D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover"

It is no wonder that D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" was controversial at the time of its publication. Even reading it today I find it rather daring. Maybe I have been been reading too many conservative novels.

The story is about a woman, Constance Chatterley, finding love and sexual satisfaction in her crippled husband's gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors. This is not another story about a woman forced into an unhappy marriage with a man she doesn't love, and finds liberation in an affair with another man, making her another feminist figure in literature who defies social conventions and follows her heart. No; the novel is more forward than that. It is set in a world where rich educated men openly discuss sexuality with each other, talking about their genitals among other things while a woman is present. The language is graphic enough to startle modern readers who fail to expect such contents in a modernist novel. Constance's husband, Clifford, understands his wife's sexual needs, and outwardly allows her to have relations with other men. He even agrees to raise her child begot with another man. Though Lawrence represents him more as a villain, or as much of a villain as he could possibly be with his feeble body, he does possess some redeeming quality; he makes the best effort to put aside his masculine pride, letting her do what she wants so long as she stays with him.

As for Mellors, he is a man burned with love, who believes he is safe so long as he is alone. Unfortunately Constance walks in and takes him back to the world of passion and endless suffering once again. The affair between the two seems doomed from the beginning, yet they go along with it. It seems on many occasions, however, that Mellors does not want the same things as Constance, or at least he isn't as certain as she is about their lives together. She wants to leave her husband and to have a child; she strongly expresses these needs while he doesn't. He seems merely to go along with her.

Aside from those needs, it seems that Constance too is still trying to figure out what she wants from life. Mellors is her escape from Clifford, but does she love him? I don't think so. At times it even seems that she resents him. But that seems to be the feeling of everyone toward everyone in this novel. Nobody loves unconditionally. Even Mrs. Bolton, the most loving character who seems at first to admire Clifford, starts expressing her resentment toward him once Constance leaves and she is left to take care of him alone. She tells Constance that men, meaning Clifford, are like children and women are to treat them as such. She may love Clifford to a certain degree, but she seems to gain more satisfaction from knowing that she has some power over him.

Gender and class are discussed in the novel, not only in its plot but in the conversations between characters. The division between men and women, between the higher class and lower class, is clearly present at all times. Men blame women for all kinds of destruction, sexual or economic. The women seem to think of men as idiots, ungovernable beings. Those in the higher class have the most demeaning opinions of the lower class, despite the unhappiness their own conventions cause them. Lawrence not only represents his characters as flawed, but also as cynical and ignorant, trapped in their own stupidity.

I find this novel a real page-turner. While I have little sympathy for the characters, the essence of their being revealed through their actions is what makes the story interesting. Constance, especially, seems to be chasing after something--that thing isn't love or a perfect marriage, but a feeling of being alive. She longs so desperately to escape her boring aristocratic life that she is willing to invent a desire for Mellors. Only by deviating from the norms can she find some excitement and make her feel human. Some say this is a love story, but I think love is too complex for these people. It is passion that drives them, passion for one another and for a real happiness that they can't seem to find. And it is on passion alone that they live.