RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

On the one hand there is Will's desire to destroy the woman in
Anna and be the master of the home.
Anna, on the other, dreads
this in her man and "wanted to desert him, to leave him a prey
to the open, with the unclean dogs of the darkness setting on to
devour him" (p.170).
She cannot bear to depend on Will and, as
she is stronger, she gradually destroys his beliefs.
She cannot
give in to him.
I believe that the main point in their conflict
refers to a deep lack of respect in both husband and wife.
They
do not respect each other.
Furthermore, Will lets Anna disrespect
him because his personality is unripe and the woman he has
married has been self-sufficient since she was a little child.
For her it is enough that she loves him.
Hence, Anna starts to
tease him.
Will lets Anna destroy the man as subject,
transforming him into a mere object.
Will's destruction seems to start when Anna tells him that
his Eve is a mere doll in the hands of his Adam and that she,
Anna, will not be like the Eve.
The result of this is that Will
feels deceived and destroys his unfinished carving: but this
only proves that Will himself is an unfinished creature.
The second and crucial moment of Will's defeat happens
when Anna, pregnant, dances naked in front of him as a way to
assert her right to independence.
She as a woman does not need
to be guided by any man to reach God.
She can touch God by
herself.
And she decides to dance before the unknown to prove
to herself and to her weak husband her right to freedom:
Suddenly she had realized that this was what she
wanted to do. Big with child as she was, she danced
there in the bedroom by herself, lifting her hands
and her body to the Unseen, to the unseen Creator
who had chosen her, to whom she belonged (p.183).
Will, at this moment, is no master, no giant.
He, in her eyes,