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RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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vi<br />

ABSTRACT<br />

This dissertation basically discusses the pattern of<br />

conflict and struggle for domination in five D.H. Lawrence<br />

novels - The Trespasser, Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in<br />

Love and The Plumed Serpent - and the novella "The Fox".^<br />

Conflict in these works is viewed in terms of the relationships<br />

between the couples so as to discover whether there is a shift<br />

of sympathy (or identification) towards the author's mother or<br />

father.<br />

Also the pattern of characters exchanging roles in<br />

relation to domination and submission will be examined.<br />

This work is divided into five chapters.<br />

The first one<br />

examines the main critics in D.H. Lawrence's opus.<br />

The other<br />

chapters analyse the theme of conflict in terms of Lawrence's<br />

three main phases.<br />

Finally, the conclusion examines the<br />

endings of the stories in an attempt to find out the reasons why<br />

the author adopts open-endings.<br />

Lawrence's fiction is always marked by the conflict of a<br />

duality in the characters.<br />

This duality is seen in the division<br />

of body and soul.<br />

Also this division marks initially a strong<br />

preference by the author for soulful women who are always<br />

stronger than their partners.<br />

In Lawrence's first phase these<br />

strong women "win" in the love-battle with their partners.<br />

The<br />

"defeated" males of this phase represent generally the body and<br />

almost always they hardly have a connection with the mind.<br />

However, this early phase also has soulful males, as for<br />

instance, Paul Morel of Sons and Lovers.<br />

The second phase of<br />

Lawrence's fiction shows an attempt to achieve balance in the<br />

^All quotations whether from Lawrence or from the critics will<br />

be taken from the editions specified in the final bibliography

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