellor’s. I feel Connie died in ways and was reborn in many ways in this story. Her character started out as these free spirted young women with the world at her finger tips. This changed when she Married Clifford. She seems to become a servant in her prison of a life. Clifford was not very tentative to her needs considering he couldn’t see past his own disabilities and this brought depression and the death of her spirit. Mellor was Connie’s rebirth of life, love, and a future.

[Renee Stein]

you bring up a good point Jake. I didn't see that at all. Mellor was definitely Connie's rebirth. And Clifford was Connie's death. Clifford also did seem to grow younger.

[Jacquie Kemper]

I didn't see this either before. This is a very astute observation. I would not have put the death, rebirth and renewal labels on Connie’s emotional death with Clifford but that is exactly what it is. Thanks, Jake, for sharing your intuitiveness.

[Caitlin]

You are exactly right, I also noticed this. Connie was so full of life and strong, smart and up beat. At the beginning it says Constance position was, "We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen." Also she says that one must live and learn. So when once she begins to go through depression about her life and her body, it is as if she were dead. She then meets Michaelis starts to feel better about herself and turn things around. Then we see that end and we see her die out again. Mellor comes into the picture now and once again we see rebirth and renewal. There is really a lot of up and down emotions about love and life that people experience all the time. It was interesting to relate to the feeling of no hope and then have someone light that spark.

[Kathy Montoya]

You surprised me by adding degeneration. I really let it slip by me the relation between Clifford's mental decline and degeneration. How about Clifford's father? His mental state was so unstable, he kept his kids in isolation at Wragby Hall. I completely agree with you that Connie's affairs were a renewal for her. D. H. Lawrence really made me happy when he brought Connie out of her despair and gave her hope for a wonderful new life.

[Jacquie Kemper]

The Industrialization Theme is relevant, however, not the strongest theme in the story. Lawrence made many references to England’s industrialization. He wrote of Old England disappearing and being replaced by this fully mechanized and industrialized new England. He seemed resolved to it’s coming, that this process was not worth fighting as there was nothing there to fight, just something to succumb to. Interestingly enough, at least to me, is this story was written in a present day format. He is not writing about something that may happen, or has already happened but is happening when the book was written. His feelings were relevant for the time. It made it all the more real, all the more interesting.

When I researched the industrial age of England, my findings suggested that by the 1920’s, England’s industrial age had all but finished. This was something coming to an end, not something coming of age. It makes how strongly Lawrence felt about what happened in England all the more significant. What was next for England? Is the process of replacing the mines with more efficient equipment and revamping the process to include new inventions and ideas only the beginning of the next phase or the end of this phase?

Connie’s journey in the book had many parallels to the processes that England itself was going through. She was once full of life and optimistic, then completely submerged in despair, resolving herself to a life devoid of feeling, society and love. Later, after she falls in love with Mellor’s she turns much more optimistic. As though nothing will ever be the same but it will be better, even if it means leaving the things she knows behind her.

Lawrence wrote about England striving towards a new way of providing energy and the process the mine owners went through, searching out the technology being used by other mines that were already doing what they wanted to accomplish. I found myself wondering what became of the mines that didn’t find the answers. How many mines were closed because they could not pay for the ideas, or new equipment? How many jobs were lost in the process? My research did not uncover these answers.

[Ruth]

I think you make a fine point, and i agree, Connie does parallels England during that time period, and it makes perfect sense why the book ended the way it did. We are left with no clear answer of the future of Connie and Mellors and the baby that it about to born. Just like there was no clear answer to the future of England during that time period. And the unborn baby to me represents hope of something good and happy to come even when there was an unclear or uncertain future.

[Julie]

There seemed to be a theme of duality throughout the book of the desolation of life without love, and the need of life experienced with true love. Lawrence depicted well Connie's feelings of depression and self doubt she experienced as a result of her life with Clifford not being what she'd thought it would. After the honeymoon phase, when Clifford began to show his real personality of self-righteous love and haughtiness, we saw Connie's switch from a lively, optimistic soul to hopelessness and a strong desire to escape. Lawrence mentions that she becomes down on her appearance, thinking that she is aging and becoming ugly. That passage was symbolic of how her outlook on life was becoming, like everything was getting worn out and undesirable. I think this would have happened whether Clifford's paralysis occurred or not. They were incompatible in love, and this becomes really evident when she meets Mellors. When they begin to interact with one another, we see Connie start reversing back to her real self. Her confidence is renewed, due to Mellor's gestures of love, re-kindle her view of her body, and symbolically of her world view. After finding this true love with Mellors we see Connie have a vigor of life like never before. This ties in with the renewal, she was a happy, young girl before, yet unfulfilled. She goes through some what of a "death" period with her entrapping relationship with Clifford, afterwords she rises and becomes a woman.

[Renee Stein]

Towards the end of the book I saw more of the industrialization theme. But the novel as a whole I saw the theme of love and relationships between men and women over and over again. I also think there is a major theme of self exploration. Connie's internal struggle is a sign of self exploration. But her relationships with Mellors is also self exploration.