Lawrence, David Herbert - Life and Works

Life

He was born at Eastwood. His father was a miner.
He married a schoolteacher, Lydia Beardsall. Anyway, their marriage was unhappy and she did not want her children to work in mines.
Lawrence studied hard to become a teacher. He begins to write poetry and published the novel The White Peacock.
He loved her mother and wrote about their special relationship in Sons and Lovers.
He met and fell in love with Freida von Richtofen, a German woman.

His view of life

In a letter to Ernest Collings in 1913 Lawrence states that his great religion is a belief in the flesh
He stresses the importance of flesh over the word.

He was interested into the relationship between a man and woman.
In his view, women were just a principle of continuance, and man can find his fulfillment in a woman.

His philosophy is Naturalistic (pantheism and animism), and his naturalism is dualistic in the sense that reality only exists as a “pair of opposites” (darkness and light, male and female, mind and senses).

The masculine, active principle, is always opposed to feminine, passive principle.
This dualism means conflict, the two sides are in struggle.
This conflict is described by Lawrence as ‘Polarity’.
The prime example of polarity is the polarity of sexes, so the difference between men and women is to be maintained.
He states that the man who is too gentle and tender is denying his own manhood.
He considered women as an instrument for mankind’s happiness.

Lawrence's social ideas

He condemns industrialization and materialism that destroy the human soul. So, man is obsessed by money-power and this condition leads to the “ugliness” of the society.
He wanted to reform society. The industrial system was so strong that there was little that he could do but run, he wanted to escape.
This kind of civilization makes relationships among men impossible, because they are regulated by the Cash-Nexus.
Lawrence wants to restore into life the sympathy between men and women.
Since Sex is a good way to create close relationships, sexual experience is fundamental in Lawrence, as the best and most immediate way to come into intimacy.
Of all the natural impulses, the sexual one is the strongest, so only sex can save humanity form self-destruction.

Style

Lawrence employed the traditional omniscient narrator. The point of view is generally that of the characters who are portrayed through techniques of showing and telling. He uses rhymes, repetitions, alliterations, assonances that convey a musical effect. He also uses words and images linked to senses.