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A Wild Ride: Sexual Politics
in D. H. Lawrence’s Short Stories
Garrett Moritz
When Clausewitz wrote On War, he could hardly have suspected what he set into motion. ... And it was much more than just who owned Alsace-Lorraine, for the Great War, at least in D. H. Lawrence’s England, was the turning point in the feminist movement. ... Lawrence, however, remained in England during the war due to his weak lungs, which kept him out of the army. ... But it is not merely a knee-jerk reaction, for Lawrence explores many independent female characters, and portrays them all differently. If anything, Lawrence was a careful observer with an eye to reality, and those stories which are used to indict him are used wrongly and out of context. ... Rather than showing indecisiveness, this reflects Lawrence’s evolving opinions and attitudes. Lawrence continued to pursue the complex questions of his time throughout his life, and as he changed, so did his answers to those questions.
It hardly seems that Lawrence’s feminist critics are capable of looking at the issue with such an open mind. ... Lawrence’s previous critics, according to Millet, "fudge the meaning of the story by mumbling vaguely that it is all allegorical, symbolic. ... Unfortunately, we find her grasping for symbol and allegory on the very next page:
Lawrence has improved upon the rape fantasy by sterilizing the story--removing all traces of overt sexual activity and replacing them with his homemade mythology--the woman is sacrificed to the sun. But there is a sincere "religious impulse" in the tale, apart from the inanities of the pseudo-Indian legend, for the story is Lawrence’s most impassioned statement of the doctrine of male supremacy and the penis as deity. ... And feeble it is indeed, with Lawrence cleverly throwing out all sexual activity in his story--a fairly indirect way of carrying out the "rape fantasy. ... It is easy and perhaps fun to characterize Lawrence as a chauvinist, speaking in terms of "phallic sects" and "death-fucks," but he is just not that simple. ... But it would be a great mistake to determine Lawrence’s "sexual politics" based only on the stories which seem to vilify him. In order to "gauge" Lawrence’s chauvinism, or lack thereof, we must go beyond Millet’s strategy of taking one or a few similar examples. ... Though carefully considering all of Lawrence’s works would be infinitely better than taking just one, this would require a lifetime of work, somewhat beyond the scope of this essay. ...
First, let us consider Banford and March from Lawrence’s novella "The Fox. ... It seems that the farm the pair owns is a sort of laboratory for Lawrence’s own peculiar experiment in which he examines the possibilities inherent in women’s new social role. ... Of course, Lawrence cannot really consider this question alone--it would hardly make for an interesting story. ... Thus, it is a far leap indeed to interpret the boy’s feelings as Lawrence’s own sexual fantasies. Admittedly though, there is ammunition in "The Fox" for Millet’s argument--not surprisingly, it is one of the few other Lawrence stories she uses as evidence in her book. ... Millet would have trouble finding evidence of Lawrence’s feelings of the "penis as deity" in this story, indeed. ... (Lawrence 343)
Lawrence had, in his life, watched women’s role change from domestic to much more individualistic. ... It is clear then why women should seem so potentially dangerous to Lawrence as in "Tickets, Please"--they were a once weak social force which now had the confidence to become powerful. ... Though from a certain point of view, it seems as though Lawrence is condemning the feminist movement and sexual emancipation as getting women nowhere, it also portrays women as stronger and more independent: though in effect getting nowhere, at least they are the ones making the decisions, and through this in fact making progress. Furthermore, Lawrence seems almost sympathetic to the confusion of women like Annie in their new roles. ... So in "Tickets, Please" we see a distinctly non-chauvinist Lawrence, who is very sensitive and aware of social changes and their affects on both sexes. ...
In "Monkey Nuts," set just prior to the armistice, Lawrence presents a new type of female character, Miss Stokes, who is one of the most independent and powerful women Lawrence develops. Though a feminist critic might try to show how Lawrence abuses Miss Stokes in the end of "Monkey-Nuts" by showing how Joe finally escapes her willpower, this is a very weak claim, for Miss Stokes certainly does her share of abusing Joe. ... The soldier, Joe, is powerless to resist, though he clings to a chauvinist viewpoint, saying, "I’m not keen on going any farther--she bain’t [sic] my choice" (Lawrence 372).
Approximate Word count = 3902
Approximate Pages = 15.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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