RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

108
Siegmund does not know that it is his turn to 'predominate': he
"as usual, submitted to her".
This looks much more like a game
of words which does not fit the action itself.
To further
complicate the understanding, the author adds: "Helena's pride
battled with her new subjugation to Siegmund". Who is submitting
to whom? Helena wants to submit but directs the action;
Siegmund is to 'predominate' but he submits to Helena and,
finally, Helena's conflict over her 'submission' does not help
to clarify this set of confused statements.
I said that Helena resembles Miriam and the following
statement makes their resemblance clear: "[Helena] wanted to
sacrifice to him, make herself a burning altar to him, and she
wanted to possess him" (p.56).
In Miriam's case, the idea is
the same: "[Miriam] was to be a sacrifice.
But it was God's
sacrifice, not Paul Morel's or her own" (p.212).
It is in this mood of self-sacrifice that Helena accepts
love-making with Siegmund.
This night she offers herself to the
sacrifice and "It restored him in the full 'will to live'.
she felt it destroyed her. Her soul seemed blasted" (p.56).
But
On
the following morning she 'cileans' herself in the cool water of
the sea, and "Nothing, she felt, had ever been so delightful as
this cool water running over her" (ibid).
Miriam also offers
herself in the sacrifice of love-making so as to keep Paul Morel
with her:
Yes, she would let him have her if he insisted,
and then, when she thought of it afterwards, her
heart went down... He said that possession was a
great moment in life. All strong emotions
concentrated there. Perhaps it was so. There was
something divine in it; then she would submit,
religiously, to the sacrifice... And at the
thought her whole body clenched itself involuntarily,
hard, as if against something; but Life forced her
through this gate of suffering, too, and she would
submit (p.347).