RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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Helena's sharpness, and will-to-destruction, to the male's
annihilation, quite like Ursula in The Rainbow.
There is also
in this quoted passage the will-to-death which may be an
anticipation of Siegmund's suicide.
Helena, later on, draws
him on to death.
Her sense of superiority is even greater than one might
think.
Observe, for example, the following passage in which the
couple sees some ships:
'That is a schooner. You see her four sails,
and -'
He continued to classify the shipping, until
he was interrupted by the wicked laughter of
Helena.
'That is right, I am sure,' he protested.
'I won’t contradict you,' she laughed, in a
tone which showed him he knew even less of the
classifying of the ships than she did (pp.46-7).
She does not trust his knowledge and she does nothing to conceal
her mockery of him.
Siegmund is utterly ignorant of why she
laughs: "'So you have lain there amusing yourself at my expense
all the time?1 he said, not knowing in the least why she laughed"
(p.47) .
Sexual intercourse in this early novel is expressed almost
completely Hi^ough symbols.
Lawrence seems to feel not able yet
to present ;t as he does in Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women
in Love, etc. In Thei Trespasser, sex is visualized not through
the act, but through a set of images.
The imagery of the sea,
cliffs, rocks, foam, etc., stands for Siegmund and Helena having
sex.
Take the allegory of the following passage:
When they rounded the first point, they found
themselves in a small bay jutted out to sea; in
front of the headland was, as usual, grooved.
This bay was pure white at the base... With the
huge concave of the cliff behind, the foothold
of massed white boulders, at the immense arc of
the sea in front, Helena was delighted.