RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

24
rarely perceived by other critics Who can only see in Ursula's
view of the rainbow a mere symbol of the book's happy ending.
Wornem in Love is, according to Daleski
a novel of war, in what it explores the nature of
the deep seated disease in the body politic of
which war is the ultimate death agony. It is
almost as if Lawrence carries out an autopsy on
the still-breathing form of pre-war society (p.
127).
The connection between the war and the novel helps to explain,
the critic says, the dual motion of the book.
Firstly because
"there is a continuation of the search begun in The Rainbow, for
a lasting relation between the sexes, a search for the 'two in
one'" (ibid).
The second motion Daleski refers to is related to
the couples being "on board a ship which is rapidly heading for
destruction".
One couple, "Birkin and Ursula, clinging to the
life preserver of their own 'unison in separateness', abandon
the ship" (p.128). The other couple, "Gerald and Gudrun, by
trying to destroy each other, symbolically prefigure in
themselves the desire for death of those who do not attempt to
leave the ship" (ibid).
Hermione, Birkin's former lover, represents the rottenness
of 'mental consciousness' of the old world.
Birkin's "breaking
away from her is the first movement in a withdrawal from the
world she represents" (p.139).
In Ursula Birkin searches for a
'love beyond love' represented by the idea of polarity,already
discussed previously in this chapter.* Daleski has the same
opinion as I.
The communion of "star polarity". Which Birkin
wants to have with Ursula does not altogether mean balance.
Ursula interprets it as. Birkin's wish to have the woman as his
'satellite'.
The chapter "Mino" proves that Birkin's theory is
false (see Daleski, pp.173-4).