RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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by Ford Who does not analyse the story) in terms of its validity
as a work of art-Sagar discusses the novel in his book in a
chapter called "The Lost Trail" and his most important idea is
related to the 'execution' of men.
The critic says that "the
men Don Ramon executes would have been executed by normal
processes of law in most countries today... It is rather in the
power and licence he gives to Cipriano that Don Ramon compromises
with the horror" (p.165).
There may be countries which execute
men who are like the ones in the novel, but my disagreement with
Sagar is due to the fact that he does not consider the fact that
the men are executed as a way to frighten the followers of the
new religion.
Human sacrifices are performed by Cipriano in
order to show the natives that the Quetzalcoatl religion means
power and those who do not agree with its 'doctrine' are going
to be murdered.
Hough differs from Sagar over The Plumed Serpent. He
considers the human sacrifices as a degradation of the character
of Kate.
He says that "Kate, who was disgusted, horrified to the
roots of her being by the bullfight, is merely made "gloomy and
uneasy", "shocked and depressed" by the killings she has
witnessed.
(p.132).
She begins to see them as part of the will of God"
This sense of Kate's degradation "is the nadir of the
book; and it might well end therewith the unintended confession
that the new religion leads only to death and to a sadistic
sexuality without human contact or a human setting" (p.133).
Sagar and Hough seem to concur with the idea that Kate
finally decides to stay in Mexico.
Sagar says that what holds
her there is "the man Cipriano, who must take her to give her
life, at forty, some meaning, and prevent her deterioration into
another Mrs Witt" (p.167).
Hough seems to agree with Sagar for