RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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right1" (p.176). This certainly implies his suicide. Helena feels
powerless — "Siegmund was beyond her grasp". And she, too,
implies her death:
I won't live a day after you'"(p.177).
They separate once more, this time forever. Helena goes to
Cornwall,, the land of Tristan and Isolde.
And this association
is very meaningful since there are several passages in the book
in which these two lovers are mentioned at the background of
Siegmund and Helena's love affair. The only difference is that in
the Tristan and Isolde story both die, and in this novel of
forbidden love, only Siegmund seeks death.
Back home Siegmund feels ill; his thirst for sleep is an
anticipation of his death. His brain seems to work like a
machine out of control. His agony is described in terms of
pleasure and pain:
It seemed to him as if he ought to have endured
the heat of his body, and the infernal trickling
of the drops of sweat. But at the thought of it
he moved his hands gratefully over his sides,
which now were dry, and soft, and smooth;slightly
chilled on the surface perhaps, for he felt a
sudden tremor of shivering from the warm contact
of his hands (p.183)
That night there is a mixture of lightning and moonlight.
Siegmund likes the cool night, but the moon is defeated by the
coming of the sun and becomes "a dead mouse which floats on
water" (p.184). This may imply Siegmund's death at the return of
a punishing reality. He thinks deliriously about Helena. She has
castrated him and as he cannot feel released from her, he comes
to think about death as if it were impossible to make a
decision.
He recalls the saying. "'If thine hand offend thee,
cut it off.'
He could cut himself off from life. It was plain
and straight forward" (p.185).
This is self-castration, as a
complement to what Helena has caused him.
Yet, he is not ready