RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

67
reserve.
And on such occasions he was thankful in his heart and
soul that he had his mother, so sane and wholesome" (ibid.). Here
we have two options: either Lawrence is being very sarcastic, or
he for the moment is identified with Paul.
It seems to me that
Paul is in fact transfering to Miriam an unconscious reproach for
his mother's exaggerated love (though the sentences show the
contrary).
Mrs Morel is not this saint Paul thinks she is.
Miriam's love
for her brother is somehow mad with emotion,
possessive and strong and she expresses it without hiding her
deep feelings.
Mrs Morel does the same, but in a different way.
She may be reserved, but the reader knows that her love is equal
to Miriam's.
Mrs Morel and Miriam mean to Paul a parallel of forces. He
feels that what he‘gets from his mother is completed by what he gets
from Miriam.
Their forces interact in such a way that the two
fulfil Paul thoroughly, at least in what refers to his art. Paul
needs both.
His mother now has to share with Miriam Paul's love
and life:
He was only conscious when stimulated. A
sketch finished, he always wanted to take it to
Miriam. Then he was stimulated into knowledge'
of the work he had produced unconsciously. In
contact with Miriam he gained insight; his
vision went deeper. From his mother he drew
the life-warmth, the strength to produce,
Miriam urged this warmth into intensity like
a white light (p.196 - My underlining).
Paul and Miriam's 'spiritual' relationship grows day by
day, step by step.
It is a love which is beyond any kind of
carnal contact.
Paul accepts this because in the course of his
relation with the girl he unconsciously identifies her with his
mother.
In Miriam's mind things are quite different: despite
the fact that she seems much more interested in Paul's soul