"A question of relationship": the flower of consciousness in the fiction of D.H. Lawrence

An unusual sensitivity to nature and an exceptional power of transforming that sensitivity into artistic expression are among the most frequently remarked traits of D.H. Lawrence's genius. But few critics have examined the individual phenomena so transformed. This study makes an effort to correct that neglect by focusing on Lawrence's treatment of flowers in his fiction. Daniel Stiffler has opened the way with his dissertation, "'Say It With Flowers': A Study of Floral Imagery in the Novels of D. H. Lawrence," but much work can still be done. Because Lawrence conceived of the flower as "the most perfect expression of life" and believed with Ursula Brangwen that art is "only the truth about the real world," my emphasis is upon Lawrence's fictional flowers as representatives of his philosophy of life, a philosophy of complementary opposites. Arguing that the female aspect of his philosophy is the "root" of unconscious awareness and that the male aspect is the "blossom" of language or "verbal consciousness," I describe the flower as a perfect expression of the union between the female and male aspects of life. But because such union is never fully achieved, the flowers in Lawrence's fiction demonstrate the dynamic tension between the female and male aspects, as they approach a moment of balance. Though H. M. Daleski argues that Lawrence's fiction records a struggle to heal the "breach" in his own nature as the "male principle" within himself separated from the more intrinsic "female principle," I try to demonstrate that Daleski's description is simplistic and that the very character of the flower as a symbolic model indicates that Lawrence's consciousness was by nature perennially growing away from itself, withering back to its "root" source, and then growing outward once more.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Department dc:contributor.department

English

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Year dc:date.issued

1985

Author dc:creator

• Bechtel, Lawrence Reid

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/90910

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/90910