DH Lawrence's Connections, cont'd
Nov. 26th, 2005 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhameiaSo here we are again and there are basically three kinds of connections that one would draw in terms of interpersonal relationships:
Clifford's connection is industrial (aristocratic) and intellectual. As are the cambridge intellectuals.
Hilda's connection is personality knowledge-based.
Michaelis is incapable of connection. He misses out on Connie because of this, no matter how much he tries to be with her.
Tommy Dukes, Connie and Mellors are sensuality-based.
Basic Outline:
explore the idea of what connection is and what lawrence wants to connect to.
breakdown of barriers that suppress the instinct
acknowledgement of bodily functions
acknowledgement of the physical world - the seasons, environment
barriers that condone disconnection: class (aristocracy vs colliers), ego (mental/intellectual vs physical)
lawrence explores inter-personal relationships to find a solution for this problem of disconnection. his solution or at least, the connection which he values the most is the sensual connection between lovers, which is what should be the ideal in the marriage system.
different people are disconnecting in different ways in this novel. clifford is simply not interested in the lives of others as people - seeing them as mechanical cogs in a machine. when he does become interested, it is to pass judgement on them as the lower class, and to view himself as rising higher than them. marriage to him is a habit, a life-forming habit, and he worships connie in order to make her stay. Then, too, Clifford only wishes to connect to Connie, but he fails, seeing as his desperately clinging to Connie only leads to a negation of her, and she feels forced to get away from him in order to save herself from the negation of self she was feeling.
michaelis is too caught up in himself, too worried and too involved with being the pariah to care about other people. while he seeks connection with connie, once he notes that they're not on the same wavelength and that connie is finding her own satisfaction only after michaelis has found his, he becomes derisive and resentful of being used as a masturbation tool, disconnecting himself from connie sexually.
the cambridge intellectuals ignore the sensual / physical side of humanity. they attempt to connect mentally, but lawrence seems to posit that because they are all individuals concerned only with themselves. all they ever seem to do is talk. they're not 'warm hearted' and they are not really interested with each other *personally*, only in each other's ideas. Hilda faces the same disconnection, or at least barrier to connection - she does not acknowledge physicality, in fact, she rejects it.
out of all the cambridge intellectuals, only Tommy Dukes comes close to expounding what Lawrence is trying to get that - a return to physicality, a resurrection of the body and acknowledgement of it.
connie and mellors actually attain the sensual connection that lawrence expounds to be the most fulfilling of connections between man and woman in his A Propos.
Clifford's connection is industrial (aristocratic) and intellectual. As are the cambridge intellectuals.
Hilda's connection is personality knowledge-based.
Michaelis is incapable of connection. He misses out on Connie because of this, no matter how much he tries to be with her.
Tommy Dukes, Connie and Mellors are sensuality-based.
Basic Outline:
explore the idea of what connection is and what lawrence wants to connect to.
breakdown of barriers that suppress the instinct
acknowledgement of bodily functions
acknowledgement of the physical world - the seasons, environment
barriers that condone disconnection: class (aristocracy vs colliers), ego (mental/intellectual vs physical)
lawrence explores inter-personal relationships to find a solution for this problem of disconnection. his solution or at least, the connection which he values the most is the sensual connection between lovers, which is what should be the ideal in the marriage system.
different people are disconnecting in different ways in this novel. clifford is simply not interested in the lives of others as people - seeing them as mechanical cogs in a machine. when he does become interested, it is to pass judgement on them as the lower class, and to view himself as rising higher than them. marriage to him is a habit, a life-forming habit, and he worships connie in order to make her stay. Then, too, Clifford only wishes to connect to Connie, but he fails, seeing as his desperately clinging to Connie only leads to a negation of her, and she feels forced to get away from him in order to save herself from the negation of self she was feeling.
michaelis is too caught up in himself, too worried and too involved with being the pariah to care about other people. while he seeks connection with connie, once he notes that they're not on the same wavelength and that connie is finding her own satisfaction only after michaelis has found his, he becomes derisive and resentful of being used as a masturbation tool, disconnecting himself from connie sexually.
the cambridge intellectuals ignore the sensual / physical side of humanity. they attempt to connect mentally, but lawrence seems to posit that because they are all individuals concerned only with themselves. all they ever seem to do is talk. they're not 'warm hearted' and they are not really interested with each other *personally*, only in each other's ideas. Hilda faces the same disconnection, or at least barrier to connection - she does not acknowledge physicality, in fact, she rejects it.
out of all the cambridge intellectuals, only Tommy Dukes comes close to expounding what Lawrence is trying to get that - a return to physicality, a resurrection of the body and acknowledgement of it.
connie and mellors actually attain the sensual connection that lawrence expounds to be the most fulfilling of connections between man and woman in his A Propos.