Things to Consider:

• Depiction of Sexuality
• Consciousness of Class
• Influence of Sigmund Freud

• In what ways were Lawrence's works pioneering?

• What is the difference between a bildungsroman and a kunstlerroman (see 2432)?
• Explain:  "For Lawrence, people were internally fragmented, not completely self-aware,, and above all governed by sexual currents that exceeded their conscious knowledge and control" (2739).
• Explain:  "Our personalities are illusions . . . because they mask deeper mythic forms" (2739).
• Explain the "death instinct" Lawrence saw in European culture.

• Explain:  "Sexuality is the force in human life that most clearly derives from unconscious fantasies and desires" (2740).
• What is "preternatural immediacy"?

• Explain the interaction between the colt and the train.
• What is a pit-bank?

• What is a colliery?

• Who is Walter?
• What is the "Lord Nelson"? What is the "Prince o' Wales" (2751)?
• How much is a half-sovereign worth?
• Why does Lawrence wait so long to introduce the main character's name?
• Explain the significance of John being "almost shadow"? (See also his description as "almost lost in the darkness" (2751)).

• What does "rounding with maternity" mean?
• Why doesn't Elizabeth like the smell of chrysanthemums?

• How is foreshadowing employed on this page?
• Why has Elizabeth gone to the Rigleys' house?

• Why does seeing twelve shoes make Elizabeth say "No wonder!" (2754)?

• Why has Walter's mother arrived?  Does she help?  Explain.
• Does it seem Elizabeth would prefer Walter to be dead or alive?  Explain.

• Why is there a "cold, deathly smell of chrysanthemums in the room" (2757)?

• Why does Elizabeth tell her child, "There's nothing to make a fuss about" (2758)?

• Explain:  "He was impregnable" (2759).
• Explain:  "He was dead, and her living flesh had no place against his" (2759).

• Explain:  "The child was like ice in her womb" (2760).
• Explain:  "I have been fighting a husband who did not exist" (2760).
• Explain:  "In fear and shame she looked at his naked body, that she had known falsely" (2760).
• Explain:  "If they met there, in the beyond, they would only ne ashamed of what had been before" (2760).

• Explain the final sentence.