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| "Lovely auriculas," said Connie. / “Recklesses, as Luke calls them," laughed Mrs. Flint. |
Words vs. Silence:
One of the main themes of this text is the value of silence, and the worthlessness of idle "Chatter(ley)". This is epitomised in Clifford, who is continually writing and talking, but unable to see the truth before him. This concept can be expanded on to include the significance of words and names themselves - Oliver and Connie do not even call each other by name. The intimacies between Connie, Oliver, and Mrs. Bolton were built on shared secrets and quiet moments, just as society's gossip keeps Oliver and Connie apart. The industrialised world is represented as a dirty, noisy place where no-one has a voice, while the natural world where Connie meets Oliver is presented as peaceful and quiet.
Language is also key in the novel. Oliver's dialect changes with his sentiments. Connie's education as she learned more about the natural, instinctive world and the working class was demonstrated in language lessons which taught her about the concepts as well as the words themselves.
Although Lawrence presents a world in which silence is preferable, Lawrence, as an author himself chooses his words carefully. For example, the word "orgasm" is not introduced until the first sex act between Connie and Oliver, and it is applied to Oliver's release. Prior to this moment, it is always referred to as a character's 'crisis', with all of the baggage that that term includes. Later, Lawrence describes Clifford's situation as "the crisis of his life" (2460), deftly intertwining his impotency with his climactic paralysis.
Psychoanalysis:
Lawrence was a late contemporary of Freud, and the psychoanalytical aspects of this novel are unmistakable. The concept of repression is explicitly spelled out by the author: "This state of falsity had now brought on that crisis of falsity and dislocation, [male] hysteria, which is a form of insanity" (5889) "By strength of will we cut off our inner intuitive knowledge from admitted consciousness. This causes a state of dread, or apprehension which makes the blow ten times worse when it does fall." (5863).
Linked to this, is the idea of internal vs. external state, such as both Connie and Clifford's ailing bodies while unhappy in their lives, vs their robust glows when passionately and mentally satisfied. Connie`s drabness is attributed to her "vitality [being] much too low, no reserves, no reserves" (1861). This appearance is not limited to the external attributes of a person, but to their actions as well; Oliver's initial desire to create physical distance between himself and Connie as a way of keeping emotional distance as well (2493).
Freud's theories are hinted at during Connie's relationships with both Mick and Oliver, where she remains adult, distant, and unable to have a rewarding emotional connection or sexual relationship with these childlike men. This maternal/child relationship is most evident in the depiction of Clifford and Mrs. Bolton's scenes, peaking as Mrs. Bolton's maternal care (which was previously a psychological and physical support) turns sexual. Mrs. Bolton believes that "all men are babies, when you come to the bottom of them" (2239), and supports Oliver's childish side in their private world so that he is free to be a man in the public sphere.
Connie finds what she needs in Oliver, who "had that curious kind of protective authority she obeyed at once" (2040). He becomes her teacher, mentor, and lover, eventually helping her in her quest to become a mother. In the latter parts of the book, we see this relationship echoed by Connie's relationship with her father who "was pleased, and very tender with his daughter, as if the unborn child were his child" (5577). One cannot help but wonder at Oliver's relationship with his own daughter Connie.
Nature
Nature is an interweaving motif which Lawrence holds up as a metaphor for several different subjects. Briefly:
Nature vs Nurture / Class Differences
Lawrence introduces a tension between Clifford believing in Nature and Connie believing in Nurture when speaking of her potential child and his heir. This is an interesting subject in itself, but serves here to show that the differences between classes is due to the privilege of the upper classes, namely, education and money. Even Connie, who is on an ongoing Darwinian quest for a satisfying male specimen notes "how extremely like all the rest of the classes the lower classes sounded . . . There was only one class nowadays, moneyboys. The money boy and the money girl, the only difference was how much you'd go and how much you wanted" (2353-2354)
Nature vs Industrialisation/ Flowers
Written in a post Georgia O`Keefe world, flowers are ubiquitous throughout this text, usually linked with Connie. "She had some of the vulnerability of the wild hyacinths, she wasn't all tough rubber-goods and platinum, like the modern girl" (2620). Her emotional relationships are depicted by floral metaphors: "The fine flower of [Clifford and Connie's] intimacy was to her rather like an orchid, a bulb stuck parasitic on her tree of life, and producing, to her eyes, a rather shabby flower" (1951), and "the keeper, his thick, white body, like a lonely pistil of an invisible flower!" (1981-1982). Certainly, sexual intimacy is represented by the forget-me-nots, although it is the intimacy as much as the sex that the flowers represent: "his hands stroked her softly, as if she were a flower, without the quiver of desire, but with delicate nearness" (3693).
The fragility, fertility, and openness of the flower shows not only that it is a natural state, but that it is precious and fleeting as "All vulnerable things must perish under the rolling and running of iron" (2620). This means that Connie must grasp at the chance for emotional satisfaction as the natural world, as well as the established cultural world is on the cusp of being lost as industrialised, commercialised age, embodied by Clifford, and his words, and his efficient fuel source approaches. "The younger generation were utterly unconscious of the Old England. There was a gap in the continuity of consciousness, almost American: but industrial really. What next?" (3367)
Evolution / Role of Women
Connie has an instinctual need to find a strong specimen to be the father of her child, but that instinct plays out in her thoughtful evaluation of the men in her life. Still, there is a direct connection and physical response between her 'womb' and Oliver's 'fiery loins' the hens. This is linked not only to the flower imagery, but also to the roosting hens: "Only the hens, fluffed so wonderfully on the eggs, were warm with their hot, brooding female bodies!" (2518). Hilde is the modern contrast to this "natural" desire, as she is happiest without a man, waiting for technology to change women's 'function' in society which she sees is solely to produce children. She wishes she could be 'immunised' (1785) from this role.
Works Cited:
Lawrence, D.H., Lady Chatterley's Lover. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics. 2005. Kindle e-book.
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