RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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don't'".
Her reply to this does not indicate her own wish to
decide, on the contrary, she keeps expecting the men to answer
for her.
Then her husband interferes in his hot, sensual,
mesmeric voice: "'Yes, I want you! — Verdad! Verdad!' exclaimed
Cipriano, in his low, secret, almost muttering voice" (ibid).
Cipriano here plays a stupid clown because he takes Kate's
questions and answers them only with the hot language of a
passionate lover, blind to any other language than the one of
the body.
Kate says nothing to him because she in fact wants the
answer to come from Ramon, not from Cipriano.
Instead, she
thinks (or Lawrence thinks for her):
What a fraud I am! I know all the time it is I who
don't altogether want them. I want myself to myself.
But I can fool them so they shan't find out.
For she heard the hot, phallic passion in
Cipriano's voice (ibid).
Notice the inversion of the statement 'For she heard the hot,
phallic passion in Cipriano's voice1 which should actually come
before Kate's thought.
This certainly implies that Kate in fact
does not care for her husband.
Is Lawrence teasing the readers
with this game of words? It seems that Ramon has guessed that
Kate wants the decision to come from his mouth, for he leaves it
clear that it is Kate Who must decide what she wants to do:
"'You needn't commit yourself to us. Listen to your own best
desire'".
Kate's subsequent speech is only a challenge to
Ramon: "'And if it tells me to go away?' she flashed defiant...".
He does not answer but again returns to her her own decision:
"'Then go! Oh, certainly go!'". Kate's response to this seems
another trick (or perhaps she has become a puppet in Lawrence's
hand): she starts crying! This implies her doubtful position:
she has decided by herself and with Ramon's agreement.
He has
not committed himself in the decision.
The fact that Kate has