RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

563:
realizes that she is more accessible than is Banford.
On the
other hand, we also know that the author's sympathy is somehow
confused because at the same time that he wants to make March
become submissive to Henry, he also makes March question
whether she wants to be dominated or not.
The whole story of "The Fox" traces the development of
Henry's fierce desire to annul March and to make her become a
mere object of his male power. The good side of Henry's struggle
is in that he, as the living embodiement of the male fox,
awakens in March her femaleness. He also "kills" her masculine
side when he destroys Banford.
In the development of the story
we also see some transformations in the character of Henry. This
fact comes through the kind of treatment the author gives him:
at first he is seen like a little boy, a soldier, a young man
socially powerless.
Then this treatment is transformed in terms
of his qualification as a dangerous 'hunter' without feelings.
This transformation shows him as an opportunistic man taking
advantage of cl woman who has, because of him, a terrible crisis
of identity.
And here lies the most negative aspect of his
intention, which is that he is not aware that March is a delicate
female being just awakened, and that while he frees her from her
masculinity, he also frees her desire for independence.
This
yearning in March he does not want because as a man he will not
allow her to fight for independence: in so doing, March will
certainly fight him off because in this sense Henry is a kind of
prison.
He does not want her to think; he only wants her to live
with blind eyes to the world, only following the direction of his
commands.
Even her sexuality he, like Cipriano, wants to deny.
Sexual pleasure is only for the male, the almighty owner of the
female.
March, however, in discovering her female side, realizes