RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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time she walked in a confused heat of religious yearning.
She
wanted Jesus to love her deliciously, to take her sensuous
offering, to give her sensuous response" (p.287).
Jesus cannot come to fulfil her needs.
Thus Anton
Skrebensky appears in her life, introduced by the hands of
Ursula's corrupt uncle Tom.
I believe that here there is a sense of irony in Ursula
and Skrebensky's meeting.
Lawrence may not have had the
intention.to be ironical, however, if we make some connections
with Ursula's deep desire to be a 'daughter of men' who is
chosen by a 'son of God', this idea becomes quite clear.
The
'son of God' she wants is to come out of 'Eternity' and the man
she meets comes from the 'army' which, I think, is far from
'heaven'.
The man she wants is a spiritual being and the one
she meets is an Engineer, supposed to have 'brains' who actually
has more flesh than 'brains'.
Skrebensky only 'seems' to be
what Ursula wants but Lawrence himself diminishes his 'being' by
saying:
[Skrebensky] seemed simply acquiescent in the
fact of his own being as if he were beyond any
change or question. He was himself. There was a
sense of fatality about him that fascinated
TUrsula]. He made no effort to prove himself to
other people. Let it be accepted for what he was,
his own being. In its isolation it made no
excuse or explanation for itself (p.291 - My
underlining).
It seems to me that Lawrence in fact does not define clearly
What Skrebensky is.
The author leaves his final meaning
suspended for our discovery.
He rather says what the man is not.
Ursula is the one who creates a sense of fatality in observing
him.
She has decided — .quite early — that Skrebensky is the
'son of God' she was expecting: