RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

291
she looked at her right hand, that had passed
down his belly and along his tail, and had even
got a tiny streak of blood from one dark place
in his fur (ibid - My underlining).
The fact that she has got a tiny streak of blood in her hand
implies the loss of her virginity and also her entry into the
female world of sensual unrepressed feelings.
She is becoming
initiated as a woman, as a female.
Another image brought out by the fox's fur leads one to
think that March's life at Henry's side is not going to be an
ideal one: "Later in the day she saw the fox's skin nailed flat
on a board, as if crucified.
It gave her an uneasy feeling"
(ibid - My underlining).
The word 'crucified' here implies
sacrifice.
That is how her life with Henry will perhaps be.
That is why she feels uneasy when seeing it.
Also her uneasy
feeling implies the possibility of her relation with Henry be
a sado-masochistic one.
Henry of course seems to be the sadist.
March's complete entry into the female world occurs when
she changes her manly clothes and starts wearing woman's
conventional clothes.
She blossoms as a female when she sews a
dress for herself.
Henry is caught up with sensual thoughts about March.
Notice that this is the first time he thinks sensually about her.
Before he was 'piqued' by her figure 'like a young man' (latent
homosexuality in Henry?).
Now Henry wants to discover her
woman's breasts under her manly clothes.
There is an interesting
contrast Henry makes concerning March and Banford:
It seemed to him like some perilous secret, that
[March's] soft woman's breasts must be buttoned
up in that uniform. It seemed to him, moreover,
that they were so much softer, tenderer, more
lovely and lovable, shut up in that tunic, than
were Banford's breasts under her soft blouses