Holistically in Examining Lawrences Work - Essay Example

D.H. Lawrence was quoted as saying “when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot”. With these words comes the first glimpse of the man behind works such as Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Sons and Lovers, The Horsedealers’ Daughter, The White Peacock, and numerous poems.

To seriously look at either of the views of these critics, we must take a short trip through the early life of Lawrence and the environs from which he emerged. According to the Wikipedia free online encyclopedia, David Herbert Lawrence was born in Nottinghamshire, England to a coal mining family. He was the fourth of five children born to John Lawrence and Lydia nee Beardsall. His father, a coal miner, and his mother, a former schoolmistress, were often said to be reflected in his stories. His parents were said to have had a violent friction-filled relationship. It may explain his attitudes towards his parents and some of the emotions behind his writings.

Lawrence himself said in letters to poet Rachel Annand Taylor that he was born hating his father which could in part explain his treatment of the father in the novel Sons and Lovers, which many say is a close reflection of his own life. Opposed to this view of his father is his devotion and love for his mother reflected once again in the novel Sons and Lovers. It is easy to believe that many of his books are influenced by his life when you see how closely the experiences of the protagonist of Sons and Lovers match his own. Lawrence like his main character also helped his mother die by giving her an excess dose of sleeping medicine. She had been suffering from lung cancer.
Like his mother, several other females played strong roles in Lawrence’s life including, his childhood friend Jessie Chambers, and his wife Frieda Von Richthofen. Frieda was a married woman when he first met her and eventually left her husband and three children to be with Lawrence. They traveled the world together and from all accounts were very devoted to each other until his death in March of 1930. These women and variations of their character can be seen reflected in his books and stories.

Lawrence’s books dealt mainly with the themes of sexuality, love, and power. He often uses a conversational and poetical style of writing. He also dealt with modernism and its influence on his characters and their relationships. He used realism to bring across the emotions in his stories. This came through clearly in his books from his depictions of sexuality by the use of strong language and frank descriptions of the sexual act. He was so vivid he was often criticized as being obscene and pornographic.
He often wrote of women in what some saw as a less than favorable view, but what he probably saw as realistic. His own experience with women was on different levels. With his mother, he was a devoted son. Some saw him with an Oedipus complex reflected once again in his books. The relationship with his wife, who was a married woman leaving her children and husband can also be seen in his characters. The image of the strong unconventional woman, who is not fettered by the mores of society, the promiscuous woman, and the silly girl is portrayed throughout his works. The character of the promiscuous woman is reflected in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, a woman who has an affair with her Gardner while her husband returns from war wounded. His characters can be seen as members of society. Lawrence was only saying what society knows but refuses to see. We have people like his characters in the world.
Lawrence did not stop with realism in his stories. He was also a literary critic and said that sometimes we need to just look at the work for what it is and what it does. He felt that ‘all this pseudo-scientific classifying and analyzing of books in an imitation—botanical fashion,
is mere impertinence and mostly dull jargon.’
Lawrence himself wrote with a conversational and poetical style uncommon to most of his peers of the time. He wrote with a descriptive flare that offended some but drew others. He touched on topics others considered taboo and wrote to express himself which would explain his criticism of critics. Read More