RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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her brothers become Paul's best friends.
His attachment to
Miriam is at first difficult because of the girl's resentment in
having her 'inner world' invaded by a stranger.
However, as soon
as she senses that Paul is different from the others, she accepts
him.
Paul, for her, is "a new specimen, quick, light, graceful,
who could be gentle and who could be sad, and who was clever,
who knew a lot, and who had a death in the family" (p. 178).
and
Thus,
gradually, they become intimate.
They talk, they walk together
through the fields and, silently, they begin loving each other in
the most spiritual sense.
There is no space for carnal thoughts
since the girl is too spiritual and religious, and Paul is too
worried in trusting in her as the best friend he has.
Assuming that every true friendship has ups and downs,
Miriam and Paul's is not different.
As they grow intimate, they
begin discovering features of their personality that sometimes
appear as defects.
They then (Paul especially) seem to be
repelled by these features.
An example of this is Miriam's deep
demonstration of endearment to her younger brother.
She is all
emotion.
It is as if she could only express her love through an
exasperating show of caresses.
Paul cannot understand this, or
he cannot tolerate this demonstration, since he is not used to
expressing his emotions so fervently.
Hence, he rejects her in
these moments.
He becomes hard to her:
'What do you make such a fuss for?' cried Paul,
all in suffering because of her extreme emotion.
'Why can't you be ordinary with him?'
She let the children go, and rose, and said
nothing. Her intensity, which would leave no
emotion on a normal plane, irritated the youth
into a frenzy. And this fearful, naked contact
of her on small occasions shocked him (p.190).
The next two sentences represent accurately the way he is used
to such 'demonstrations' of love: "He was used to his mother's