RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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want to wash it off. He turns to the mirror to admire the
'splendour' of his almost forty years. Siegmund feels as if
he were a boy of twenty: "'What can I do? It seems to me a man
needs a mother all his life. I don't feel much a lord of
creation'" (p.159). When he thinks about men and women Siegmund
is again reminiscent of Paul Morel. Paul says that
A good many of the nicest men he knew were like
himself, bound in by their own virginity, which
they could not break out of. They were so sensitive
to their women that they would go without them
for ever rather than do them a hurt, an injustice.
Being the sons of mothers whose husbands have
blundered rather brutally through their feminine
sanctities, they were themselves too diffident
and shy... for a woman was like their mother,
and they were full of the sense of their mother.
They preferred themselves to suffer the misery
of celibacy, rather than risk the other person
(p.341).
This certainly has its roots in what Siegmund has said: mothers
are needed more than women.
That is why he is 'no lord of
creation'. This idea applies to Helena's nature too. Men, when
they are not sons, are too brutal to women, when they are not
mothers.
They perversely do violence to women's virginity. That
is why Siegmund takes Helena as his mother-goddess.
He is never
able to destroy the virgin in her. He prefers to destroy himself
rather than expose his manhood to the woman,whom he takes for his
mother.
Helena, on the other hand, is welcomed at home by her
parents. She finds everything repulsive. She feels guilty
though her parents do not question her.
Louisa, Helena's best
friend, comes and both go on a midsummer holiday.
When she is
back home again, the friendly atmosphere is the same, but she
feels her father's disapproval.
In her room, Helena looks at
the mirror but, unlike Siegmund, she cannot bear the sight of
her own condemning eyes: "As she stood before the mirror to put