RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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graceful young man's, piqued him. Her dark eyes
made something rise in his soul, with a curious
elate excitement, when he looked into them, an
excitement he was afraid to let be seen, it was
so keen, and secret. And then her odd, shrewd
speech made him laugh outright. He felt he must
go further, he was inevitably impelled (ibid).
Then the reader is caught up by the cold intentions of this
youth who (though he looks like a boy) seems much more
experienced than the two girls of thirty: he wants the farm
which belonged to his grandfather, and to get it back, he simply
decides he will marry March.
He does not consider feelings,
love, anything. But why does he choose March? I believe that
this is because he may have realized her weakness, her doublesided
personality; whereas Banford, though delicate, is stronger
than March and she does not look like one who is in conflict
with herself.
She is not divided.
Also it could be said that Henry's choice of March means a
kind of challenge for him.
The way he decides he must have this
manly woman may imply that for Henry to become a man he must go
through the ordeal of killing the masculine side of this woman.
Destroying her masculinity, he will be fully completed and
initiated in life (or he may also be killing the female side of
himself).
And the fact that she is older than he does not seem
to matter:
Why not marry March? He stood still in the middle
of the field for some moments, the dead rabbit
hanging still in his hand, arrested by this
thought. His mind waited in amazement - it
seemed to calculate - and then he smiled curiously
to himself in acquiescence^ Why not? Why not
indeed? It was a good idea. What if it was
ridiculous? What.did it matter? What if she was
older than he? It did not matter. When he
thought of the dark, startled vulnerable eyes
he smiled subtly to himself. He was older than
she. He was master of her (pp.103-4 - My
underlining).