RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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terms of a new kind of love, but wants to repeat what Helena has
lived with her dead lover. Byrne says "'History repeats itself'"
(p.212).
This certainly implies the return of the mother
goddess myth.
The new son is born a year after the death of
the mother/Helena's son/lover personified as Siegmund. The idea
of the 'femme fatale' who wins over the weak male does not end
here, for the story suggests a continuation of the past
experience.
The past is still present, as a dream, in Helena's mind.
She has on her arm an inflammation caused by the sun. What is
surprising is that this sun-burn is not new: it has persisted
since the holiday with Siegmund. She projects her mental
suffering to her arm to keep Siegmund's memory alive in her.
Cecyl Byrne, as a potential Siegmund, is near her to try to heal
her. (Cecyl is like the author himself because Lawrence has
tried to help his friend Helen Corke after the death of her lover,
a married man who killed himself after a frustrated holiday on
an island). The question now is whether Byrne is strong enough
to help Helena overcome the past or whether he will really submit
to her.
Helena's type of woman — the soulful dreaming woman or the
'femme fatale' — recurs in Lawrence's early novels.
The most
important point about this kind of heroine is that she lives by
her mind and because of this she destroys weak males who are
unable to compete with her. These men, dependent as they are,
are swallowed by the fatal female. Siegmund, this victim of
Lawrence's early style, foreshadows Paul Morel exactly because
of his extreme dependence on a strong woman. Another important
aspect of this early phase is that love is the semi-liberated
sort: the couple is ostensibly 'free', and both suffer from