RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

287
He crept back to bed, but felt as if the top of
his head were coming off. He could not sleep.
He could not keep still. He rose, quietly
dressed himself, and crept out on to the landing
once more...
Then he put on his boots and his overcoat and
took the gun. He did not think to go away from
the farm. No, he only took the gun... He went
stealthily away down a fence-side, looking for
something to shoot (pp.120-1 - My underlining).
This 'something to shoot' is his hidden wish to kill Banford. As
he cannot shoot her now, this desire will be released by his
shooting of an animal.
And at this point of the story comes the
killing of the fox.
The scene is very strange for me because
how is Henry going to kill the animal if it represents himself?
The only possible interpretation I could find is that by killing
the animal, Henry becomes able to assimilate it.
And because
Henry has assimilated the fox, there is no reason for the animal
to exist anymore. It is living in Henry. He is the fox now.
Also the fox represents March's renounced, slain masculinity.
Thus she does not need to be divided in the attraction between
the animal and the young man.
She has always identified the
animal with the man and, as they have become one, her attraction
will be directed to Henry who is now the animal.
In the scene which precedes the killing of the animal,
there is a suggestion that, even before shooting it, Henry's
behaviour is fused with the animal's (and we have already seen
this several times).
All Henry's does relates to the senses,
especially to smell which is characteristic of animals:
[Henry] sat a long time with his eyes fixed
unchanging upon the gateway... he stood up,
watching with all his eyes, thinking it might be
a rat. But he felt he could smell the hot,
sickly, rich smell of live chickens in the cold
air
Ȧnd then - a shadow. A sliding shadow in the
gateway (whose shadow? Henry's or the fox's?).
He gathered all his vision into a concentrated