RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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top, Lawrence says that March "would never confess to the fox".
There seems to be a distance between what the author wants the
character to say and what the character herself says.
But
perhaps March has not confessed the truth before because Banford
was also present in the room and now there is only March and
Henry.
March tells Henry what she feels in relation to the fox
(extensive to Henry too):
'Why, one evening last summer when I was out
with the gun I saw the fox in the grass nearly at
my feet, looking straight up at me. I don't know
- I suppose he made an impression on me.' She
turned aside her head again and let one foot stray
loose, self-consciously (ibid).
The fact that March says that the fox has made an impression on
her may imply that she is admitting to herself that she wants
to become a female.
This may also imply her struggle to admit
this conflict in herself in front of a man whom she identifies
with the fox and who makes her feel helpless.
As the
conversation continues Henry's attitudes give us the impression
that they are the same as the fox's. When March observes that
f
the fox seemed to be laughing at her, Henry repeats the fox's
laugh: "'And you thought I was the fox, did you?' he laughed
with the same queer laugh, like a puppy wrinkling his nose"(p.
114). March replies that she did and that "'Perhaps [the fox
had] been in my mind without my knowing"' (ibid).
This is
definitely an assertion that her femaleness is being awakened
due to the fox's presence.
It implies the knowledge of her
femaleness hidden by the strong presence of her masculinity.
Henry starts 'hunting' again and demands from her with his
soft mesmerizing voice, an answer to his proposal.
She refuses
to answer due to her confused mind.
He keeps near her touching