RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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Gudrun and the miners.
On the one hand, there is the idea that
Gerald, as the miners' master, uses them as he likes; on the
other, Gudrun often associates miners with maleness.
One may
conclude that Gerald always deals with people as he deals with
the miners: it is a relation of power and domination which can
be transferred to Gudrun.
There is also the idea that Gudrun
sees in Gerald a sort of bridge between her world and the world
of the senses as represented by the miners: he is the miners'
master and therefore he may also be male enough to fulfil her.
This is the feeling we have after analysing two different but
similar scenes in which Gerald and Gudrun are together.
One
scene happens before and the other after the death of Gerald's
father.
The first scene occurs when Gerald walks with Gudrun
towards her home.
They stop under the bridge where the miners
pass everyday on their way to work.
The scene is described from
Gudrun's point of view.
She starts thinking that it is under
the bridge that "the young colliers stood in darkness with their
sweethearts, in rainy weather" (p.232) and that she also wants
to be with her sweetheart there.
The only difference is that
her 'sweetheart' is no miner, he is the master of the miners and
his kisses, Gudrun thinks, are fine and powerful.
But if
Gerald's kisses are so powerful why does he submit to Gudrun and
"[seem] to pour her into himself, like wine in a cup" (p.323)?
He becomes, like Siegmund in The Trespasser, a container and
Gudrun, like Helena, the 'male' active partner.
a twin-soul of the heroine of this early novel.
Gudrun here is
Gudrun makes
Gerald a mere object of her pleasure.
One may wonder whether
she is under the bridge with the master of the miners or whether
she imagines Gerald being the warm-hearted miner she would like