RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

Ill
the moon:"Rocked thus on his strength, she swooned lightly into
unconsciousness" (ibid). When Helena comes to herself she says
she has "'been beyond life. I have been a little way into death!'".
What is strange is that she does not direct this to the man under
her, but to her own soul which may imply that Helena has once
again rejected the real presence of Siegmund to play with her own
selfish dreaming mind.
The presence of the moon, as always in
Lawrence's works, is a symbol for the domineering female.
That
may be why Helena becomes aware that "she must be slowly
weighing down the life of Siegmund" (ibid).
This moment seems
to make the man go insane, for he is aware of her possession and
domination of him: "some other consciousness inside him
murmured: 1Hawwa-Eve-Mother!'" (p.74).
Now Lawrence states that
Helena "tall and pale, drooping with the strength of her
compassion, seemed stable, immortal, not a fragile human being,
but a personification of the great motherhood of women" (ibid).
This statement places Helena among the almighty goddesses who
are the Magna Maters.
Here the contrast between Helena and Mrs
Morel is severely traced: Mrs Morel is really an earthly
creature. Helena is not. She is beyond human defects. That is
why she exerts such a powerful influence over the dependent child
that Siegmund proclaims himself to be.
In his own words: "'I am
her child too'".
Siegmund accepts his inferiority towards the
mother-goddess Helena.
In presenting this idea Lawrence indeed
differs from his later novels, especially Sons and Lovers,because
later protagonists are not like this foolish baby.
Siegmund is
not at all criticized. He is no hero. He is more of a victim
of Lawrence's immature and uncritical early style.
In trying to return home after the love scene under the
moonlight, the couple loses the trail.
Helena does not really
care about being lost.
She does not lose control over herself.