RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

82
steps. At last they found the broken path...
Suddenly, coming on the little level, he saw
two figures of men standing silent at the water's
edge. His heart leaped. They were fishing. He
turned and put his hand up warning Clara. She
hesitated, buttonned her coat. The two went on
together.
... He looked across at every tree-foot. At last
he found what he wanted. Two bench trees side by
side on the hill held a little level on the upper
face between their roots. It was littered with
damp leaves, but it would do. The fishermen were
perhaps sufficiently out of sight... (pp.377-8).
When Paul and Clara finish making love, the sense of the aftermath
is of sin.
It seems that there is blood everywhere as if Paul
had bitten himself and Clara.
reasonable answer for this.
Guilt is perhaps the most
It may seem a speculative point to
say that Paul's feelings towards Clara at this moment are the
same as if he had made love to his own mother for there is blood
(symbolically) on the black wet beech-roots and on Clara's bosom.
This may mean guilt and sin at the same time.
Also because Paul
assumes his father's way of speaking. He 'thees' Clara. Paul
becomes like his father, and Clara like his mother.
What Paul
says afterwards is the definitive proof of this sense of guilt:
"'And I'll clean thy boots and make thee fit for respectable
folk,' he said...'
Not sinners, are we?' he said, with an uneasy
little frown" (pp.379-82 - My underlining).
Just as an
observation, it may be useful to remind that Paul used to clean
his mother's boots ("Mrs Morel was one of those naturally
exquisite people who can walk in mud without dirtying her shoes"
(p.152)). . It is one more hint of his identifying Clara with his
mother who stands for 'a respectable folk'.
Paul's passion for Clara might be seen like fire in a bunch
of straw: it is big, red, hot; but it also has too much smoke. A
few moments later it vanishes, not gradually, but almost at once
leaving only a few
ashes, no fire, no smoke, nothing remains.