RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

28
his attachment to Mrs Morel.
Pritchard's interpretation of Paul's rejection of Miriam
is similar to mine.
He says that the reason behind the rejection
"is not simply because [Paul] is possessed by his mother but
because, having come close to incest, he feels that Miriam, as
his mother's representative, must be purged of sexuality" (p.41).
In relation to Women in Love, Pritchard explains Birkin's
postulation of two rivers of existence and, according to him,
the 'silver river of life' may be seen as the 'seminal flow'
whereas the 'black river of dissolution' is the 'excremental
flow'.
The critic concludes his idea of the two rivers by saying
that
Ursula and the conventional idealists accept only
'normal' sexuality, while Birkin demands the
acceptance of the entire bodily process, particularly
perhaps the excremental, wherein lies 'the real
reality'. Where the silver river is conventional
morality, Birkin insists that what is conventionally •
regarded as morally corrupt is equally — and even
pre-eminently — part of man's nature, not to be
suppressed, but accepted, if that nature is to be
fulfilled (p.95).
I think that Pritchard's explanation is plainly acceptable but
if he considers Ursula to be
a woman who only accepts
'normal' sexuality, how can he claim that in the chapter "Excurse"
Birkin and Ursula have anal intercourse? He says that it is
after Ursula makes a "violent denunciation of [Birkin's]
'perversity', particularly as associated with Hermione, where
sensuality was solely perverse" (p.100) that she is ready to
accept anal intercourse.
After this mutual acceptance of the two
rivers Birkin and Ursula are ready to face marriage without
constraints.
Pritchard,as a Freudian critic, defines conflict in
Lawrence's novels as a wish for sexual fulfilment, beginning in