Ursula Brangwen

The older Brangwen sister, Ursula is a schoolteacher. She is somewhat less worldly than her
sister, Gudrun. She falls in love with Rupert Birkin after seeing him at the Crich wedding at the
beginning of the novel. Though at first she believes marriage is a trap for women like her, she
finds a way to navigate what is expected of women of her time, and what she desires.

Gudrun Brangwen
The younger Brangwen sister, she has recently returned from a life in the arts in London, where
she spent time among the social elite. She falls for Gerald Crich upon seeing him at his sisters
wedding at the beginning of the novel. Gudrun is unique and temperamental, yearning for an
artist's way of life as an escape from the drudgery of reality. But she struggles to reconcile her
animalistic passion with her convictions.

Gerald Crich
The oldest son of Thomas Crich, he falls in love with Gudrun Brangwen. Geralds character is
divided between a heroic, mythical soul of the past, and a keen modern intellect for pushing
technological advancement in his family's mining company.

Rupert Birkin
A country school inspector who falls in love with Ursula Brangwen. Birkins character can be
loosely associated with D.H. Lawrence himself. He is a spirited character with passionate ideas
about developing creative souls, but he also suffers many physical ailments and sickness.

Hermione Roddice
A friend of the Crich family, she is also Rupert Birkins sometime lover. She is in love with Birkin,
and wants to subjugate herself to him completely.

Mr. Thomas Crich

The chief owner of mines in the region around Beldover. His character represents a bygone era
of English industry, and a Christian morality based on beneficence toward the poor and the
working class.

Mrs. Christiana Crich

Thomas Crichs wife and mother to Gerald. She is portrayed as a cold and distant
women largely uninterested in her children's lives.

Laura Crich
One of the Crich daughters, her wedding takes place at the beginning of the novel

Lupton
Laura Crichs husband.

Minette Darrington
Also referred to as the Pussum, a young Bohemian Londoner whom Birkin knows
and introduces to Gerald Crich. Gerald and Minette have a brief affair.

Julius Halliday
A roguish Bohemian of London, who owns the house in Soho where Rupert rents a
room.
Maxim Libidnikov
A young Russian living in London, who is friends with Julius Halliday.

Miss Bradley

A guest at Hermione Roddices estate.

Palestra, the Italian Contessa

A guest at Hermione Roddice's estate.

Fraulein Marz
A guest at Hermione Roddice's estate.

Sir Joshua Mattheson

An English Baronet and famous sociologist, a guest at Hermione Roddices estate.

Alexander Roddice
Hermiones brother and a member of the British Parliament.

Mrs. Salmon
The laborers wife at the mill house, where Rupert Birkin rents rooms.

Mrs. Daykin
Rupert Birkins landlady and servant at the mill house.

Dr. Brindall the younger

A guest at the Crich party who drowns in an attempt to save Diana Crich.

Tom Brangwen
Ursula and Gudruns father, he is a handicraft teacher with very conventional moral
standards and beliefs. He resents Ursula and Gudruns independence.

Anna Brangwen
Ursula and Gudruns mother, she is fairly quite and reserved, but compassionate.

Billy Brangwen
Ursula and Gudruns young brother.

Dora Brangwen
Ursula and Gudruns young sister.

Mrs. Kirk
A Beldover resident. The Brangwen sisters stop at her cottage to buy honey.

Winifred Crich
Geralds youngest sibling and the apple of Mr. Crichs eye, Winifred is artistically
inclined and becomes Gudruns pupil.

Herr Professor
A German professor that Ursula, Gudrun, Gerald and Birkin meet in a hostel near
Innsbruck.

Herr Loerke
A sculptor who is one of the hostel guests. He is a tiny and odd-looking man, who
develops an affinity with Gudrun based on their mutual estimation of art.

Leitner
Loerkes companion, he is young and athletic and stands out against Loerke's
creaturely appearance.

Diana Crich
Gerald's younger sister. She drowns during the Crich family water-party.

Doctor Brindell
The young doctor who dies while trying to save Diana Crich. Their bodies are found
together the next morning, the girl's hands around the man's throat.

Themes
Marriage and Work
The four central characters of Lawrences novel test the expectations of their society, chiefly
through their unconventional attitudes toward the institutions of marriage and work. Gudrun
and Ursula Brangwen are spirited and independent women, although they are not from the
upper class. Meanwhile, Gerald and Birkin are their social superiors, but both men are drawn to
the Brangwens and pursue marriages that defy social norms. Birkin views the hyper productivity
of the modern era as a mistake, and thinks that work cannot save humanity. Gerald meanwhile
throws himself into his work, but believes in the advancement of technology as a means of
mastering the material of the earth.

The Triangle of Desire

Triangles of desire are everywhere in Lawrences novel, suggesting that human desire
circulates in part by seeing and imitating the desire that another person displays. Gerald loves
Birkin, but sees him desiring Ursula, which contributes to Geralds desire for Birkin, and also to
his desire for Gudrun as a substitute. Birkin sees Gerald desiring Gudrun, which heightens his
attraction to Gerald and makes him hesitant to marry Ursula for fear of separating the two men.
At the end of the novel, a triangle emerges between Gudrun, Gerald, and Loerke, which sparks
Geralds violent attack against them, and leads to his death by exposure. Gudrun compares this
situation ironically to the holy trinity, calling it a pretty little sample of the eternal triangle and a
trinity of hate.

Decay and Rebirth

Birkin is constantly unwell throughout the novel, and his body's physical decay and degradation
symbolize the spiritual decay that he associates with England, and more broadly with modern
European society. Birkin philosophizes throughout the novel about the essential link between
creative life and destruction, associating the goddess of love, Aphrodite, with a power of dark
and utter destruction. Birkin also compares leaving England to the image of lice fleeing a dead
corpse, as if the groups trip to Innsbruck promises an escape from the inevitable destruction of
English life. Birkin views the universe as endless cycles of decay and rebirth in forms that are
organic and inorganic, natural and cultural. He thinks that society and its values must dissolve in
order for humans to be reborn and inhabit a new, stronger and more passionate form of
existence.

Repression and Instincts

The difficult relationship between instinctual desire and repression is central toWomen in
Love. The main characters of Lawrences novel Ursula, Gudrun, Birkin, and Gerald all suffer
in various ways from the conflict between their desires and the dictates of social mores. Birkin
and Gerald desire one another, but repress and stifle their love in pursuit of marriages with the
Brangwen sisters. When Ursulas classroom receives an unexpected visit from Birkin early in
the novel, her desire is stirred but it creates anxiety. She suffers over the course of the novel
from her conflicted emotions regarding Birkin, whose demands are highly unconventional and
force Ursula to examine her willingness to give all of herself to the love between them. Likewise,
Gudrun finds Gerald compelling but fearsome in his brute physicality. She wavers between
being compulsively attracted to and repelled by him. Gudruns situation is in turn mirrored by
Geralds attitude towards her, since he finds her alluring and superior to him in spirit, yet he
often moves to attack or destroy her when she triggers feelings in him. Throughout the novel,
human instincts are represented as unpredictable and intense passions that trigger forms of
repression.

Sacred Sensuality
D.H. Lawrence was both an iconoclast and a Christian, and Women in Love presents a
unique concept of sacred sensuality. Unlike forms of protestant Christianity that attempt to deny
or rebuke erotic passion, Lawrences ideal form of Christian life fully embraces erotic passion as
a holy expression of Gods creation. This idea is most clearly represented in the union of Ursula
and Birkin, which the novel describes in terms that evoke the biblical tale of Adam and Eve.
When Ursula and Birkin visit the inn in Beldover for afternoon tea, Ursula suddenly sees her
lover as an original son of God, an allusion to the book of Genesis. When the two leave the inn
and decide to spend the night on the floor of Sherwood Forest, Lawrences imagery evokes the
Garden of Eden and suggests that Birkin and Ursula have a sacred union that is equal parts of

carnal and spiritual sensuality. Lawrences novel idealizes a holy form of sensuality that unites
the earthly passions of the flesh with the soul of creation.

Nihilism and Modernity

Lawrences novel explores the connection between nihilism and modernity. Nihilism is the
philosophical view that the modern world has completely severed itself from the once
meaningful spheres of religious, moral, and political life. For nihilists, there can be no
meaningful existence in the wreckage of modernity. Lawrences novel does not suggest that
nihilism is an ideal position. Rather, the character of Rupert Birkinrepresents an understanding
of nihilism that strives against its aftermath.
Birkin acknowledges the apocalyptic ruins of modern life, but he is also a spirited and creative
soul, illustrated by his attempt to strike a unique contract of passionate partnership with Ursula,
one that preserves their individuality while bringing them into a cosmic conjunction, like two
heavenly bodies perfectly aligned. Birkin also values artistic expression and creativity, which is
illustrated through his many allusions to art and poetry, as well as his contemplative reactions to
sketches, paintings, and sculptures over the course of the novel. All of these aspects of Birkins
character show that Lawrences novel rejects the nihilist position in favor of attempting to
transform the very terms of value that define human life in the modern age.

Animals and Humans

Lawrences novel consistently uses encounters with animals to symbolize internal conflicts
faced by individuals, passionate struggles between lovers, and the urge to forsake
society. Gudrun Brangwen invokes the image of a wolf as Gerald Crichs totem animal when
she first sees him at his sisters wedding in the opening chapter. In chapter 9, Geralds forceful
control of his horse at the train crossing, which alarms both Ursula and Gudrun, symbolizes the
violent human struggle over passion. Later, when the Brangwen sisters attend the annual party
at Shortlands, they decide to escape into the woods. They begin to dance like forest nymphs
among a group of cattle, suggesting a mystical connection to the natural world and their desire
to abandon social convention. And both Gudrun and Gerald battle with Winifreds pet rabbit,
Bismarck, whose frenzied resistance to their control implies the dangerous status of the passion
between them. Throughout the novel, Lawrences representations of animals show that humans
can never fully abandon their primal nature, and they constantly strive to channel its power
successfully.

Industry and Technology

Lawrences novel explores the social implications of industry and technology through Geralds
transformation of the Crich mining operation. Geralds father operated the coal-mining business
according to an older model of Christian moral beneficence. He let the workers perform their
duties as they had for several generations, and focused his efforts on taking care of them much
as a father would care for his children. But Geralds vision is strikingly different from his fathers,
and it represents the modern valorization of productivity and work over all things. Gerald uses
his willpower and education to transform the family industry into a model of extreme efficiency.
By bringing in the most advanced technological machinery and practices, he also transforms the
work that the miners perform. They become hyper-productive and intently focused on their labor
as a collective effort, which brings increased productivity and wealth - to Crich's pockets at least.
Geralds desire to master the matter of the earth symbolizes the modern goal of sublimating
and liberating humanity through work. Ultimately, Lawrences novel is critical of this perspective,
because it denies the centrality of creative life and those passionate, spirited expressions of the
human soul that cannot be reduced to labor.

Life and Art

Women in Love presents different perspectives on the relationship between life and art. Birkin
especially finds an essential connection of truth between the two. At Julius Hallidays house,
Gerald ponders an African carving of a woman giving birth, and asks Birkin what he thinks of it.
Brikin tells Gerald it is real art, and when Gerald asks why Birkin replies the piece "conveys a
complete truth and contains a pure sensual knowledge passed down for generations. For
Birkin, art is best when it successfully communicates a core aspect of human life without
attempting to detach from its physical basis. Birkin's view of art contrasts sharply with Gudruns.
She believes, likeHerr Loerke, that art and life must be strictly separate. When she discusses
art with Loerke, she claims life doesnt really matter it is ones art which is central. For
Gudrun, art is a supreme reality, and life can never be completely whole or true. She believes
that art elevates ones being above the muck of life, making it the purest form of human
expression in its ideal state. Gudrun longs for forms of aesthetic experience and expression
above all things instances of freedom and autonomy from the physical limitations of life itself.

Environment and Psychology

In Women in Love, the environment or setting often communicates characters inner
psychological attitudes. Perhaps the most notable is the extravagant water-party hosted by the
Crich family, which presents a microcosm of the social world and its hierarchical class structure.
Most who attend the party fit conventionally within this regimented ideal, as illustrated by their
pleasant behavior and mannerisms as they sport, go boating, and eat and drink under the
beneficence of Mr. Crich. But upon arriving at the party, the Brangwen sisters immediately want
to escape this social fabrication, and their choice to go into the woods reflects their own
independent spirits. Likewise, when Gerald and Birkin decide to wrestle, Gerald locks them up
in a closed room, and tells his servant not to disturb them for the rest of the evening. Their
private jiu-jitsu match is like their repressed erotic struggle they attempt to keep it sealed off
and locked away from public view. Near the novels conclusion, the extreme coldness that
develops between Gudrun and Gerald at Innsbruck is constantly being aligned with the wintry
and harsh environment. Ursula even tells Birkin that the snowy cold has frozen her inner being,
and so she wishes to escape and leave Innsbruck behind. This theme culminates in Geralds
death by exposure to the elements, and Birkins feelings of being frozen to his core as he
watches over his beloved Geralds frozen body.

Quotes and analysis

"She saw, in the shaft of ruddy, copper-colored light near her, the face of a man. It
was gleaming like fire, watching her, waiting for her to be aware. It startled her
terribly. She thought she was going to faint. All her repressed, subconscious fear
sprang into being, with anguish."
Narrator, p. 29, chapter 3.
While teaching one day, Ursula is surprised by a visit from Rupert Birkin. When he suddenly
appears at her classroom door, her heart leaps up at the sight of his face. Lawrences
description of Birkins appearance, gleaming like fire, suggests that it corresponds with a
passionate burning inside of Ursula. But this frightens her, and provokes a subconscious anxiety
that illustrates the novels theme of repression and instinctual urges.

"He bit himself down on the mare like a keen edge biting home, and forced her
round. She roared as she breathed, her nostrils were two wide, hot holes, her mouth
was apart, her eyes frenzied. It was a repulsive sight, But he held on her unrelaxed,
with an almost mechanical relentlessness, keen as a sword pressing into her."
Narrator, p. 104, chapter 9.
This passage describes Gerald Crichs mastery of his mare at the train crossing, as Ursula and
Gudrun watch. Gerald violently forces his horse into submission and, in doing so, displays a sort
of brute strength and prowess that he intends the two Brangwen sisters to observe. It is a highly
masculine display that frightens both of them, and Lawrence uses a violently phallic description
of Geralds body as a sword pressing into her to emphasize this aspect of his nature. The
breaking of the mare is deemed good for the horse, in a clear allusion to the theme of marriage
as a institution through which the will of a woman is broken - for her own benefit. The women's
varying attraction and repulsion for Gerald in this moment symbolizes their feelings about both
lust and marriage.

"Nevertheless, Gudrun, with her arms outspread and her face uplifted, went in a
strange palpitating dance towards the cattle, lifting her body towards them as if in a
spell, her feet pulsing as if in some little frenzy of unconscious sensation, her arms,
her wrists, her hands stretching and heaving and falling and reaching and reaching
and falling, her breasts lifted and shaken towards the cattle, her throat exposed as
in some voluptuous ecstasy towards them, whilst she drifted imperceptibly nearer,
an uncanny white figure..."
Narrator, p. 159, chapter 14.
Gudrun Brangwen enters a joyful, trance-like state while dancing in the woods with her sister,
Ursula. The two ladies have just escaped the water-party hosted by the Crich family. The
change in setting from the socially conventional world of the party, to the pastoral environment
of the forest among the cattle, represents a release into the natural world. Gudruns body takes
on a powerful energy and an unconscious intensity that dislocates her from her everyday sense
of being. The dance brings an ecstatic and joyful experience that can only be found beyond the
world of manners, restraint, and society.

"'When the stream of synthetic creation lapses, we find ourselves part of the inverse
process, the blood of destructive creation. Aphrodite is born in the first spasm of
universal dissolution then the snakes and swans and lotus marsh-flowers and
Gudrun and Gerald born in the process of creative destruction.'"
Birkin, p. 164, chapter14.

Rupert Birkin and Ursula Brangwen sit by Willey Water as Birkin discusses the deep connection
between creation and destruction. For Birkin, all things are part of an endless cycle or eternal
return of creation, including death and decay. Even Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of
love, has her beginnings in the dissolution of the universe. It is impossible to separate death
from life, or beginning from ending. Birkin is a cosmic thinker whose idea of love is shaped by
his perspective of the universal cycles of death and rebirth.

"There were two opposites, his will and the resistant Matter of the earth. And
between these he could establish the very expression of his will, the incarnation of
his power, a great and perfect machine, a system, an activity of pure order, pure
mechanical repetition, repetition ad infinitum, hence eternal and infinite."
Narrator, p. 220, chapter 17.
When Gerald Crich decides to return home, he begins to work alongside his father running the
familys mining operation. He comes to find purpose in transforming the company, but not
because he seeks wealth. Rather, Gerald has a will to master the raw material of the earth, to
exercise his power over the natural world by way of the mining operation. He brings advances in
technology, increased productivity, and a new valuation of collective labor to the miners and
their work. Geralds seeks liberation through the ceaseless mechanical repetition of this refined
productivity.

"He stood there in his strange, whole body, that had its marvelous fountains, like
the bodies of the sons of God who were in the beginning. There were strange
fountains of his body, more mysterious and potent than any she had imagined or
known, more satisfying, ah, finally, mystically-physically satisfying."
Narrator, p. 306, chapter 23.
Ursula gazes at Birkin when they are having tea at the inn in Beldover. Earlier they had fought
after Birkin gave her a gift of three rings, but now the two have reconciled, and Ursula begins to
see in Birkin the promise of a sacred partnership, recalling the tale of Adam and Eve and the
sons of God from the book of Genesis. She sees in Birkins physical body a wellspring of
sensual power that is both material and metaphysical.

"And she, she was the great bath of life, he worshipped her. Mother and substance
of all life she was. And he, child and man, received of her and was made whole. His

pure body was almost killed. But the miraculous, soft effluence of her breast
suffused over him, over his seared, damaged brain, like a healing lymph, like a soft,
soothing flow of life itself, perfect as if he were bathed in the womb again."
Narrator, p. 337, chapter 24.
Several days after his fathers death, Gerald seeks solace in Gudruns embrace. After sneaking
into her bedroom one night and waking her, he falls into her arms. Her body becomes a source
of rejuvenation, a maternal wellspring that heals and nourishes Gerald after the ordeal of his
fathers slow and painful death. Lawrences imagery is religious and mystical, suggesting that
this moment is a baptism and rebirth through the sensual body of Gudrun Brangwen.

"'When I see that clear, beautiful chair, and I think of England, even Jane Austens
England it had living thoughts to unfold even then, and pure happiness in
unfolding them. And now, we can only fish among the rubbish-heaps for remnants
of their old expression. There is no production in us now, only sordid and foul
mechanicalness.'"
Birkin, p. 347, chapter 26.
When Rupert Birkin and Ursula Brangwen visit the local junk market, they find an antique chair
that Birkin admires. He tells Ursula that the chair represents a time long passed, when English
handicrafts and production was more careful and aesthetically meaningful. Unlike the hyperproductivity of the modern industrial era of production, the time of Jane Austens England was
determined by a relationship to production that was not merely mechanical.

"'They say the lice crawl off a dying body,' said Birkin, with a glare of bitterness. 'So
I leave England.'"
Birkin, p. 387, chapter 29.
When Birkin, Gerald, Ursula and Gudrun decide to travel to Innsbruck for a winter trip, all are
glad to be away from England. But Birkin in particular finds the transition to Europe pleasing
because he so detests the social standards and modern values that define England. For Birkin,
the English political body is dead and spiritless, in part because of the rule of industrial
production and the overvaluation of work. But his comparison is also shrewdly self-deprecating,
since he imagines himself to be nothing more than lice crawling off the corpse of England.

"To herself she was saying A pretty little sample of the eternal triangle! And she
turned ironically away, because she knew that the fight had been between Gerald
and herself and that the presence of the third party was a mere contingency an
inevitable contingency perhaps, but a contingency none the less."
Narrator, p. 468, chapter 31.
When Ursula and Birkin return to the hostel after hearing the news of Geralds death, Birkin
demands that Gudrun tell him exactly what Gerald said when she saw him last. She tells Birkin
that Gerald said nothing but attacked Loerke and nearly strangled Gudrun. Inside, however, she
compares the scene to an ironic version of the holy trinity or eternal triangle. In this case she
imagines a trinity of hatred that leads Gerald to attack and then flee into the wintry darkness,
where he dies of exposure.

Summary
Chapter 1: Sisters
The novel opens with the sisters Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen chatting about marriage one
morning, while they are sewing at their fathers house in Beldover. Gudrun has recently returned
home from art school in London. She says she would consider getting married if the right man
suddenly materialized, and claims that one should probably get married in order to have the
experience. Ursula seems less eager about the idea of marriage and its responsibilities,
suggesting that marriage is rather the end of experience. The two decide to stop sewing and
go outside to have a look at a local wedding.
As they are walking through town, Gudrun is disturbed by the common folk, and feels out of
place. The two sisters stand and watch the churchyard as the wedding guests begin to arrive.
Gudrun sees Gerald Crich arrive and is immediately attracted to him, comparing him to a
smiling wolf. Ursula is meanwhile captivated by Hermione Roddice, a rich and beautiful

bridesmaid. Hermione is the lover of Rupert Birkin, a county school-inspector and the best
man at the wedding. Hermione wants to marry Birkin but he willfully refuses while keeping her
as his lover.
The brides carriage arrives but the groom and best man are both missing. Ursula suddenly
notices their carriage approaching from the road. The bridegroom jumps out and begins to run
into the church, while the bride playfully runs from him. When Ursula sees Rupert Birkin, she
feels drawn to him but also finds him slightly cold. She asks her sister what she thinks of him,
and Gudrun tells her he is very attractive, yet she is not a good judge of character. The wedding
ends, and the Brangwen sisters watch Rupert, Hermione, and Gerald Crich emerge from the
church.
Chapter 2: Shortlands
The Brangwen sisters return home, and the wedding party moves to the Criches home near the
lake of Willey Water. The women bustle about and chat while the men stand calmly in groups,
paying no attention to them. Gerald Crich plays host while his father rests.
Mrs. Crich approaches the group of men and strikes up a conversation with Rupert Birkin. She
expresses discomfort at not knowing so many of the guests, and Birkin suggests that people
who are strangers dont really matter. He mentions that Gerald is the only one of her children
that he knows. Their conversation trails off and, after making an impromptu reference to the
Biblical story of Cain and Abel, Birkin suddenly recalls that Gerald accidentally killed his brother
when the two were boys.
The servants sound a gong for the luncheon to begin, but no one heeds it. Gerald then blows a
loud horn and the party moves to the table. Hermione and Gerald begin a heated conversation
about race, nationality, patriotism, and political economy. Birkin jumps in, followed by Laura
Crich, the bride. She calls for a toast, the champagne is poured and Birkin rudely downs his
glass before standing up to give a toast. The meal ends.
The men go outside. Birkin and the groom, Lupton, begin speaking with Marshall, Luptons
brother. Gerald Crich joins in. They talk about Lupton and Birkins tardiness, and Birkin explains
that Lupton was late because he was too busy talking about metaphysical issues. Marshall
criticizes his brother and leaves after Gerald tells him to do so. Birkin and Gerald get into a
heated discussion that ends with Birkin saying that Gerald behaves as if he thinks every man
around him has a knife up his sleeve, waiting to cut his throat. The narrator describes the two
men as outward enemies who in truth suppress a strong mutual desire for each other.

Chapter 3: Class-room
In her classroom, Ursula is finishing up a lesson in botany. Rupert Birkin unexpectedly enters
and startles Ursula, who feels her repressed fears and desires rising up when she sees him
standing in the doorway. He observes the students as they sketch catkins. Birkin suggests that
they use crayons to outline the female flowers with red, and the androgynous flowers with
yellow.
Hermione Roddice appears at the door. She tells Birkin she saw his car outside and decided to
come watch him doing his duties as school inspector. Hermione asks Ursula if she minds her
presence, and Ursula tells her she is welcome. Birkin begins telling Hermione about the
fertilization process of the catkins, and Hermione becomes strangely enraptured by their beauty,
referring to them as little red flames.
The class ends and the children depart. Hermione remains in a daze for a moment, then gets up
and approaches Ursula. Hermione asks if her sister Gudrun likes being home in Beldover.
Ursula says no, and Hermione invites the two sisters to visit her at her home in Breadalby.
Hermione then tells her that she is fond of Gudrun and likes her artwork small carvings of
animals that Hermione says are full of passion.
Hermione, Rupert, and Ursula have a long discussion about education and animal instincts.
Hermione believes cultivating knowledge destroys instinct and the ability to be spontaneous.
Rupert viciously disagrees and says that the problem is not too much mind, but too little. He
accuses her of not realizing that her desire to be like an animal is itself routed through her
conscious human mind. Ursula is frightened by the aggression that the two display toward each
other.
Rupert continues his tirade, insisting that truly animalistic and spontaneous passion must rise up
as a dark and involuntary force that topples the conscious, deliberate self. The women laugh at
him, and Hermione makes him feel emasculated. She then reminds Ursula to come visit her at
Breadalby. At the same time, Hermione recognizes that Ursula has become her new romantic
rival. Birkin and Hermione depart together, and Ursula begins weeping but cannot tell if it is due
to misery or joy.
Chapter 4: Diver
On the next Saturday morning, Ursula and Gudrun decide to take a walk. They head for the
local lake, Willey Water. When they arrive at the lake they see Gerald Crich emerge naked from
a lakeside boathouse and dive into the water. Gudrun tells her sister that she is envious of him,
since his gender makes it acceptable for him to shed his clothing and swim in the lake. Gerald
waves at them and the two sisters continue on their walk.
As they walk along the road they come to Shortlands, the Criches estate. They remark upon its
appeal, and Gudrun says that it has the feel of the 18th century period, and reminds her of the
novelist Jane Austen or the poet Dorothy Wordsworth. Ursula replies that she doesnt think the

Criches fit that period, since Gerald is constantly bringing technological improvements and
additions to the house, such as a private electrical plant.
During this conversation Ursula also asks her sister if she knows that Gerald accidentally shot
his brother one day when the boys were playing with a gun. Gudrun was unaware of this fact,
and Ursula explains that when they were very young, the two boys found an old gun in their
barn. They had no idea it was loaded, and Gerald blew his brothers head off. Gudrun is
saddened by the story and wonders at the traumatic effect the event must have had on Gerald.
Ursula suggests that perhaps some unconscious, primal will was behind the act, while Gudrun
insists it must have been purely accidental.
Their conversation is interrupted when they hear a voice ahead. The sisters discover Hermione
Roddice and Laura Crich on the opposite side of a hedge. Laura is struggling to lift open a gate,
and Ursula helps her. Hermione briskly says hello and reminds the Brangwen sisters of her
invitation to Breadalby. They say goodbye, and Ursula tells Gudrun she finds Hermione to be
impudent. Gudrun agrees, but says it shouldnt bother Ursula because Hermione is simply an
example of a privileged aristocratic woman who has decided to free herself from social
constraints. Gudrun also tells Ursula that among such women, the truly chic thing is to be
completely unremarkable, like an artistic work of ordinariness. Ursula says such behavior is
quite dull, and that she much prefers to act like a swan among geese. She tells Gudrun that the
only thing to do is to despise them all, and the two sisters return home.
Analysis
Lawrence begins Women in Love with the discussion of marriage between Ursula and Gudrun
in order to raise the essential theme of marriage plots within the tradition of the English novel so that he may subvert it in his own novel. Lawrence's narrative will attempt to transform and
reshape the traditional expectation that marriage should be the center of womans life through
the events that befall the two Brangwen sisters and their respective relationships with Rupert
Birkin and Gerald Crich. (DiBattista) This idea is foreshadowed by the two sisters different
responses to the idea of marriage, neither of which seems completely favorable or desirable.
Gudrun suggests that marriage brings the experience of sex, while Ursula contends that
marriage is more like the end of experience, suggesting that it places an artificial limit on the
possibilities of life.
Later, when Gudrun first sees Gerald Crich at his sisters wedding, she remarks, his totem is
the wolf. Her symbolic association of Gerald with this animal spirit establishes the role that
animal passion and instincts will have in the novel, and it also connects Gerald to Gudruns art
carvings that resemble little animal totems. Gudrun also wonders if cosmic fate connects them,
and if there is some pale gold, arctic light that envelops only us two? Her words unconsciously
foreshadow Geralds demise, as he will freeze to death in the Swiss Alps. The novels continuing
associations of Gerald with a wolf-like, arctic spirit construct him as a figure of Nordic myth,
trapped in a modern post-industrial world that will ultimately crush his innermost being.

In the second chapter, the scene shifts from the marriage ceremony to the wedding party at the
Criches estate. This move in perspective and setting allows Lawrence to continue to develop a
series of familiar novelistic themes focused on the private, domestic sphere such as gender
relations, paternal authority, familial manners, and inheritance. The conversations that take
place among most of the guests are predictably boring and reflect conventional views of these
matters. But when Gerald Crich is asked to stand in as host for the party because his father is
feeling unwell, Lawrence shows that Gerald is ill at ease with this task. This characterization
adds to the tension that defines Gerald, who is split between the demands of familial or social
duty and the primal vitality that drives him.
Lawrence further develops this theme when he describes Geralds passion for discussion,
which leads him to debate heatedly with Hermione Roddice. Their dialogue brings Rupert Birkin
into the conversation, and they debate the roles of race, nationality, class and private property in
determining the rights and liberties of individuals. The talk at the dinner table thus becomes an
extended metaphor for class politics in England, and the disagreements between Rupert and
Gerald set the stage for their heated exchange at the end of the chapter. During that episode,
Lawrence reveals the passionate and wild nature of the attraction between the two men, which
is a primordial mixture of love and hatred that both men actively repress. He thus enfolds two
Freudian categories of desire Eros, or erotic attraction, and aggression, or the death-drive in
the spirited competition between the two men.
In chapter three, when Rupert Birkin unexpectedly appears in Ursulas classroom, Lawrence
describes her reaction as a sudden springing up of repressed and subconscious fear. On the
one hand this brings immediate anguish, but on the other hand it suggests the compulsory
nature of desire, and further develops Lawrences theme of the battle between primordial
instincts and social repression. The red of Ruperts face and the red flames of the catkins
symbolize passion differently. The first image suggests that passion is a sudden, unconscious
eruption and the second connotes a measured aesthetic appreciation, which involves study and
contemplation. The classroom scene implies that Lawrence, whose perspective is often
represented by Rupert Birkin, values the vital and unpredictably creative power of passion. His
defense of the dark passion of a woman wailing for her demon lover makes a literary allusion
to Samuel Taylor Coleridges poem, Kublai Khan, and further aligns his characters perspective
with Lawrences own literary-philosophical views. At the same time, the scene acknowledges
the social dangers of such primordial impulses, when Ursula and Hermione condescendingly
dismiss Birkins aggressive and spirited defense of such dark and sensual forms of being.
When Ursula and Gudrun decide to take a walk to Willey Water, Lawrence repeats the trope of a
conversational stroll that becomes an opportunity for the Brangwen sisters to reflect upon the
nature of love and its relationship to societys institutions. The novel first employs this technique
in the scene of the sisters walk through the town of Beldover and their observation of the Crich
wedding. This time, however, the setting emphasizes the power and freedom of the natural
world that eludes the forms of work, discipline, and morality valued by modern culture. This is
represented in an allegorical manner by the character of Gerald Crich, whose nakedness and
unrestricted swimming in the lake connect him to a radically autonomous nature. Gudrun envies

this form of freedom that is socially unavailable to women, and Ursulas comparison of Gerald
with a Nibelung further develops Lawrences characterization of Gerald as a mythical Nordic
figure. Nibelung is the familial name of a powerful royal house in Nordic and Germanic
mythology. Ursulas reference likely alludes to the Richard Wagner opera, The Ring of the
Nibelung, which is an epic work combining elements of ancient Greek tragedy with Nordic
myth.
These associations contrast sharply with the setting of the second half of the chapter, where the
Brangwen sisters leave the lakeside and stroll further up the road to Shortlands. Gudruns
association of the house with the 18th century writers Jane Austen and Dorothy Wordsworth tie
the Crich family and their estate to social conventions of marriage and family. But when Ursula
observes that Gerald does not fit this model of convention because of his interest in advancing
technologies and improvements, Lawrence suggests that Geralds character cannot fit into the
framework of familial duty and responsibility expected of him both because of the mythic,
spirited part of his being as well as his compulsion toward modernity. Meanwhile, when the
sisters unexpectedly meet Hermione Roddice and Laura Crich, Lawrence associates Gudrun
and Ursula with a desire to reject the conventional forms of marriage, work, and society implied
by their view of the Criches home. Ursulas spirit is compared to a young shoot growing in the
ground that has not yet emerged to flourish in the sunlight. This metaphor aligns her lifes
potential with the vitality and passion of the natural world, but also implies that she may never
succeed in breaking through the surface to achieve a life fully lived.
Chapter 5: In the Train
The chapter opens with Rupert Birkin unexpectedly meeting Gerald Crich on the railway
platform as both are on their way to London. Gerald approaches Birkin and suggests that the
two travel together. They sit in the restaurant car and discuss a newspaper editorial that calls for
a new leader with new values to remake society. As they reflect upon this idea, Birkin constantly
criticizes the societys emphasis on material wealth and production. Gerald suggests that people
work because producing things is an essential part of life.
After perceiving a mocking tone in Geralds voice, Birkin candidly tells him he hates him. Gerald
says he knows this is true, but asks Birkin why he hates him, and Birkin does not offer a clear
reason. Birkin instead asks Gerald what he lives for, and Gerald replies that he lives simply to
live to find things out, to have experiences and to productively make things go. Birkin replies
that he thinks life should be centered on one single and pure activity, and he uses love as a key
example.
Birkin then says he wants to be deeply in love with and married to a woman, and to have it
define his lifes center. Meanwhile Gerald says that he thinks life has no real center and is
simply held together artificially by the social mechanism. The narrator describes Geralds
unacknowledged desire to be near Birkin and enjoy the warmth and vitality of their interactions.
Meanwhile, Birkin knows that Gerald wants to like him and be near him, but not take him
seriously, which only makes Birkin feel colder and harder.

The conversation turns to London, and Gerald asks Birkin where he plans to stay. Birkin tells
him he rents a room from a man in Soho, but that he tires of the people who hang around there.
He describes them as Bohemian artists, musicians, and models, which intrigues Gerald. Gerald
then tells Birkin hell be in London for several days, and suggests that the two may see each
other. Birkin agrees and invites him to go with him and his crowd of Bohemian Londoners to the
Pompadour at Piccadilly Circus that night.
As the train approaches London, Birkin feels a disdain for mankind growing in him, and quotes a
few lines of Robert Brownings poem, Love Among the Ruins. He tells Gerald that arriving in
London always fills him with despair and doom, as if it were the end of the world. Gerald asks if
the idea of the world ending frightens Birkin, who simply shrugs and says he doesnt know he
just thinks that people make him feel badly. The two exit the train and get into a taxi together,
where Birkin asks Gerald if he feels like one of the damned upon entering London. Gerald
laughs and tells him no, and the chapter ends with Birkin saying, It is real death.
Chapter 6: Creme de Menthe
Gerald and Birkin meet in the Caf Pompadour a few hours after they arrive in London. Gerald
enters and sees Birkin seated at a table with a stylish, artistic blond girl. Birkin introduces her as
Miss Minette Darrington (aka the Pussum), and their conversation reveals that she is an
artists model. Gerald feels a strong attraction to her, which is based on his sense of power over
her and his recognition that she is both a victim and capable of being easily destroyed by his
cruelty. Julius Halliday, the owner of the house in Soho where Birkin rents a room, enters the
caf and comes to their table. He begins arguing with Minette, and Birkin calms him, suggesting
that he join their table.
While Birkin and Julius speak with others, Gerald and Minette begin a quiet conversation during
which she reveals that she has been romantically entangled with Julius and is pregnant. She
resents the fact that Julius asked her to live with him, but now wants to keep her away from
London in a country home. A young Russian, Maxim, joins their entourage. Birkin orders oysters
and champagne for Minette.
While they are talking another young man comes to the table and begins making fun of Minette.
She jabs a knife into his hand and he starts bleeding. Julius grows faint at the sight, and Maxim
takes him away from the table. Gerald and Minette continue to flirt, and Gerald compares her to
a young female panther. Julius returns to the table and complains about Minettes behavior. He
suggests that they all leave the caf and go to his house.
The group of five crowd into a taxi, where Gerald and Minette squeeze in together. She holds
his hand, stirring Geralds passion. They arrive at Hallidays house and are greeted by his
servant. Upon entering the sitting-room, Gerald notices a sculpture of a savage woman giving
birth, which he finds compelling. Minette sits on a sofa and ponders her situation, wondering
how to go about seducing Gerald in the house of Julius, her former lover. Gerald likewise
wonders how he and Minette might manage to come together under the circumstances. Birkin

rises to go to bed and says good night to Gerald. Julius then invites Gerald to stay the evening,
and Gerald agrees. Minette mentions that there are only two rooms open for four people,
implying that Julius is playing a game to call out her intentions to sleep with Gerald. Maxim says
that he and Julius will share a room, and Minette leaves to go to her bedroom. Maxim then tells
Gerald youre all right - an implication of consent for Gerard to sleep with Minette.
Chapter 7: Fetish
The chapter opens the next morning with Gerald waking next to a sleeping Minette in their postcoital bed. Gerald watches her sleep and feels a mixture of attraction and pity, which arouses
his lust. He decides to let her sleep, however, and leaves the bedroom.
Gerald enters the sitting-room where he finds Halliday and Maxim, both naked and seated by
the fire. Gerald finds Maxims naked body animalistic and humiliating, whereas he compares
Julius to the image of Christ in a Pieta. Julius tells Gerald he longs to live day to day without the
need for clothing, and to be able to feel things instead of merely looking at them. Gerald looks
again at Maxims body and wonders why its healthy and well-made appearance nonetheless
repels him.
Birkin appears at the doorway, freshly bathed, aloof and white, and somehow evanescent.
Gerald asks him to come in and give his opinion of the wooden sculpture of the woman giving
birth. Birkin says it is art because it conveys a complete truth about the experience of giving
birth. Gerald protests that it cannot be called high art, and Birkin responds that it shows a
pureness of sensation and physicality that makes it supreme.
Gerald returns to the bedroom and finds Minette awake. She recoils from him and he decides to
leave her alone. The four men, now dressed, eat breakfast together. Minette joins them at the
end. Gerald leaves after they make plans to meet again that night and attend a party, minus
Birkin. The narrator then describes the following two nights of increasing tension among the
company, which culminates on the fourth evening of Geralds visit. Halliday and Gerald nearly
get into a physical altercation at the caf, until Gerald decides to leave.
Gerald is frustrated about leaving, because he did not give Minette any money. He muses that
Minette used him to make Halliday jealous, which led him eventually to take her back under his
protection. Gerald believes that this is because Halliday, Maxim, and other such characters are
not real men, and therefore are easily manipulated by Minette. Gerald, meanwhile, is too
manly for Minette to handle. But Minette has Geralds address, and he believes she may very
well seek him out for money one day.

Chapter 8: Breadalby
Chapter 8 opens at Breadalby, Hermione Roddices estate. Gudrun and Ursula are just
arriving for their second visit with Hermione. The sisters are embarrassed because Hermione

comes outside to meet them on the path to the house, rather than waiting to greet them formally
inside. The sisters join other guests, including Rupert Birkin, and Sir Joshua, a famous
sociologist, for lunch outside. The Brangwen sisters find the conversation tedious, and
Hermione consistently degrades Birkin. Lunch ends and Hermiones brother, Alexander
Roddice, arrives with Gerald Crich. Alexander has just been in London and he directs the
conversation immediately to politics and education. Hermione says she highly values education,
and Sir Joshua remarks knowledge is, of course, liberty. Birkin sneers at them both and states
that all knowledge is only knowledge of the past. Tea is served, and the group is surprised at
how quickly the day has passed.
Hermione proposes a walk, and everyone in the group agrees with the exception of Birkin.
When she asks why, he tells her he doesnt like trooping off in a gang. During the walk, the
Brangwen sisters resentment toward Hermione grows, for her rude behavior toward Birkin.
When the group returns to the house, Hermione immediately seeks out Birkin, who is in his
room alone. Hermione asks what he was doing, and sees that he was copying a Chinese
drawing of a gaggle of geese. When she asks why, Birkin responds cryptically, saying that by
copying the drawing he is able to perceive and feel the curious stinging bitter heat of a gooses
blood. Hermione is at a loss for words. She feels that he has destroyed her with some
insidious occult potency.
The time for dinner comes, and the guests reassemble for an extravagant night, with everyone
dressed in evening wear except for Birkin and Sir Joshua. After dinner the guests go to the
drawing-room, where they talk heatedly and mentally exhaust the Brangwen sisters. Hermione
proposes a dance or a song, and it is decided that Ursula, Gudrun, and the Italian Contessa will
perform a Russian style ballet based on the biblical characters Naomi, Oprah, and Ruth. During
the dance, Gerald and Birkin are drawn powerfully to Gudrun and Ursula, respectively. After the
performance the guests begin a lively dance, in which Gerald and Birkin show spirit. Hermione
resents Birkins sudden eagerness, and the Contessa compares him to chameleon for his rapid
change in attitude.
The group breaks up to go to bed. Hermione calls Ursula to her room briefly to talk, but Ursula
feels uncomfortable and leaves when Hermiones maid enters. Meanwhile, Gerald and Birkin
begin a conversation in Birkins bedroom about the Brangwen sisters. Gerald learns that they
are both teachers, that their father is a handicraft instructor, and that Hermione is upsetting
traditional class distinctions by inviting them to her home. Birkin also tells Gerald that Gudrun
makes compelling models, but he thinks she is too flighty ever to become a serious artist.
Gerald informs Birkin of his near altercation with Julius, and his desire to give money to Minette.
Birkin tells him not to bother, and to go to bed. Gerald lingers, and both men feel a faint sense of
longing for each other. Birkin sends Gerald off to bed.
First thing next morning, Gerald revisits the question of paying Minette, and Birkin insists that he
should simply forget about it. The two discuss the idea of marriage, and Gerald suggests that in
the end it will not make Birkin completely happy. The men go down to the dining room for
breakfast, and are the last guests to arrive. Hermione is rude to Birkin, and after assessing the

room he decides to leave. Hermione suggests that the rest of the group go swimming. They all
agree, except for Ursula and Gudrun, who watch the others swim in Hermiones pond. Gudrun
admires Gerald as he swims. Later, when Gerald asks Gudrun why she chose not to swim, she
tells him that she didnt like the crowd. Gerald decides he wants to please Gudrun, and fulfill
her idea of a man.
At lunch, the group begins to discuss the social conditions of humanity. Gerald argues that
society is a mechanism, and people should work to fit their public roles while doing as they
please in their private lives. Hermione says that all humans are equal in spirit and the struggle
for power and domination should end. The guests fall silent, and most of the group leaves the
table. Birkin tells Hermione that in fact people are qualitatively different in spirit. He argues that
one man is no better than another because they are irreducibly and uniquely different, not
because they are equal. Hermione feels a dynamic hatred and loathing for him. Birkin leaves,
but soon after decides to visit Hermione in her room and try to make up with her. While he is
standing with his back turned, Hermione is overtaken by an intense aggression, grabs a
paperweight and smashes it against Birkins head with the intention of killing him. The first blow
stuns him severely, but he turns around and protects himself from Hermiones second strike. He
manages to escape and goes outside, heading for the nearest train station. He writes a note to
Hermione, saying that she need not worry about attacking him but that things are over between
them, and he is heading into town.
Analysis
In Gerald and Birkins conversation on the train, Lawrence makes frequent allusions to the
philosophy of Freidrich Nietzsche, of whom the author was an avid reader. The newspaper
columns editorial piece calls for a new leader to establish a modern set of political and social
values. This was a common call in Lawrences Europe, where Marxist socialism and Freudian
psychoanalysis, among other sciences of political economy and psychology, were being
championed as new paradigms that could lead to a liberated humanity. But Birkins character is
skeptical of such claims, and his position strongly resembles Nietzsches concept of a
transvaluation of all values. Like Nietzsche, Birkin suggests that the desire to replace social
values religious, political economic, moral, etc. with a new set of values cannot result in
meaningful liberation. This is because such desire retains faith in the false concepts of good and
evil, which Nietzsche argues are products of a weakened and dispirited form of morality, which
Europe inherited from Christianity. Birkin reflects this Nietzschean position when he says that in
order to truly go for something better we must completely smash the old and avoid making
proposals that only amount to repetition of the same, tireless game. This is why Birkin appeals
to the idea of one really pure single activity to occupy the center of life, driving the individual to
his or her own truth.
As the train approaches London, Birkin quotes a few lines from Robert Brownings poem, Love
Among the Ruins. The poem is a melancholic memorial to a time long past, when heroic values
and epic struggles defined human endeavors. Birkins citation of the poem implies a fallen,
ruined condition of modernity his contemporary European culture lacks the vital spirit that

once determined societal values. It also reinforces the association of Birkins character with an
apocalyptic view of humanitys future. This feeling sets the stage for their entry to London,
where Birkin and Gerald hobnob with a Bohemian, artistic group whose nihilistic, decadent
behavior lacks meaning and vitality.
At Caf Pompadour, Gerald becomes infatuated with Minette, and is especially impressed when
she grabs a knife and stabs the hand of the man who insults her. Gerald then tells her that she
is a young, female panther. This metaphor recalls Gudruns early association of Gerald with a
totem of the wolf: at this moment, Geralds animalistic and instinctual urges rise up. A savage
eroticism connects him with Minette, further developing Lawrences theme of the conflict
between primal desires and social conventions, through a miniature drama of aggression played
out at a civilized caf table. This theme continues when the two arrive at the home of Julius
Halliday, and Gerald observes the totem-like sculpture of a woman giving birth, which also
symbolizes Minettes imminent labor. The raw and unadulterated nature of the passion that
Gerald and Minette feel is in stark opposition to the highly stylized artistry of Hallidays home,
and to the social decorum displayed when Julius invites Gerald to stay. The night ends with an
elaborate game of conversation that ends with Maxim indirectly informing Gerald that he may
sleep with Minette.
Maxims role as a go-between who sanctions Geralds erotic consummation with Minette also
encodes a homoerotic suggestion of Maxims attachment to Julius. When Maxim announces
that he and Julius will share a room and the narrator mentions that Maxim and Julius were
friends since Eton, Lawrence suggests that the two men share an intimate and erotic
connection, which was established when they were schoolboys. This implication is more fully
developed in chapter 7, when Gerald emerges the next morning from Minettes bedroom to find
Julius and Maxim sitting by the fire, naked. In this chapter, Gerald both erotically aestheticizes
and loathes male bodies. He compares Julius to a scene of the Christian pieta, while he finds
Maxims naked figure simultaneously well made and disgusting. These mixed reactions develop
another angle on Lawrences theme of repressed desire, in an exclusively male setting at a time
when homosexuality was extremely taboo in English society.
In chapter 8, Hermiones attack on Birkin can be read in light of their conversation regarding the
nature of equality and the power of the spirit. It also resembles Minettes attack on Julius in the
previous chapter, although the social setting now is an upper-class estate rather than a seedy
London nightclub. Just before she attacks him, Birkin rightly accuses Hermione of paying lip
service to an empty and abstract principle of equality when she states that humans are all
equal in the spirit. Hermione claims that the recognition of this fact should put an end to the
struggles for power and domination in society. But Birkin forces Hermione to recognize that her
position is facetious, and that a vital spirit of difference must drive human endeavors if they are
to have true meaning. Birkins defense of a singular, unique spirit understands humans to be
radically different from each other, and this Nietzschean position suggests that only through
combative striving can individuals lift themselves and their worlds to new heights of
achievement.

Hermiones attack against Birkin represents her attempt to live up to this extreme concept of
spirited individuality, since she is described as being overtaken by a delirium of pleasure and
ecstasy when she smashes the paperweight against his head. But Lawrence also implies that
Hermiones response in this situation is a failed attempt, or a misunderstanding of this idea,
because it is based upon her resentment for Birkin rather than a genuine act of creative, striving
passion. Hermiones failure is illustrated by the chapters concluding description of her extreme
feelings of exclusive righteousness and self-esteem after attacking Birkin, which only lead
her into a state of self-assured indulgence.
Analysis
Chapter 9:Coal-dust
Walking home one day after school, Ursula and Gudrun stop at the railway crossing.Gerald
Crich rides up to the crossing on a stately mare, and Gudrun admires him. As the train
approaches, however, the horse spooks. Gerald and the mare begin a battle back and forth as
the horse attempts to flee from the noise and presence of the oncoming train, and Gerald
attempts to control the horse and force it to stay put under his command.
As the Brangwen sisters watch the struggle unfold between Gerald and the mare, Gudrun first
feels a compulsive attraction toward Gerald, and feels herself falling under the grasp of his will.
Ursula has the opposite reaction, and calls out that Gerald should ride away until the train
passes. Gerald becomes even more violent with the horse, driving his spurs into her side until
she bleeds.
Gudrun grows faint at the sight. The train eventually passes, and the sisters hurry to open the
gate and cross. Gerald rides away quickly while the train gatekeeper comments on Geralds
masterful jockeying. Ursula protests that it was a display of unnecessary brutality. The
gatekeeper responds that a show of dominance is a necessary part of the horses training, in
order to make her capable of withstanding anything.
As the sisters keep walking home, they encounter a pair of unsavory working-class men on the
road, who make crude jokes about what price they would pay to prostitute the girls. The sisters
continue, walking through a neighborhood of miners houses. Gudrun watches a miner bathe
himself, and feels overwhelmed by the dark physicality of the atmosphere surrounding the
workers. She finds it potent and half-repulsive, and the narrator begins to describe Gudruns
frequent, nostalgic wanderings among the miners section of town during evenings and weekend
markets. While on these strolls, Gudrun often meets Palmer, a young electrician and scientist
working for the Criches mining operation, who enjoys sociology. Palmer is in love with Ursula
and knows her as a friend, but he spends time with Gudrun.
Chapter 10: Sketch-book

Ursula and Gudrun sit beside Willey Water one morning, sketching. Gudrun is seated on a
shoal, drawing water plants that shoot up from the mud. Ursula watches butterflies flit near the
water. Both sisters are absorbed in their views of nature.
Gudrun is brought out of her trance by the sound of oars clanking. She looks to the water and
sees Hermione and Gerald in a boat. Hermione notices Gudrun, and tells Gerald they should go
say hello. Gerald directs the boat to Gudruns spot on the shoal. Hermione asks Gudrun what
she is doing, and then asks to see her sketches.
Gudrun reluctantly hands over the sketchbook to Gerald, and they share a look of intense
feeling. Hermione looks through Gudruns sketches and blithely points out the plants that
Gudrun has drawn. Gerald asks to look at the book, but Hermione ignores him. When he
reaches for the book, Hermione releases it before he can grasp it, and it falls into the water.
Hermione makes a rushed apology and sneeringly asks Gerald to retrieve the book from the
water.
After Gerald fetches the dripping wet book, he hands it back to Gudrun. Hermione continues to
apologize, offering to buy Gudrun a new book. Gudrun insists that the event is entirely trivial
and that if anyone bears blame for dropping the book, it is Gerald. He is meanwhile enamored
of Gudruns cold yet calm handling of Hermione. When Gudrun tells Hermione that it doesnt
matter in the least, she looks at Gerald and realizes that she has subtly gained a secret power
over him, and that a sort of diabolic freemasonry subsisted between them. From now on she
knows that he will be helpless under her control. Hermione and Gerald say farewell and row
away, as Geralds mind and attention remain focused in good humor on Gudrun, which
infuriates Hermione.
Chapter 11: An Island
As the previous chapters events unfold between Gudrun, Gerald, and Hermione, Ursula leaves
Willey Water and treks alongside a stream, arriving at a nearby mill-house with a pond. As she
nears the pond she notices a man on the bank, working on a small boat. It turns out to
be Rupert Birkin. He asks Ursula if she can help him determine if his repairs to the punt, or
boat, are sufficient. He jokes that she will know since she is her fathers daughter, and her father
is an instructor in handicrafts. Ursula takes a look but admits she knows nothing about
carpentry, despite the fact that her father is an expert. She tells Rupert the craft looks fine, and
he decides to test it by sailing onto a small island. He comes back to pick Ursula up and the two
go on to the island.
They land under a willow tree and joke about the idyllic scene. Ursula notices that Birkin looks
unwell, and asks if he has been ill. He says yes, but he doesnt explain that he has been
recovering from Hermiones attack on him with the paperweight. Ursula asks if Birkin was
frightened to be ill, and Birkin tells her he thinks that real illness is a consequence of not living
properly, and that the failure to live is more humiliating than illness itself. This statement disturbs

Ursula because she senses its truth, and she falsely tells Birkin that she is happy and finds life
jolly.
As they continue talking, Birkin tells Ursula that mankind is a dead tree and that peoples
insides are full of bitter, corrupt ash. Human beings pay lip service to love, when in fact all they
do is cultivate hatred. Birkin claims he loathers humanity, and argues that the natural world
would be better off without the existence of humans. Creation, Birkin observes, in no way
depends upon human beings. At first Ursula protests against his ideas, but as she stops to
consider a fantasy of the world without humans, she finds it appealing.
Ursula asks Birkin if he believes in love, and he replies that he thinks it is simply one of many
emotions that are part of any human relationship. Ursula finds Birkin to be detestably priggish
yet chiseled and attractive. The duality of feeling goes deep inside her, and makes Ursula feel a
strong hatred for Birkin. They continue to debate what love is and whether it retains any real
value for their world. Ursula tosses daisies into the water and they decide to return to shore.
The two fall into an uncomfortable silence, and in a brief moment of feeling Birkin tells Ursula
that he is now lodging at the mill house, and suggests that they can spend some time together.
Ursula ignores the implication, and Birkin becomes distant again. He goes on to say that he
detests his job and thinks he will quit, instead simply live on his 400 pound a year inheritance.
Ursula asks him about Hermione, and Birkin explains that their relationship is completely over.
The two hear dogs barking, which Birkin knows to be Gerald and Hermione arriving to inspect
his new rooms. He invites Ursula to join them, which she does hesitantly.
Chapter 12: Carpeting
Ursula and Birkin enter the mill house, where they find Hermione and Gerald speaking with Mrs.
Salmon, the wife of the mill house laborer and caretaker. A cage full of canaries chirps loudly.
The group watches as Mrs. Salmon drapes a blanket over the cage, fooling the birds into
thinking the evening has come so they will go to sleep. Hermione and Ursula marvel at how
simply the canaries have been fooled, and Hermione compares one of the sleeping birds to a
stupid husband.
The group decides to inspect Birkins new lodgings and measure the size of the rooms. Mrs.
Salmon prepares tea for them, which they decide to take outside on the bank of the pond.
Hermione bossily takes over the job of measuring the rooms, beginning with the dining room
and moving into the study, telling Birkin she plans to give him an expensive rug for his study.
The finish measuring the bedroom and go outside for tea.
Outside, Ursula tells Gerald that she was upset with him the other day at the train crossing, for
treating his horse so badly. Gerald responds that he simply has to train the mare not to be
frightened of loud noises, and to stand strong. This begins a discussion among the four friends
concerning whether humans should naturally use their will to dominate the will of animals. Birkin
suggests that horses are like women, insofar as both have two wills acting in opposition a will
to toss her rider and run free, and a will to be ruled by her rider through the power of love.

Hermione and Ursula detach from the men and stroll together, feeling a sense a deep affection.
Meanwhile, Gerald is drawn to Birkin and to his statements about the dual will of horses.
Hermione tells Ursula that she is tired of criticism and analysis of life, and instead wants to
appreciate the holiness and beauty of things. Ursula agrees, saying some things must be left to
the Lord. They agree that Birkin tears everything apart, and his over analysis of life doesnt
allow any possibility of flowering. But this sudden agreement mutates sharply into an extreme
mistrust and competitive revulsion. They rejoin the men, and Ursula decides to go home. On her
way, she senses an internal conflict in her feelings about both Hermione and Birkin, finding
herself attracted but hostile toward both.
Analysis
When the Brangwen sisters encounter Gerald Crich at the train crossing, the setting recalls
Geralds unexpected meeting with Birkin at the train station, on their way to London, in chapter
5. Here, however, the setting connotes Lawrences theme of the conflict between mythic
naturalism and modern technological society, manifested through the character of Gerald Crich.
As he sits astride his mare, he attempts to control her fear and primal urge to flee from the
oncoming train. The horse is a metaphor for both the human passions and the natural world that
technology attempts to master, while the train represents the quick-paced onslaught of
technological advancement, which threatens to run out of control. The Brangwen sisters
observe the struggle between Gerald and the horse with fear and distaste, finding Geralds
forceful discipline to be unnecessarily cruel. Ursulas reaction in particular represents the idea
that human attempts to master and control our natural instincts are a form of unwarranted
violence against the primal self. Her response is to cry out to Gerald to let the horse flee. But
Gudrun finds this display of Geralds will enticing, and she feels that she cannot get out of his
grasp. The sisters different reactions to the scene foreshadow Rupert Birkins claim in chapter
12 that women are split between the will to run free and the will to be dominated in love.
As Gudrun and Ursula walk through Beldover afterwards, Lawrences descriptions of the miners
and their residences emphasizes a dark physicality to working class life. Even the dialect in
which the miners speak conveys an atmospheric thickness that Gudrun feels enveloping her in
a labourers caress. The tone and setting evoke a nostalgic attraction for working class life, of
which Gudrun is somewhat ashamed. This is her heritage, since her father is a handicraft
laborer and she is a schoolteacher. But she also longs to leave it behind, since she has studied
art in London and now finds herself among the social elite. This conflict sets the stage for her
view of Gerald on the boat in chapter 10, where she thinks that Gerald can be the vehicle of her
escape from the heavy slough of the pale, underworld, automatic colliers.
The sketchbook scene in chapter 10 indicates that a powerful emotional transference is taking
place between Gerald and Gudrun. When Gudrun first sees Gerald she imagines he can help
her escape her working class history, while Gerald thinks that Gudrun is still nobody to him,
and he will simply observe as Hermione goes about dissolving the class differences that ought
to keep her and Gerald from bothering to speak to Gudrun. But the dynamic of power suddenly
and radically shifts in Gudruns favor, as her cold yet strong demeanor captivates him. Gudrun

manages to overturn Geralds confidence in his class standing, by subjecting his desire to a
woman whose class status is below his own. This situation contrasts sharply with Geralds
earlier estimation of Minette and his power over her, which he found to be securely grounded in
his superior class position and wealth.
In chapter 11, when Birkin and Ursula arrive on the tiny island, they make some significant
allusions to works of literature and art. Birkin first mentions Paul et Virginie, a French novel in
which two lovers live a utopian existence on the island of Mauritius. Ursula then jokes that one
could have Watteau picnics on the little island they have, a reference to the baroque
naturalism of French painter Antoine Watteau. Watteau painted scenes of idyllic life and leisure
in the natural world. But Birkin and Ursulas allusions to these French works are ironic. They
serve as symbols of decadence and empty values, which Birkin goes on to chastise in his
discussion with Ursula about love and humankind. To live a truly vigorous, passionate life
requires moving through periods of destruction, according to Birkin. A life of ease and simplistic
pleasures leads to an empty concept of love, which he believes has poisoned humanity.
When Ursula and Birkin join Hermione and Gerald at the mill house in chapter 12, their
conversation returns to the metaphor of the rider astride his horse that Lawrence introduced in
chapter 9. Birkin claims that horses are divided between the will to reject their rider and flee, and
the will to remain under the riders control. He extends this analogy to the situation of women,
arguing that the desire to fall in love is a desire to resign your will to the higher being. But
Birkin does not advocate this fate, and instead tells the group that it is dangerous and unwise to
domesticate even horses, let alone women. This statement implies his rejection of
conventional models of love and marriage, which he understands to stifle the passionate soul
and become an obstacle to deeper, truer love. But his outlandish perspective disturbs Hermione
and Ursula, who remain bound to their more traditional views of marital union, love, and beauty.
Summary
Chapter 13: Mino
Ursula waits impatiently, and finally receives an invitation to tea from Rupert Birkin. He invites
both Ursula and Gudrun, but Ursula decides not to tell her sister so that she may go alone. As
she arrives, she begins to feel taken outside of herself. She meets Birkin and sees that he too
feels uneasy. He asks about Gudrun, and when Ursula tells him she could not attend, he
instantly guesses the truth behind Ursulas words. They begin to talk in earnest.
Birkin tells Ursula that if they are going to be friends, she must commit to a final and
irrevocable sort of pledge - but not one of love. Ursula asks if he means that he doesnt love
her, and Birkin tells her no. He wants their connection to be founded on something beyond
[love], where there is no speech, and no terms of agreement. He tells Ursula he wants this truer
aspect of their individual selves, this impulsive and inhuman part, to fully take place and define
their relationship. Ursula finds Birkins comments to be wearisome. She presses him, asking if
he doesnt find her attractive or have some feelings of love for her, why did he invite her to tea?

She believes he loves her, but will not admit it. Birkin responds by saying quite earnestly that he
wants a strange conjunction with Ursula, a pure balance of two single beings. Ursula tells
him this all seems a bit sudden, and he laughingly replies that it is best to read the terms of the
contract before one signs.
The two watch as Birkins male cat Mino rises from the couch and darts outside. They follow it to
the garden, where they see a wild female cat that Mino is after. The two cats begin a game of
wild flirtation, and Mino pounces on the stray, hitting her with his paws in a display of
dominance. Ursula protests at Minos behavior, as Birkin laughs and says it is naturally
appropriate. Ursula argues that it is a presumption of male superiority, and just like Gerald
Crichs bullying of the horse, very base and petty. Birkin says without the Mino, the female cat
is merely a stray, and compares the situation to a star keeping a planet in its orbit. Ursula jumps
critically onto his metaphor, saying that it gives away his true feeling about the terms of their
relationship - that he would be the star and she the satellite, kept in his orbit. Birkin protests, and
they are interrupted when the landlady calls them for tea.
As they sit for tea, Birkin argues that he meant he and Ursula should be as two single equal
stars balanced in conjunction, rather than one orbiting the other. Ursula changes the subject by
commenting on Birkins fine china tea set, but Birkin brings it back to his theory on the relation
between a man and a woman. He says that love must be a commitment to remain in a balanced
conjunction. Ursula tells him she doesnt believe that he actually wants to be in love, however,
because he talks too much about it and doesnt simply allow himself to love. He retorts that her
idea of love is to subordinate all aspects of the self to it, and to be subservient. They haggle until
they grow weary.
Birkin shifts the conversation by asking Ursula to tell him about her family, the Brangwens. She
relates her family history as well as an account of her first love, Skrebensky, while Birkin listens
attentively and finds her beauty compelling. He jokes that all of us have suffered too much,
and Ursula agrees with laughter. She moves closer to Birkin and asks him to tell he loves her,
putting her arms around his neck. He kisses her and tells her in a half-mocking tone of
submission that he loves her, and that he is bored by the rest.
Chapter 14: Water-party
The Criches annual party on Willey Water lake arrives, and the Brangwen sisters decide to
attend along with their parents. Gudrun and Ursula dress stylishly and with flamboyance, and on
the way to the party laugh at their parents more traditional attire. The Brangwens arrive and
Rupert Birkin greets Ursulas parents. Hermione Roddice comes to them and escorts the
Brangwen parents to meet Laura Crich, who is acting as host, and Gerald Crich. Gerald helps
to launch a boat full of party guests onto the water, and asks the sisters if they would like to go
on the next turn. They tell him no, and Gudrun explains that she finds such boat rides to be
overly crowded with banal, working-class types.

The sisters ask instead if there is a small boat they can take onto the water. Gerald offers to let
them use his light rowboat, and to give them a picnic basket to take along. The sisters happily
agree, and Gerald calls after Birkin to help him load the boat. Gudrun notices that Geralds hand
is inured and bandaged, and expresses concern. He tells her he crushed his fingers in some
machinery, but that the hand is now healing. The sisters enter the water on the boat, and row
over to a removed knoll where a small stream enters the lake. Removed from the public eye,
they decide to undress and swim. After they swim, the two sisters dance in the sunshine. They
take tea, and begin to sing. A group of cattle watch them.
Suddenly they hear a voice call out and realize that Gerald and Birkin have come looking for the
sisters. Gudrun expresses some anger at them for invading the sisters tea party, and marches
away. Gerald follows her, while Birkin goes to talk to Ursula. He playfully dances for her.
Meanwhile, Gudrun begins to frighten the group of cattle, and Gerald warns her against it. This
makes her all the more lively, and she ends up backhanding Gerald across the face. You have
struck the first blow, he tells her, and Gudrun replies that she shall strike the last. Gudrun
turns away and goes back to the lake. Gerald follows, and when he arrives Gudrun softly tells
him not to be angry with her. He responds that he isnt angry, but he is in love with Gudrun. He
takes her hand, and they rejoin Birkin and Ursula.
Birkin has been teasing Ursula about the nearby marsh, telling her that it seethes and seethes
like a river of darkness. He goes on to describe a vision of the cosmos in which life is
intermixed with death. The power of Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love, is combined with
universal dissolution, and the beginning is mingled with the end. Ursula tells Birkin he only
wants us to know death and Gerald suddenly emerges from the dusk, saying, Youre quite
right.
Night falls, and the group begins to smoke cigarettes while Birkin lights lanterns. They decide to
split up into two boats and return to the party Gudrun with Gerald, and Ursula with Birkin.
Gerald and Gudrun share a romantic exchange while on the boat, and both want to stay away
from the party. Suddenly they hear a childs voice cry out Di-Di-Oh-Di and Gerald recognizes
that it must be someone calling out for his sister, Diana. They come to the large party boat and
its captain informs Gerald that his sister Diana went into the water and is missing, along with the
younger Dr. Brindall, who went after her. Gerald goes into the water, trying to find them. After
several tries Rupert Birkin picks him up and takes him to shore, despite Geralds protestations.
On shore, Gerald and his father meet, and they decide that there is no longer any hope of
finding the two alive. Mr. Crich says that the sluice should be let out to drain the lake. Gerald
says goodbye to Gudrun and Birkin escorts him to the house. The sisters wait, and when Birkin
returns Gudrun goes home. Birkin asks Ursula to join him in at the sluice. The two talk about
death and love, and embrace passionately on the road above the lake. Birkin is overwhelmed
and wanders back home, where he finds a group of men dragging the lake bottom for Diana and
the doctor. Gerald is among them, and Birkin tries to make him leave and accompany Birkin
home. Gerald insists that he must stay and see the task to the end. The two exchange an
intense feeling of concern, and Birkin leaves. Near dawn, the bodies of the dead are found.

Diana is grasping the neck of Dr. Brindall, leading Gerald to proclaim that she killed him by
accidentally choking him as he tried to rescue her.
Chapter 15: Sunday Evening
Ursula is passionately in love with Birkin, and waits for him to visit her at home the day after the
drowning accident. As the hours pass, she feels her life-blood weakening and despair set in.
She mulls over her dark desire for death, deciding that death is better, more true to the spirit
than a life of mechanical process and production. She finds a strange gladness in looking
forward to the pure inhuman otherness of death. She feels as if she has gone deeply into the
powerful and ultimate darkness of her own soul.
The bell rings, and it is Birkin. It is a rainy evening outside, as Birkin stands at her door and tells
Ursula he is glad to find her at home. Ursula tells him that her parents, Gudrun, and the older
siblings are at church. She is watching her two younger siblings, and tells them to get ready for
bed. Birkin and Ursula go into the drawing room.
Birkin asks Ursula what she has been doing all day, and she tells him she has only been sitting
about. He senses a shift in her but is unsure of its meaning. The two children, Billy and Dora,
call out to her and she opens the door to find them waiting to be put to bed. The children reflect
an angelic appearance, and Ursula asks them to say good night to Birkin. Billy gives Birkin a
tender good night kiss, but Dora is afraid. Ursula takes them upstairs to hear their prayers and
tuck them in.
When she returns she tells Birkin that he looks quite ill. He says he hadnt thought about his
health, and Ursula chastises him for not taking better care of himself. She says it is terrible that
he is so out of touch with his own body he does not even recognize when he is sick. Her parents
return from church along with Gudrun and the older siblings.
Mr. Brangwen greets Birkin, and Mrs. Brangwen asks him about things at Shortlands, the Crich
home. Birkin says it is an overexcited and unwholesome scene there, and it would be better if
the family grieved in private rather than having so many people present. Gudrun agrees with
him, but Mrs. Brangwen says that bearing such events are extremely difficult. Birkin leaves.
Ursula finds herself full of a pure and intense hatred for Birkin, but is utterly unsure of its source
or reason. It continues for days, even when she hears that he has fallen ill again. She feels she
cannot escape this sudden transfiguration of hatred that had come upon her.
Chapter 16: Man to Man
Birkin sits at home, feeling extremely ill and near to death. He reflects on Ursulas offer of love to
him, but feels that he cannot accept it because it is based on the old way of love that he views
as a form of bondage or conscription. He associates Ursula with a female tendency to be overly
maternal. He also imagines sexual difference between men and women to be the result of a
process of increasing purification from a state of mixed being.

Gerald comes to visit Birkin while he is laid up. He feels love for Birkin, but continues to think a
union with his friend is unreal and impractical. The two discuss Birkins poor health and Geralds
continued focus on work and the company. Birkin asks Gerald about Gudrun, and Gerald tells
him that the last time they saw each other she struck him across the face. Birkin jokes that
perhaps the Amazon suddenly came up in her. Gerald tells him that his mother has been
strangely unaffected by Dianas drowning, and that Gerald has not been able to grieve.
The two continue to talk about Geralds father, and his younger sister Winnie, whom Gerald
thinks should be sent off to boarding school. Birkin says she is of a special nature and ought not
to be sent away. He says that people with special natures, such as Winnies and Gerald, ought
to make their own special world. He suggests that he and Gerald together can also make a
special world. Gerald feels drawn to Birkin, and Birkin suddenly realizes that he loves Gerald,
and has loved him for some time.
Birkin suggests that the two men swear an oath of love to each other - the "Bruderschaft", a
brotherhood symbolized by the exchange of blood. Gerald hesitates, even though inside he is
pleased by Birkins proposal. Gerald tells him he must wait until he understands it better. Birkin
is hurt and disappointed, but does not say so. Birkin changes the topic by asking if Gerald can
perhaps get a governess to educate Winnie. Gerald says Hermione has suggested they hire
Gudrun to teach art to Winifred, as the girl has displayed an artistic sensibility. Birkin endorses
the idea. Gerald decides he must leave and return to work, though he tells Birkin he will visit
again soon. The men exchange a heartfelt goodbye.
Analysis
In Chapter 13, Rupert Birkin attempts to draft a new model of a social contract, and proposes it
to Ursula. This foreshadows his eventual marriage proposal, but it also reveals that Birkin does
not want a conventional marriage, which would be founded on the norms of society. Instead, he
longs for a mystical and cosmic equilibrium between two individuals. Birkin imagines a
relationship that would abandon the terms of society and explore a more radical form of
connection between he and Ursula. Birkins image of this unique relationship is a balanced
conjunction between two heavenly bodies. Each body retains its own complete independence of
spirit, but exists in harmony alongside the other. This cosmic imagery and its radical implications
for a contract between Ursula and Birkin further aligns his character with the Nietzschean call
for a transvaluation of all values, and continues to develop Lawrences theme of the conflict
between the desire for a conventional marriage and a more unique union, often felt by
passionate, creative souls.
When the Brangwen sisters are walking with their parents to the Criches water-party in chapter
14, their flamboyant style suggests their uniqueness and standing outside of the accepted social
order. Their parents more traditional and frumpy attire contrasts with the sisters brightly colored
and whimsical dress. The girls make fun of their parents appearance, which puts Mr. Brangwen
in a foul mood and leads him to criticize the girls' ostentatious public display. As soon as they
arrive the sisters decide to escape from the party, which reinforces the theme that they are

liminal, outsider figures. The sisters dont fit into the working class strictures handed down to
them by their parents and position, but they also arent upper class aristocrats.
The sisters lack of a clear class fit is symbolized when they flee to the knoll, which is a pastoral
escape from the confines of the party. The Criches party serves as an allegory for the social
world of established class values, practices, and entertainment that the sisters detest. Lawrence
compares them to nymphs, or seductive spirits of the natural world that defy the laws and
standards of civilization. They dance among a group of cattle, a sacred and mystical animal in
Hindu culture, which associates cattle with the gift of life. These associations with the Brangwen
sisters in turn fuel Birkin and Geralds desire, as the two men leave the party and decide to
follow the ladies to their secret shade. These are lively experiences in the forest setting, which
contrast sharply with the scene of Dianas drowning later that night at the party.
In chapter 15, Ursula sits alone at home and contemplates death. She connects death with
sleep, and thus with a cycle of rebirth of which she is part. Her intense reflections recall the
imagery of death and love that shaped Birkins strange cosmic rant in the previous chapter.
When Birkin arrives to see Ursula, he notices a change in her. It seems that she has begun to
shift her demeanor, becoming part of the aligned conjunction of stars that Birkin asks for in their
contract of friendship. But this apparent connection with Birkin is suddenly transfigured into a
sharp and intense hatred at the end of the chapter. She finds his remarks about the Criches
response to Dianas death to be callous and unfeeling. At the end of the chapter, Birkin leaves
Ursula in a state of irrational yet transcendently pure emotion. She experiences a hatred that
burns like a white flame and ties her to Birkin even more intensely.
Geralds visit to Birkin in chapter 16 solidifies the passionate bond between them. Gerald seems
unsure of why he is so attracted to Birkin, which suggests a repressed erotic desires at work.
Gerald sees in Birkins eyes an amazing attractive goodliness but he also fears the fact that
Birkin is so fiercely independent. This prevents Gerald from giving in to his strong feelings for
Birkin. Meanwhile, as the two men visit, Birkin finds himself suddenly confronted with the
problem of love and eternal conjunction between two men. He realizes that he is in love with
Gerald, but remains uncertain of the implications of that love. As with Gudrun, Birkin wants to
establish a contractual bond or promise with Gerald, and so he proposes the Bruderschaft. But
his idea frightens Gerald even more, because the idea makes him more attracted to Birkin. His
only response is to suspend the possibility, and to repress his emotion even further. The scene
of passionate love and attraction between the two men develops the novels theme of the nature
of desire and social repression.

Summary
Chapter 17: The Industrial Magnate
Ursula and Gudrun turn away from Birkin and Gerald and begin pursuing other endeavors.
Gudrun plans to travel, and writes to friends in Europe to inquire about lodging. One day the

sisters stop at a cottage in Willey Green to buy honey from Mrs. Kirk. She tells them that Mr.
Crich is quite ill, having taken a turn for the worse after Dianas drowning. She also tells Gudrun
that she once served as a nurse for Gerald, whom she describes as a young demon.
The narrator turns to discuss the case of Mr. Crich, who is dying. His life has been one of
struggle with his wife, Christiana, who resents Mr. Crichs philanthropy. Mr. Crich is described as
a devout Christian who believes his miners hold the key to salvation, so he tries to care for them
as best he can. Christiana loathes the poor and her husbands desire to help them, but Mr. Crich
loves her passionately all the same. Mrs. Crich has slowly lost interest in her life and in her
children, including Gerald, who was once the center of her life. Since Gerald has returned home
to run the family business, however, his father has become much closer to him and now trusts
him completely with the familys estate and interests.
Mr. Crichs most beloved child is his youngest daughter, Winifred. He feels a deep anxiety about
her welfare and future, since he knows he will die soon. Mr. Crich believes that Winifred is an
odd, sensitive, inflammable child who is also deeply intelligent. She is also described as a
pure anarchist, [and] a pure aristocrat at once. Mr. Crich feels that his fate depends upon
making sure Winifred will be happy. When he hears that Gudrun might be hired to teach
Winifred, he thinks he may have found a solution.
As Mr. Crich wastes away, Gerald is overwhelmed. He feels that his world is being torn apart
because Mr. Crich was the anchor of the family and the figurehead of the colliery. Gerald recalls
how he hated the drudgery of the family business as a child, and instead imagined himself a
Homeric hero. He attended universities in Germany to get away from England, but eventually
Gerald came back to his family and to the mines. But his motivation to begin working in the
mines and improving the companys business was his will to subjugate Matter to his own ends,
rather than the accumulation of wealth. Gerald remembers the miners strikes that took place
when he was a boy, which upset the delicate balance of power that Mr. Crich held over his
workers.
As Gerald came into adulthood, he began to decide that he must reform the mining operation
from the inside, and develop a more efficient, advanced, and powerful approach. He grew
determined to master the materials of the earth through the combined powers of his own will
and the productive capacity of labor organized into processes of mechanical repetition. Slowly,
Gerald took over more and more of the companys activities, bringing engineers and new
machinery into the mines to improve the operation through science and technology. These
reforms forced the miners to work harder than ever before. At first they hated Gerald and his
new system, but they slowly have come to see and appreciate this new power, and they begin
to throw themselves actively into the increased productivity and superior functioning. Geralds
system therefore succeeds. But it has also brought fear to Gerald, who worries that his will now
lacks a meaningful purpose.
Chapter 18: Rabbit

Gudrun feels that she must go to Shortlands and accept the position as Winifreds teacher, but
she also thinks that this will lead her inevitably to become Geralds lover. She decides to go at
least for a brief time, before she leaves for Europe. She meets with Mr. Crich in his library,
where he brings in Winifred. When Gudrun and Winifred meet the child is underwhelmed, and
their first few interactions are awkward. But they soon develop a rapport. Winifred is both
playful and slightly mocking, and she and Gudrun begin to construct a make-belief world in
which they meet and conduct lessons in art. Winifred does a drawing of her dog, Looloo, of
which she is extremely proud.
Gerald is away during Gudruns initial visit, but when he returns he watches for her one morning
in the garden. She arrives, and Winifred and her maidservant approach. They begin to converse
and joke in French and German about Winifreds plan to draw a portrait of Bismarck, Winifreds
rabbit. Gerald interrupts them. He asks Gudrun how she likes being at Shortlands. Gudrun says
she likes it very much, and the group strolls about the garden. Gerald and Gudrun exchange
passionate looks, as Mademoiselle the maid quietly observes.
Gudrun takes Winifred away to the stables, and to the rabbit Bismarcks cage. Gudrun suggests
they remove him from his cage, although Winifred warns that he is strong and a fearful kicker.
Gudrun unlocks the cage door, thrusts her arm inside, and grabs the rabbit by its ears. As she
drags the rabbit from its cage and into the open it kicks wildly, and Gudrun nearly loses control.
She becomes enraged as Bismarck scratches her wrists. Gerald enters. He grabs the rabbit,
smacks it heavily and tucks it under his arm.
Gerald takes the rabbit out into a small courtyard. He asks Gudrun if she was hurt by Bismarck,
and Gudrun tells him no. When Gerald tosses the rabbit onto the ground, it doesnt move.
Gerald says that the rabbit must be skulking, Gudrun and Gerald compare the scratches on
their arms, and Gerald imagines that the long, red wound on Gudruns arm is a deep gash
across his own brain, tearing the surface of his ultimate consciousness. Suddenly the rabbit
begins frantically running around the courtyard, and just as immediately it stops and begins to
calmly chew the grass. Gudrun laughs, saying the rabbit is mad and that thankfully we arent
rabbits. Gerald slyly asks, Not rabbits? and Gudrun recognizes the sexual implication of his
question. She replies Ah, GeraldAll that, and more, and her frankness feels to Gerald like
another smack across his face or a tear across his breast. The chapter ends with Winifred
calling to the rabbit to let her stroke its fur, because it is so mysterious.
Chapter 19: Moony
Birkin goes to the south of France after his sickness, and no one hears from him for some time.
Ursula detaches from society, spending time alone or with animals. One evening she decides to
walk toward Willey Water, to the mill. When she arrives at the pond, she notices that Birkin is
standing there in the darkness, throwing stones onto the water. He doesnt see Ursula, and she
watches him toss larger and larger stones into the water to disturb the reflection of the moon on
its surface. Finally she walks over to him and asks him to stop.

Birkin tells Ursula he just returned that day from France, and didnt write her because he could
find nothing to say. They begin a difficult conversation about their relationship, with Birkin telling
Ursula that he loves her but he also wants something more from her. He wants them to be
together in a natural way, like a pure phenomenon that does not depend upon their own effort.
Ursula tells him he doesnt love her, and he only wants her as his mere thing and for her never
to speak critically of him. He denies this, and tells Ursula he simply wants her to drop her
pretentious will. They fall silent for few a moments, and Ursula reaches her hand out to Birkin.
She tells him she must know if he does love her, and Birkin says he does. They kiss and nestle
close to each other, then Ursula tells him she must go home.
The next day Birkin feels odd about opening up to Ursula. He muses over his desire, thinking
that he does not want to develop the dark sensuality he feels is part of his soul. He recalls an
African carving from Hallidays house, and its powerful awakening of this sensibility inside him.
He then considers that the sensuous, creative life of the old Africans is gone, and wonders if life
must simply be different for the blond and blue-eyed from the north? This reminds him of
Gerald, and Birkin wonders about his friends fate, thinking of him as one of the strange white
wonderful demons from the north, fulfilled in the destructive frost mystery. This frightens Birkin,
who releases his thinking from these mysteries and suddenly realizes that he must pursue his
connection with Ursula. He decides he must ask her to marry him, and sets off immediately for
Beldover.
When he arrives at the Brangwen home, Ursulas father sits down with Birkin. They feel nothing
in common, and make small talk. Birkin asks if Ursula is home, and Mr. Brangwen tells him she
will arrive shortly. Birkin tells Brangwen that he intends to ask Ursula to marry him, which
surprises the man. Ursulas father tells Birkin that he has tried to do his best to raise her
properly, in a good Christian home, and that if she is to marry he hopes she will not go back on
these principles. Birkin is annoyed by this, and asks why. Brangwen tells him he doesnt
approve of Birkins new-fangled ideas. After more verbal sparring, Mr. Brangwen says that
Ursula shall do what she likes, regardless of his desires.
Ursula returns home and meets the two men. Birkin says he has come to ask if Ursula will marry
him, and Ursula hardly responds. She appears to be detached from the situation and the
question, which perturbs her father. When he asks for her answer, she asks him why she should
have to respond. She goes on to accuse both her father and Birkin of wanting to bully her and
force her into marriage. Birkin protests, saying that they can leave it for the time being. He
abruptly walks out of the house. Meanwhile Mr. Brangwen yells at Ursula and calls her a fool.
For several days, Ursula becomes hardened and radiant in her defiance of Birkins proposal and
her fathers will. Gudrun becomes her ally, but when the two discuss Birkin one day Ursulas
mind and spirit begin to shift. She finds herself drawn to an absolute surrender in love, and
decides that she must fight to transform Birkin. She will make him abandon his individuality and
become utterly Ursulas man, so that he gives himself up entirely to the love between them.
Chapter 20: Gladitorial

Birkin leaves Ursulas home frustrated, and decides to go see Gerald at Shortlands. Gerald is
thoroughly bored for the first time in his life, thinking that his only options are to drink or smoke
hash, to seek out women, or to have Birkin soothe him. When Birkin unexpectedly arrives,
Gerald is extremely happy to see him. He tells him he is deeply bored and thinks that only work
or love could change his mood. Birkin says that fighting is a third option, and mentions that he
used to do jiu-jitsu, a Japanese style of wrestling. He offers to show Gerald, who agrees. Gerald
calls the servant to bring food and supplies then tells him not to disturb the men for the
remainder of the evening. Gerald closes the door and they clear away furniture to make room.
Both men strip naked, and Birkin begins showing Gerald various wrestling moves. As they
struggle, their bodies seem to course with a potent, sublimated energy. They wrestle until both
men are exhausted and collapse. The two remain in a state of semi-conscious abandon, with
their naked bodies interlaced on the floor.
After resting for a bit, they get up and pour drinks. Birkin tells Gerald that they are spiritually and
mentally intimate, so they ought also to be physically intimate. Gerald agrees, saying that the
idea is rather wonderful to me. Birkin then tells him that he finds Gerald beautiful, like light
refracted from snow. Gerald asks him if this is the Bruderschaft or pledge that Birkin had
proposed, and Birkin says perhaps. The two sit by the fire to eat and drink, and Gerald leaves to
go dress. Birkin begins to think of Ursula.
Gerald returns wearing a stately and exotic robe, which Birkin admires. But his mind again turns
to Ursula, and he tells Gerald that he proposed to her earlier that night. Gerald appears
surprised, and Birkin goes on to tell him that he happened to meet her father first, and asked for
his permission before speaking about it with Ursula. Gerald asks about Ursulas response, and
Birkin tells him that she said she didnt want to be bullied into answering, and Birkin simply left
her house and came straight to Geralds. He says hell likely ask Ursula again, and tells Gerald
that he thinks he loves her.
Gerald then tells Birkin that while he always believed in true love, he has never felt it despite all
the women he has gone after. He then says that hes never felt as much love for a woman as he
feels for Birkin. Gerald has begun to doubt that he will ever feel true love for any woman, but
this worries him. Birkin replies there isnt only one road in life. Gerald agrees, but also insists
that he wants to feel that he has truly lived life, and Birkin suggests that Gerald means he wants
to be fulfilled.
Analysis
In chapter 17, Lawrence presents a series of differences between Gerald and his father that
symbolize old and new perspectives of the place of work in European society. Geralds father
adheres to an old model of Christian charity and care for the poor through industry and work. As
the head of the mining operation, he has understood his responsibility to care for his workers as
a religious duty, which is why he associates his employees with the path to salvation. Gerald,
meanwhile, suggests an atheistic, contemporary model of society that valorizes work and labor.
He views the path to human liberation as an overcoming and mastery of the material earth,

valuing efficient and technologically advanced production on a massive scale. But Geralds
desire to find liberation in the mastery of matter conflicts drastically with his inner spirit, which
Lawrence has described throughout the novel in mythic and animalistic terms. Geralds
childhood longing to become a Homeric hero is posited as an abandoned memory that
continues to haunt him.
The scene involving Bismarck the rabbit develops Lawrences theme of animalistic passion and
human conflict. Bismarcks frenzied clawing physically wounds both Gudrun and Gerald, and
the rabbit only stops when Gerald smacks it and brings it under his arm, symbolizing a moment
of violent mastery and domination that recalls his treatment of the mare at the train crossing. But
here, the shared wounds between Gerald and Gudrun can be seen as metonymic signs for the
erotic, bodily desire that they share for each other. When Gerald sees Gudruns wounded arm,
he feels that the wound is in fact being torn across his own brain, which suggests a moment of
symbolic displacement from Gudruns body to Geralds consciousness. A gash has been
opened in his psychic being, and it unleashes the unthinkable red ether of the beyond, the
obscene beyond. This obscene beyond suggests the erotic nature of the desire circulating
between Gerald and Gudrun, which Gerald picks up on when Gudrun says thank God we arent
rabbits and Gerald jokingly asks Not rabbits? Gudrun recognizes this obscenity, but rather
than be put off, she ups Geralds move by telling him they are All that, and more. Her
frankness in this sexualized humor is unexpected, and so Gerald immediately feels as if Gudrun
has once again slapped him across the face. Gerald is a man of both lust and denial, and the
expression of the former arouses both his desire and his urge to suppress it.
Before deciding to go to Beldover and propose to Ursula, Birkin finds himself contemplating a
dark yet essential part of his spirit. He is reminded of the African carvings or fetishes at Julius
Hallidays house, and a tall female statuette that he remembers as one of his souls intimates.
The figure symbolizes a primordial and mythic past, and Birkins attraction to it is a result of his
attraction toward dark sensuality and desire. But he also wonders if this past is forever closed to
men such as he, who have the Arctic north behind them and whose spirits must fulfill a
mystery of ice-destructive knowledge. This leads him to think of Gerald, and Birkins
associations foreshadow Geralds eventual death by freezing in the Alps. But the turn to Gerald
also implies that Birkins desire is split between the totemic darkness, and the cold, arctic purity
of his love for Gerald. Neither of these mysteries seem feasible to him. It is at this moment that
Birkin realizes he must pursue his desire for Ursula, leave behind his utter isolation and attempt
to enter into a definite communion.
Gerald and Birkins wrestling scene is a study in erotic sublimation, a psychic process that
Sigmund Freud identifies as the transformation or displacement of one desire into another.
Lawrence describes the physicality of the struggle and the intense interweaving of Gerald and
Birkins bodies as being driven by a sublimated energy that refers to the passionate attraction
between the two men, which is being transformed into the brute struggle and exertion of their
battle. Their naked bodies are intertwined in a closer oneness of struggle that exhausts the
men, as they pour all of the energy behind their frustrated and repressed desires into physical

exertion. Their collapse on the floor is like a moment of erotic consummation or symbolic death,
by which the passion between them has been sublimated and temporarily alleviated.
Once the wrestling match has ended, however, the two men begin to talk about Birkins
proposal to Ursula. When Birkin describes the scene of his proposal, Gerald is quite surprised
that Birkin did not discuss the matter with Ursula before telling her father of his intentions to
propose. But what truly amazes him is the fact that Birkin immediately came to see Gerald at
Shortlands after Ursula's refusal to answer. Birkins decision shows the strong attraction he feels
toward Gerald, and his desire to be comforted by him. Geralds love for Birkin only grows as a
consequence of this gesture, which encourages him to admit to Birkin that he doubts he could
ever feel love for a woman as much as he feels love for Birkin. The conversation ends on a
highly ambiguous note, since it is unclear if this means Geralds fate is to remain deeply bound
to his love for Birkin, despite his apparent love for Gudrun.
Summary
Chapter 21: Threshold
Gudrun goes away to London to present some of her artwork and to escape Beldover. Winifred
writes her, imploring her to return soon, and Gudrun recognizes that both Winifreds father and
Gerald are using the girl to suggest to Gudrun how much both desire her to remain at
Shortlands. Gudrun is amenable to this situation, and the Criches eagerly look forward to the
day she returns to their home. Winifred prepares an elaborate bouquet for her teacher, and
when Gudrun arrives she, Gerald, and her father are lined up to welcome her home. Gudrun is
flattered and feels aglow upon coming back to Shortlands.
Mr. Crich sits down with Gudrun in his library. He is quite ill, and his sunken face betrays the
signs of his impending death. His fondness for Gudrun helps to alleviate his stress, which
Gudrun recognizes, so she indulges him in conversation and allows him to feel pleased at
providing for Gudruns entertainment and provenance. He tells Gudrun that he plans to
construct a studio over the stables so that she and Winifred may use it for their lessons. He
goes on to say that Gudrun may also use the studio for her own work, if she doesnt mind
spending her days at Shortlands. Gudrun agrees to this plan happily, and Mr. Crich tells her he
will also provide monetary compensation.
Gudrun and Winifred begin using the studio, and spend all their time in it. The house becomes
more and more dreadful, as Mr. Crichs health worsens and two nurses are called in to attend to
him. He and Winifred share time together, but Gerald feels sickened by his fathers slow decay
and cannot be near him. Mr. Crich asks to see Gudrun when he is on the verge of death. The
two discuss Winifreds future, and Gudrun assures him that she is talented and her life shall not
be wasted.
One day soon thereafter, Winifred, Gerald, Birkin and Gudrun prepare to drive to town in the car.
As they prepare to leave, Winifred asks Gudrun if she thinks her father will die. At first Gudrun
says that she doesnt know, but as Winifred insists Gudrun admits that she does think he will

die, as he is very ill. Winifred still asserts that her father won't die. Gerald overhears them and
suggests that it may be better for Winifred to live in her willful refusal.
Birkin brings the car around and Winifred jumps excitedly into the front seat. Gudrun and Gerald
sit in the back, and Gerald playfully asks Birkin if he has any news, and whether he should
congratulate him about a possible engagement to Ursula. Gudrun is aggravated and says coldly
that she doesnt think theres any engagement. Gerald turns to ask her quietly why not, and
eventually Gudrun tells him she thinks Rupert only wants his ideas fulfilled rather than actually
wanting a woman for who she is. She mocks Birkins idea that one can find an eternal
equilibrium in marriage, and Gerald agrees. Instead, he insists that he believes in love as a
form of real abandon, and Gudrun tells him that she does as well.
Chapter 22: Woman to Woman
The group takes Gerald to the train station, while Birkin, Winifred, and Gudrun go to Birkins for
tea. Ursula is also expected, but Hermione shows up before her, while Birkin is out. Ursula
arrives to find Hermione in Birkins drawing room, and is unpleasantly surprised. Hermione asks
about Birkin and Ursulas newly developed friendship, and Ursula tells her that he is constantly
somewhere in the background. Hermione asks if the two shall marry, and Ursula tells her that
Birkin wants to but she is unsure.

The two discuss what exactly it is that Birkin wants. Ursula tells Hermione she is unsure
because he seems to change his mind, but it appears that he wants Ursula to submit to him and
to his inner self. Yet Birkin is also unwilling to reveal or to give any intimate part of himself to
Ursula. He appears to hate his own feelings, and he wants Ursula to give up on her feelings as
well.
Hermione suggests he seems to want an odalisk or a harem slave to suit his whims, but this is
untrue, as both Ursula and Hermione know. Hermione had been willing to enslave herself to
Birkin, and he refused her. Hermione tells Ursula she thinks marrying Birkin would be a mistake,
because Ursula needs a soldierly, strong-willed man. Birkin, she says, is frail in health and
body, lives an intensely spiritual life that makes him uncertain and changeable, and would
require his wife to endure great suffering. The two fall silent, and both women imagine the other
to have a completely misguided view of Birkin and of what it would take to love him.
Birkin appears and sense the hostility between the two women, but ignores it. He makes small
talk, and Ursula and Hermione both resent his attempt to placate them. Hermione tells Birkin
she plans to go to Florence for the winter, to attend some lectures on Italian national policy.
Birkin scoffs, and is thereby lured into Hermiones power. Ursula interrupts, asking Hermione if
she knows Italy well. Hermione tells her yes, and that her mother died in Florence. Ursula and
Birkin both feel uncomfortably strained in the battle of wills. Ursula further feels like an intruder
upon Hermione and Birkins shared background, and is dispirited. Hermione calls out to Birkins
cat, and she tells Gudrun that Mino was in fact born in Italy and that she gave it to Birkin.

Ursulas frustration mounts as Hermione continues speaking to the cat in Italian, and eventually
Ursula stands and announces that she will leave. After her hasty departure from the house, she
feels outraged by Hermione and Birkin.
Chapter 23: Excurse
The day after the tea party, Birkin seeks out Ursula at her school. He invites her to go on a
drive, and she agrees but shows no emotion. While driving along, Birkin hands her a packet
containing three rings. He tells Ursula that Rings look wrong on my hands and so he bought
them for her. She responds that he ought to give them to Hermione, since he belongs to her.
Ursula decides to try on the rings, but only one fits her properly an opal ring and she puts
the other two on her little finger. She knows that accepting Birkins gift of rings means she is
accepting a pledge to him, but she feels that a fate larger than her own will is acting upon them.
Ursula is happy as the two talk, and she proposes that they return home in the dark to take a
late tea. Birkin says he cant because he has plans for dinner at Shortlands, along with
Hermione who is preparing to leave for Europe. Birkin says he should go because he shall
never see her again. Ursula draws away, and Birkin asks if she minds. She tells him no, but her
tone suggests otherwise. The two begin a heated argument about Hermione, with Ursula
accusing Birkin of being taken in by Hermiones dead show. Birkin tells Ursula that Hermione
means nothing to him. He pulls the car over and their fight continues.
Birkin accuses Ursula of being foolish he admits that he wasted years carrying on with
Hermione. He now sees it was wrong and yet Ursula seems to want to tear out his soul with
jealousy when he mentions Hermiones name. Ursula tells him she isnt jealous, but simply
detests Hermiones falseness. She thinks Hermiones empty spirituality has tricked Birkin, and
that Hermione is utterly base and petty, simply feeding into Birkins own ghastly desire for death,
destruction, and foulness. The argument intensifies until Ursula removes the rings to throw them
at Birkin, and stomps away, heading up the road alone.
Birkin sits alone in the darkness, and comes to believe that many of Ursulas accusations are
true. He is attracted to and finds stimulation in self-destruction. He imagines Ursula and
Hermione as opposite extremes Hermione as the perfect Idea and Ursula as the perfect
Womb to which men are compellingly drawn. Birkin wants neither, and does not understand
why the two women seem unable to remain individuals. Suddenly Ursula returns, offering a
flower to Birkin. The two embrace and feel peace in each others arms. Ursula asks if she
abused him, and he smilingly tells her not to mind. They kiss, and Ursula asks about the rings.
Birkin produces them from his pocket and returns them to Ursula. They go back to the car and
drive by a cathedral called Southwell Minster, and decide to have high tea at the Saracens
Head inn.
At the inn they sit in a parlor by a fire. They are overwhelmed with mutual love, and Ursula finds
Birkin to be transformed. He reminds her of an image from the Book of Genesis, as if he is one
of the original sons of God at the beginning of the world. They take tea, and Birkin proposes that
both must quit their jobs, so the two can travel. He calls for pen and paper and they begin to

write their resignation letters. They return to the car and Ursula asks if he still plans to dine at
Shortlands. Birkin says no, and they decide to stay out in the darkness, and sleep inside the car.
Birkin stops in town to send a telegram to Ursulas father saying she wont be home that night.
He picks up some supplies and drives the car into Sherwood Forest to park. They exit the car
and sit on a blanket among the trees. They remove their clothes and make love, both feeling
their desires fulfilled in each others mystic, palpable, real otherness.
Chapter 24: Death and Love
Thomas Crich remains alive, though just barely, and the slow advance of his death is terrible.
His will to remain alive is strong, though his body is utterly wasted. Gerald meanwhile wishes
that his father would simply let go, because he feels deeply bound to his suffering and wants a
release for them both. One evening Gerald asks Gudrun to stay for dinner, and they talk abut
the strain of his fathers illness. Gerald asks her for sympathy, saying it is the only thing that can
help him since he simply must face up to the fact that his father is dying. Geralds mother comes
downstairs while they are talking, and tells Gerald that she thinks he isnt strong enough to see
through the event of his fathers death. She encourages him to take off and protect himself, but
Gerald assures her he is fine and that he must stay on.
Gudrun tells Gerald she must leave, and he offers to give her the coach. She prefers to walk, so
Gerald accompanies her. As they walk to Beldover, Gerald puts his arm around her and Gudrun
asks him how much he cares for her. Gerald says everything, and Gudrun finds it difficult to
understand why his feelings for her are so strong. The two stop as the road passes under a
railway. Gerald embraces Gudrun and they kiss. She imagines herself falling into his arms just
as numerous lovers of colliers have done, under the same arch, over many years. She is thrilled
to be with Gerald, and imagines he is an apple on the forbidden tree of knowledge, and she is
Eve, plucking the fruit. They continue on into town and arrive at the gate of the drive to Gudruns
house. She tells him not to come inside, and they say goodnight.
The next day, Gudrun writes Gerald to say she has a cold and cannot come to Shortlands. The
following day, Gerald is sitting with his father at the moment Mr. Crich dies. The nurse enters as
Gerald stands looking at his fathers body, and she confirms that he is dead. He goes to tell his
mother, who comes downstairs to see her husband. Surrounded by her children, she says that
Mr. Crich looks beautiful in death, and that she can see his teenage face. She tells her children
not to allow themselves to look like this when they die, and that they should pray.
Gudrun hears of Mr. Crichs death and feels bad for not being with Gerald to comfort him. The
next day she returns to Shortlands to work with Winifred, and the two remain in the studio all
day. They take dinner in the studio and Gerald comes to see them, but Gudrun finds the
situation awkward. She goes home. The funeral takes place the next day, after which the family
leaves town. Gerald remains at home alone, passing the nights in agony. On the third evening
he decides to take a walk, and finds himself eventually heading toward Beldover. In town, he
asks a drunken miner for directions to Somerset Drive, where the Brangwens live.

As Gerald comes to the house, he hears Ursula and Birkins voices. They come to the road and
Gerald remains in the dark as they pass. Gerald walks into the house, creeping through the
hallways until he thinks he finds Gudruns room. He enters, goes to the bed and realizes the
sleeper is Gudruns younger brother. He leaves quickly and hears Ursula and her father talking
downstairs. He goes up another floor to find another bedroom door, and he knows Gudrun will
be inside. He enters the room, and Gudrun stirs and asks if it is Ursula. Gerald tells her it is he.
She finds a light and asks him why he has come. He tells her simply that he had to come to her,
and that if she were not in the world he could not be in the world either.
Gerald removes his boots and jacket, and embraces Gudrun. As he holds her, he feels a strong
warmth and sense of comfort, as if his spirit draws life from her. He falls asleep in her arms,
while Gudrun remains awake and alert, suspended in perfect consciousness. She watches
Gerald sleep peacefully through the night, while she feels tormented with violent wakefulness
and waits until she can wake him. At five in the morning, she wakes Gerald and tells him he
must leave. He wants to stay but Gudrun insists, so Gerald rises and dresses himself. The two
go downstairs quietly, and walk out to the gate. They kiss goodbye, and Gudrun returns to her
bed and falls into a deep sleep while Gerald walks home.
Analysis
Chapter 21 deals with a transitional moment of death and the human response to its inevitability.
Gerald struggles with his feathers impending death, not because he fears death itself but
because he is disgusted by the slow and painstaking process that his father is experiencing.
Gerald desires a quick and valiant death, a heroic end akin to the Homeric warriors of old. He
believes that one should be master of ones fate in dying as in living. Geralds perspective
toward death is revealing. It further develops his characters association with an antiquated
heroic spirit, and Lawrence makes an allusion to the myth of Laocoon, a Trojan priest who was
sentenced to death and strangled, along with his sons, by a mighty serpent. Lawrences
imagery conveys Geralds feeling of being wrapped up and dragged against his will into sharing
deaths slow embrace of his father.
Hermione surprises Ursula one afternoon, when Gudrun and Ursula are scheduled to have tea
with Birkin. While Birkin is out, Ursula arrives to find Hermione waiting, and the two begin an
intensely heated discussion about Birkin and the possibility of marrying him. At first, Ursula uses
Birkins proposal to make Hermione jealous, and to increase her own power. The two women
verbalize their shared frustrations with Birkins intense individualism, his tendency to criticize
and his desire for destruction. Ursula even acknowledges that Hermione must have suffered
as a consequence of Birkins difficult personality, which Hermione seems to acknowledge when
her hand involuntary clenches like one inspired. But Hermione was always willing to become
Birkins slave, and Ursula knows this fact. It leads her to dismiss any mutual feeling between
them, while Hermione resentfully believes that the antagonism between Birkins animalism and
spiritual truth will eventually tear him apart, and Ursula will be helpless as she watches it
unfold.

The gift of three rings in chapter 23 symbolizes the conflict between Ursula and Birkin
concerning their potential marriage. Birkin tells Ursula Rings look wrong on my hands which
implies his unsuitability for marriage, even though he is giving a gift to Ursula that
simultaneously suggests his desire to marry her. Meanwhile, Ursula is afraid to try on the rings
because she thinks her hands are too large; these images suggest the characters different
perspectives toward marriage and toward each other. Ursula wants to try on the rings, but just
as her hands seem too large to fit into them, her individual temperament as a unique woman
might not fit properly into the role that marriage expects of her. In different ways, the ring gift
episode shows the two characters straining against the expectations and conventions of the
marital union, even as they desire it.
Unsurprisingly, Ursula and Birkin find themselves in an argument that begins with Ursulas
jealousy over Hermiones relationship with Birkin. Ursula flees despite Birkins insistence that
Hermione now means nothing to him. But Ursulas eventual return signals a kind of rebirth and
potential for their union. A typical marriage between them may be impossible, as suggested by
Birkins initial gift of the rings and the resulting confrontation. Yet when she comes back to him,
Ursula brings him a flower that Birkin finds beautiful, and Ursula expresses sorrow at having
hurt him. The potential for their union is later developed as they travel up the road and pass by
the Southwell Minster. This new setting evokes a paradisal and holy feeling between them. At
the inn, Birkin suddenly appears to Ursula as an original son of God, who has metamorphosed
into a sacred yet sensual presence. The sexuality between them now appears to be blessed,
and they consummate their relationship under the trees. Lawrences setting implies that Ursula
and Birkins union aims to build a new paradise that recalls the original union of Adam and Eve
in the Garden of Eden.
Lawrence repeats this imagery but gives it new meaning in his description of Gudruns feeling
for Gerald at the beginning of chapter 24. Gudrun fancies Gerald to be the forbidden tree of
knowledge, and she imagines herself as Eve, plucking the trees fruit. This image suggests that
just as Adam and Eve fell from Gods favor and were exiled from paradise, Gudrun and Geralds
union represents a fallen version of the promise of sacred sensuality shared earlier by Ursula
and Birkin. This idea is further developed when Gerald unexpectedly visits Gudrun one night
soon after his father dies. He creeps into her house under darkness while she sleeps, which
recalls Satans creeping into the garden to tempt Eve to disobey Gods will. When Gerald
embraces Gudrun, he is overcome with exhaustion and falls deeply asleep, and Gudrun
watches through the night. He draws a warm and maternal strength from Gudrun, and their
bodily connection symbolizes a primordial return to the womb. Gudrun provides Gerald with a
moment of healing and restoration after the death of Geralds father, which Lawrence describes
as a great bath of life that makes him whole again.
Summary
Chapter 25: Marriage or Not

The Brangwen family decides to move from Beldover because Mr. Brangwen has a change in
his work situation requiring him to be in town. Winter approaches, and Birkin takes out a
marriage license in his eagerness to marry Ursula. She wavers, however, not wanting to fix any
definite time. It has only been three weeks since she filed her one-month notice to leave the
grammar school. Gerald awaits Birkin and Ursulas marriage, speculating that it may help to
hasten his possible marriage to Gudrun.
One afternoon while talking to Birkin, Gerald proposes the possibility of a double marriage, and
Birkin asks between whom. When Gerald replies Gudrun and me, Birkin is taken aback and
asks if Gerald is joking. Gerald says no, and Birkin responds that he didnt realize things were
so serious between them. Gerald goes on to say he truly wants to know Birkins opinion on the
matter, but Birkin simply tells him that marriages are like noses there are all sorts, snub and
otherwise.
Gerald continues to press him on the question, and Birkin says that if he were Gerald he would
not marry, but he should ask Gudrun what she thinks. Gerald responds that he thinks marriage
is a pis aller - a last resort. But he then wonders what direction one takes, if not toward
marriage. Birkin tells him that he thinks marriage in the old sense is repulsive, but Gerald again
asks what else there is to be done with ones life.
Birkin then says that a new possibility must be found for a man and a woman to share a life in a
broader way, which would be additional to marriage but equally sacred and significant. Gerald,
meanwhile, feels only a sense of doom and despair about such prospects. He feels himself
divided between the prospect of loving Birkin and entering into an agreement with him, or of
marrying Gudrun. Yet neither option seems possible to him, despite feeling strangely elated at
the idea of Birkins alliance.
Chapter 26: A Chair
One Monday afternoon Birkin and Ursula visit a weekly junk market in town, browsing for
furniture. Ursula is fascinated by the working-class, common people and watches them while
Birkin focuses on the goods. She notices a young pregnant woman looking at a used mattress
along with a young man. Birkin meanwhile finds a pretty wooden chair and points it out to
Ursula. They both admire its craftsmanship, although a new wooden seat has been nailed into
it, which detracts from the chairs original beauty. They decide to buy it.
Birkin says the chair reminds him of Englands more glorious past, when production was more
of an art and less mechanical. Ursula laments the fact that Birkin always seems to praise the
past at the expense of the present. They bicker. Ursula says she is sick of Birkins exalted idea
of the past, while Birkin says he is sick of the accursed present. The two decide against taking
the chair, because it represents for them the accumulation of unnecessary material things to
make a socially conventionally home.
They retrace their steps to tell the peddler that they in fact dont want the chair, and Ursula again
notices the young couple. She tells Birkin to give them the chair. At first he protests, but then

agrees and tells Ursula to give it to them. Ursula approaches them and asks if they will have the
chair, saying it would please her and Birkin. The young couple is confused, and the young
womans body language becomes defensive. Birkin comes into the conversation to assure them
that he and Ursula simply want to give them the chair, no strings attached, and not to worry if
they dont want it. Ursula then explains that they chose not to take it because they decided to go
abroad after they marry.
The couple relaxes, and the young man begins to joke about marriage. He tells Birkin that they
plan to be married on Saturday, and asks when he and Ursula shall marry. Birkin tells him
whenever Ursula decides to do so, and the young man jokes that theres No urry. They accept
the chair, and the young man decides to carry it away himself. They thank Ursula and Birkin,
wishing them luck, and the two couples part ways.
As they walk away, Ursula looks back at the couple and says they are strange to her. Birkin
tells her they remind him of Jesus and his pronouncement that the meek shall inherit the earth.
The two climb onto a tram, and imagine their married future being quite different, wanting not to
inherit anything at all and simply to live in their own separate world. Birkin adds that perhaps
theres Gerald and Gudrun but the two agree that they cannot attempt to force Gerald and
Gudrun to marry, even if they want to bring them into their world. Birkin insists that he wants a
fellowship that extends beyond the two of them, and Ursula tells him that such things must
simply happen. She suggests that he willfully attempts to force people to love him, and then
rejects their love, and cites Hermione and Gerald as examples. The chapter ends with Birkin
wondering aloud to Ursula whether in fact he wants a final, extra-human relationship with
Gerald, in addition to the pursuit of his perfect and complete relationship with Ursula.
Chapter 27: Flitting
At home later that evening, Ursula unexpectedly announces to her family that she and Birkin are
going to be married the next day. Her father reacts with extreme surprise and frustration at not
having been informed of this plan. Ursula tells him that he already knew the two were planning
to be married, and that what really matters is that she is ready. Her father is outraged, and
accuses her of only thinking of herself. She responds that he has only ever cared to bully her,
and her marriage indeed only affects her. Mr. Brangwen loses control and slaps Ursula across
the face, sending her flying across the room. She continues to defy him and he advances
toward her, but she flees to her room. Soon thereafter she emerges with a small valise, and
announces that she is leaving.
Ursula flees to the train station but finds there are no more trains and is forced to walk. She
arrives at Birkins home disheveled and saddened, and meets him in his study. She relates the
story of her fight with her father. Birkin tells her that perhaps her father does in fact care about
her, but Ursula insists he only ever wanted to bully her into following his will. Birkin tells her that
she shouldnt worry, and a bit of time will resolve the conflict. Meanwhile, he tells Ursula she
may stay with him, since they are as good as married.

Birkin feels extremely happy that Ursula has arrived, and thinks that her undimmed soul is
rejuvenating his spirit. He considers his marriage to Ursula to be a promise of resurrection from
his descent down the slope of mechanical death. The next day, the two are married. Ursula
writes to her parents at Birkins request, but only her mother responds.
Ursula remains at the mill house with Birkin, having no contact with her parents for some time.
Gerald visits one afternoon. He tells her she looks quite happy, and she agrees with him. She
asks if he thinks Birkin is also happy, and Gerald says yes but averts his eyes. Ursula then
suggests that he too could be happy, should he choose to ask Gudrun to marry him. Gerald
asks if she thinks Gudrun would agree. Ursula says yes, and that she thinks Gerald is the right
man for her. But she suddenly reconsiders, saying that Gudrun is a bit unpredictable. Gerald
proposes that he should take Gudrun on a trip, and suggests that Birkin and Ursula might join.
Ursula finds the idea appealing, and that it could be a kind of test to see if Gudrun would be
favorable to a marriage with Gerald.
Two days later Ursula and Gudrun return to their parents now empty home. They find it
desolate and depressing, since the furnishings have been removed and the air is heavy. The
sisters also agree that the conventional lives their parents lived would make each of them
miserable. Gudrun tells Ursula that above all else, she thinks one must remain free and only
marry a companion who acts as a fellow traveler. Birkin arrives, and also finds the home to be a
ghostly situation. They talk a bit about Gudruns fear of marriage, without announcing the
implication that she is considering a partnership with Gerald. Eventually the group packs up
Ursulas things and leave in Birkins car.
During the ride home Gudrun experiences some pangs of jealousy for the ease with which
Ursula and Birkin seem to inhabit their marriage. She wonders if she could in fact have the
same situation with Gerald, since she does feel a strong and violent love for him. But she also
thinks of herself as a wandering outcast, poorly suited for marriage. Birkin and Ursula invite her
to tea, and though she wants to join them she feels an odd compulsion to go to her cottage at
Willey Green, alone. They drop her off, and she feels bitter.
Gudrun sits at home and wants to go to the mill, but decides against it until the following
morning. She visits Ursula there and asks her if she knows that Gerald had asked Birkin about a
group trip at Christmas. Ursula tells her yes, and that Birkin likes the idea. Gudrun also likes the
idea, but finds the proposition a bit awkward and socially improper on Geralds part, since it
suggests that he is treating Gudrun as if she were his mistress. Ursula continues to play up
Geralds straightforwardness as a positive quality, and encourages Gudrun to accept the
invitation. Gudrun sours when she finds out that Ursula already knows where Gerald plans to
take them Tyrol, a small German town with excellent winter sports. Gudrun worries about the
appearance of impropriety, and reveals to Ursula that she knows of Geralds liaisons with a
model in Chelsea, meaning Minette Darrington (The Pussum). Ursula attempts to laugh it
off with a joke, but Gudrun remains glum.
Chapter 28: Gudrun in the Pompadour

Christmas approaches and Gudrun has decided to go on the trip with Gerald, Birkin and Ursula.
Gerald and Gudrun plan to go to London for a night, then to Paris and on to Innsbruck, where
they will meet Birkin and Ursula. During their night in London, they decide to go to the music-hall
and then to the Pompadour Caf. Gudrun detests the petty vices and social ills of the caf.
Gerald and Gudrun sit at a table and watch the crowd, which Gudrun finds foul. Julius
Halliday and his crew are seated at a nearby table, and exchange looks with Gerald. Suddenly,
Minette stands up and approaches Gerald and Gudruns table.
Minette greets Gerald and shakes his hand, though he remains seated. She asks about Birkin
and if it is true that he is now married. Gerald confirms it. Minette asks how long he is staying in
town, and if he will come say hello to Halliday. Gerald says no. Minette then tells him he is
looking awflly fit, and asks if he is having a good time which is taken by Gudrun as a
backhanded insult. Minette leaves and Gudrun asks Gerald if shes a friend. He tells her he met
her while staying with Birkin at Hallidays house, and Gudrun knows that Minette is one of his
mistresses.
Hallidays table is loud and drunk, and they begin making fun of Birkin while Gerald and Gudrun
listen. Halliday and Maxim recall Birkins intense letters, and his outlandish philosophical notions
of desire, life, and destruction. Halliday pulls one of Birkins letters from his coat pocket, and
begins reading passages. The table roars with laughter and Minette says she thinks it is
extremely cheeky to write in such a way.
Hallidays crew enrages Gudrun, and she tells Gerald she wants to leave. While he pays the bill,
Gudrun rises and walks over to the other table. She asks Halliday if the letter he has is genuine,
and he assures her it is. She asks to see it, and when he hands it over she walks out of the caf
with it. The crowd boos Gudrun, as Gerald follows her outside and into a taxi. He asks her what
happened, and when she tells him she took Birkins letter he is extremely pleased, saying the
table was a bunch of jackasses. Gudrun calls them dogs and says that she never wants to
return to London again.
Analysis
D.H. Lawrence further explores the pitfalls of marriage in chapters 25 and 26, through two
different aspects of Birkins desire. The first is the male bond between Birkin and Gerald, which
marriage potentially threatens. Birkin wants to preserve this bond with Gerald by treating it as an
addition to his relationship with Ursula. When Gerald suggests that he and Gudrun might join
with Birkin and Ursula in a double marriage, his idea implies that Gerald also feels at least as
strong, if not stronger, a connection with Birkin. But Gerald hesitates to enter into a marriage
that might divide them, while he also considers the possibility that marrying Gudrun, Ursulas
sister, could be a way of paradoxically bringing the men closer together.
In chapter 26 Birkin and Ursula visit a junk market, and their discussion of the future of the
young couple they meet there becomes a discussion of their own future, and of the form of
marriage that they want. Birkin continues to illustrate his strong desire to remain close to Gerald.

He and Ursula agree that they want to care only about their own relationship, and imagine
wandering the earth together as a way of creating their own world apart. But then Birkin tells her
that perhaps theres Gerald and Gudrun which suggests that like Gerald he cannot bear the
thought of his marriage dividing the bond between the two men. Ursula finds Birkins position
confusing, and tells him that he must learn not to try and bully other people into loving him he
has Ursula, and that should be enough. But Birkins insistence illustrates the novels theme of
the strong connection between desire and repression, since he cannot abandon his love for
Gerald.
Chapter 27 further develops the theme of repressed desire between the two men. After Ursula
flees her parents home, she lives with Birkin at the mill house and Gerald visits her one
afternoon. Geralds averted gaze during his talk with Ursula is telling. His desire to marry
Gudrun is equally tied to his desire to preserve his close bond with Birkin. This is clear when
Ursula asks Gerald if he thinks that Birkin seems happier now that the two are living together,
and Gerald says yes but averts his face from Ursulas gaze. He finds it difficult to admit that
Birkin is happy being with Ursula, but he knows it to be true, even while he cannot let go of his
love for Birkin. This is why Gerald suggests that Ursula and Birkin might join him and Gudrun on
their trip. From Ursulas perspective, this seems to be a good idea because she worries that
Gudrun may not be entirely open to the idea of marrying Gerald, but also since she knows Birkin
is happy being near Gerald. The trip appears to promise an opportunity to resolve the
competing desires and frustrations that are circulating among the group.
The novels focus turns to the two sisters and their views of love later in chapter 27, as they sit
in the empty Brangwen home and reflect upon their parents lives and marriage. The desolate
setting and emptiness of the house reflects the feelings of alienation and uncertainty that the
sisters share. They find themselves in marriages or potential marriages with men they love, but
both want to hold strong to their independent spirits and resist the conventional lifestyle that
their parents have lived. Gudrun passionately defends the need for freedom, but soon after her
talk with Ursula realizes that part of her also wants to be his wife and to have a home at
Shortlands. Her inability to resolve this tension causes emotional turmoil, and she find herself
refusing Ursula and Birkins invitation to tea, even though she desperately wants to accept it.
The next chapter makes a dramatic shift in setting, from Beldover to the Caf Pompadour in
London. This change also illustrates an aspect of Gudruns character that is sharply distinct from
the previous chapters emphasis on her frustrated desires. At the caf, Gudrun is horrified and
enraged when she overhears Halliday and his table reading aloud and mocking one of Birkins
letters. She displays creative ingenuity and strength of will when she approaches the table,
tricks Julius into giving her the letter and calmly strides out of the caf with it. Earlier in the
novel, the setting at Caf Pompadour illustrated Geralds uncertainty in the Bohemian
atmosphere, and his reliance on wealth and social status to seduce Minette. But during this
episode, the novel shows that Gudrun has a powerful ability to master the environment of the
Bohemians, with which she is familiar from her time in London as an artist. Her spirited and
quick-witted actions account for Geralds compulsive attraction to Gudrun, as illustrated by his
admiration at the chapters close and the couples decision to leave London immediately.

Summary
Chapter 29: Continental
Ursula and Birkin depart from England, and travel on a boat from Dover to Ostend. Ursula
senses a paradise unknown and unrealized in the world ahead of them. They arrive at Ostend,
and take a long train ride to Basle. They spend one night in a hotel there, where Ursula feels
restless and detached. The next day they take a train to Innsbruck, and arrive to find it
wonderful and deep in snow. In the hotel lobby, Ursula sees Gudrun and calls out to her. The
sisters are excited and happy to see each other. They wash and change, and send Birkin to
smoke with Gerald while they catch up in Gudruns bedroom. Gudrun tells Ursula about the
letter incident in London, as well as her and Geralds time in Paris with a group of artists, with
whom Gerald was a great hit. The group goes to dinner and begins to talk about how refreshing
it is to take leave of England. Birkin suggests that England is dying, and must transform itself.
Gudrun and Gerald respond sarcastically, and Birkin feels that Gudrun is sucking the life out of
Gerald.
The next day they decide to go deeper into the mountainous countryside. After trekking through
a snow-filled valley and up into higher elevations, they arrive at a barebones hostel and take
rooms. Gudrun and Gerald go to their bedroom and look out at the panoramic view. Gudrun is
filled with pleasure and absorbed by the scene, but Gerald feels that she is suddenly detached
from him, and an icy vapour covers his heart. He notices Gudrun is crying as she looks out the
window, and a passion rises in him. He pulls her to him and tells her he loves her, but she does
not respond. They go downstairs to meet Ursula and Birkin, and the friends enter the dining
room to have coffee. They decide to go into the common room and meet the other guests. They
are introduced to Herr Professor, a German professor who then introduces the two couples
to a group composed of the professor's two daughters, three students, Herr Loerke and his
companion a large and fair young man. They begin to observe a comedic lecture given in
German by Herr Loerke, which the sisters cannot understand. At its conclusion the German
guests welcome the English group into their company. Ursula sings and they are impressed by
her voice. The four companions decide to take a short walk outside, and the two couples break
off, with Ursula and Birkin looking out into the night sky while Gudrun leads Gerald on a walk.
They all eventually return to the hostel, to dance and party with the Germans. Ursula senses a
strange licentiousness in Birkin as they dance.
Upon returning to their bedroom, Ursula continues to feel an oddly brutish desire coming from
Birkin, which is both attractive and repulsive to her. Meanwhile, Gudrun and Gerald return to
their room and feel increasingly alienated. Gudrun is quite nervous and uncomfortable with
Gerald, who is equally uncertain of how to respond to Gudrun. Eventually they sleep, and
Gudrun wakes up the next morning before Gerald. As she watches him sleep, she thinks about
his efforts to reform his familys mining company, and realizes that he is a perfect instrument
and nearly superhuman in his abilities. She wonders if there is in fact room for her in his world,
as it is so defined by the interests of industry, politics, and high society. She imagines that
Geralds greatness is wasted on such games, and wants him to wake up and convince her that

the two can create a life of more perfect moments. He awakens, and his smiling face fills
Gudrun with joy. She tells him that he has convinced her, and he knows that she means he has
convinced her to marry him. It is a beautiful day, and they decide to go out into the countryside
on a toboggan, leaving Ursula and Birkin behind. Several fun days pass with the two couples
skiing, sledding, and tobogganing to the point of physical exhaustion.
A day arrives when the snow falls relentlessly and the group must stay indoors. Ursula goes into
the common room and begins a conversation with Loerke. It has become apparent to her and
the others that Loerke and Leitner are together, but they are fighting and loathe each others
company. Gudrun enters and sits with Ursula and Loerke, and the group talks about a large
sculpture he is working on for a granite factory in Cologne. Loerke speaks quickly in German,
and Ursula translates for Gudrun. Slowly, Loerke and Gudrun begin to find a common interest in
one another, through their discussion of art, industry, and work. Loerke reveals that he once
suffered great poverty, which Gudrun finds alluring. Ursula also likes Loerke, but both Gerald
and Birkin find him disgusting. Birkin compares him to a rat in the river of corruption and says
that women for some strange reason are drawn to such dark and repulsive qualities.
The sisters continue to develop their acquaintance with Loerke, which the men resent. One
afternoon Ursula, Gudrun, and Loerke discuss a photograph of an old sculpture by Loerke. The
figure is of a young, naked girl sitting on a powerfully upright stallion. Ursula and Gudrun ask
Loerke penetrating questions, leading to a disagreement between the two sisters about arts
connection to reality. Ursula finds the statute repulsive because it implies that Loerke is the
stallion and the young girl was someone he loved and tortured and then ignored. Gerald
enters and joins the conversation, as Ursula leaves. She finds Birkin and tells him that she
wants to depart from the snow and the cold, perhaps visiting Verona where the two can pretend
to be Romeo and Juliet. The two make preparations, and that evening go to Gudrun and
Geralds room to tell them. Gudrun and Gerald are sad to hear the news, and it is clear that
Birkin and Gerald are cross with each other. The next day, Gudrun visits Ursula and they share
a bittersweet goodbye. Meanwhile Gerald and Birkin speak briefly while waiting for the sledge,
and Birkin tells Gerald that he has loved him as well as Gudrun, dont forget. Gerald responds
skeptically, asking him Have youOr do you think you have? Birkin feels his heart freeze as
the sledge takes off.
Chapter 30: Snowed Up
After Birkin and Ursula leave, Gudrun finds that Gerald pushes on her more and more, leaving
her no room for freedom or privacy. One night he comes to her when she is sitting alone in the
dark, and she tells him she thinks that he has never loved her. When she asks him if he ever
could truly love her, he coldly tells her no. Gerald briefly fantasizes about killing Gudrun, and
then asks her why she tortures him. This causes her to pity and comfort him, and she coaxes
him to say he loves her and will love her forever. He does so, and she tells him Try to love me a
little more, and to want me a little less. They have sex and Gudrun feels that Gerald is
destroying her. The next day they both imagine leaving each other. But Gerald realizes that if he
leaves Gudrun he must face the prospect of being utterly alone, and he is unprepared for it.

Both Gudrun and Gerald continue to feel tortured by their vulnerability. As they watch the sunset
one evening, Gerald tells Gudrun that some day he will destroy her because she is such a liar.
Gudrun and Loerke continue to meet to talk about art and life. They grow closer as Gerald
watches with animosity. One afternoon Gerald and Loerke are in a heated conversation that
becomes a conflict of spirit between the two men. Loerke looks to Gudrun and addresses her
as Mrs. Crich, and she explains that she is not married to Gerald even though they had been
putting on that appearance during their travels. Gerald takes this as a direct insult and attack
against him. He withdraws, which only heightens Gudruns attraction to him. At the same time,
she slowly comes to realize that Geralds lingering attachment to the social world prevents him
from truly connecting with the deepest part of Gudruns soul. She thinks that Loerke is capable
of this connection, because he does not care for the world. Gerald confronts her about Loerke,
asking why she finds him appealing. Gudrun tells him it is because that Loerke isnt stupid and
has some understanding of a woman.
Loerke continues to pursue Gudrun. One afternoon while Gerald is off skiing, he tells her he
desires her because they share an intelligent understanding, which surpasses physical beauty.
Later that evening Gerald returns to the hostel, and when he sees Gudrun talking with the
Germans in the common room, he feels an overwhelming desire to kill her. She comes to his
room that night and tells him she wants to return to England, and that their attempt at being
lovers has failed. Gerald is enraged and feels ready to attack Gudrun, but she perceives his
madness and flees to safety in her room. She contemplates the men in her life Gerald, Birkin,
Loerke and finds them all frustratingly mechanical and cruel. Gerald meanwhile passes the
night reading, and sleeps only a couple of hours.
The following morning Gudrun tells Gerald that she plans to leave the next day. He makes
arrangements for their departure, asking if she will at least go with him as far as Innsbruck. She
says perhaps, but finds pleasure in leaving open the question of where she will go next. She
considers returning to England with Gerald, going to Dresden with Loerke, or on her own to visit
a girlfriend in Munich. She goes to see Loerke, and the two trek into the snow with a toboggan
and picnic. They discuss Gudruns plans to travel, and she tells him she doesnt know where
she will go. Suddenly Gerald appears. Loerke offers Gudrun some schnapps, and Gerald
smacks the bottle out of his hand. Loerke begins to joke about it, and Gerald attacks him, hitting
him violently upside the head. Gudrun intervenes, and Gerald clutches her throat and begins to
strangle her. Loerke calls out and Geralds madness breaks. He releases Gudrun, saying that
he has had enough and I want to go to sleep.
Gerald leaves Gudrun and Loerke and marches off into the mountains. He keeps walking as the
sun goes down, deeper and deeper into the wild. He comes upon a crucifix half-buried in the
snow and believes that death is near. As he wanders into a deep, hollow basin of snow he slips
and falls, feeling something break in his soul. He sleeps.

Chapter 31: Exeunt

The next morning, Gudrun is shut up in her room when they return with Geralds body. She feels
no emotion, only coldness, and writes a telegraph to Birkin and Ursula telling them what has
happened. She finds Loerke, who is just as emotionless and barren as Gudrun. She goes
back to her room and waits for her sister and Birkin to arrive the following day.
When Ursula and Birkin return, Gudrun remains cold and detached. Birkin asks her to tell him
exactly what was said when Gerald confronted her and Loerke. She tells him that Gerald said
nothing, he only knocked Loerke down and half strangled me, then he went away. In her mind,
she says it is A pretty little sample of the eternal triangle! Birkin leaves, and returns to Geralds
body.
As Birkin looks at Geralds frozen body he feels disgust and horror, even though he loved him.
Touching Geralds icy cold hair and face, Birkin feels himself freezing on the inside. He goes out
to the slopes to see where Gerald froze to death, and finds himself consoled to think that it is
best not to care at all about the universe, since the eternal creative mystery could dispose of
man so easily and create a newer, finer being.
Birkin returns to the hostel and again goes to look at Geralds body, continuing to think it best to
remain quiet, patient, and emotionless. He alludes to a passage inHamlet that mentions the
death of Julius Caesar. But when he and Ursula go in to see Geralds corpse once again that
evening, he breaks out in tears of anguish, which repulses Ursula. Birkin laments that He
should have loved meI offered him. Ursula tells him it would have made no difference, and
he disagrees.
Birkin wants to leave Geralds body in the Alps, but they bring it home to England at the
insistence of the Crich family. Gudrun goes to Dresden and writes no particulars of herself.
Ursula returns to the mill with Birkin. One evening she asks Birkin if he needed Gerald, and
Birkin replies affirmatively. Ursula asks, Arent I enough for you?, and he tells her that she is
enough as any woman could be, but that he wanted a man friend, as eternal as you and I are
eternal. Ursula tells him he is being obstinate and perverse, and that he cannot have two kinds
of love because such a thing is false, impossible. The novel ends with Birkin insisting I dont
believe that.
Analysis
When Birkin, Gerald, Ursula and Gudrun decide to travel to Innsbruck for a winter trip, they are
happy to have escaped England, and look forward to their time abroad. Birkin in particular is
pleased because he so detests the social standards and modern values that define England.
For Birkin, the English political body is dead and spiritless, in part because of the modern rule of
industrial production and the overvaluation of work. He believes that this is sucking the vital and
creative spirit out of England and its inhabitants. But his comparison is also shrewdly self-

deprecating, since he imagines himself to be nothing more than a lice crawling off the corpse
of England. The image reinforces Birkins view of life as a cycle of decay and death.
Birkins comparison of England to a dead body also recalls the demise of Mr. Crich, whose
decaying body can be identified as a metonymic image for England. Mr. Crichs death
represents the passing away of older Christian values and moral beneficence, and the
emergence of Gerald Crichs attempt to master the natural world through the labors of
mechanical reproduction. As the end of the novel suggests, however, Gerald in fact remains
bound to the tumultuous energy of his desire for Birkin, as well as his strangely compulsive
attraction to Gudrun, because both of these individuals represent antitheses or direct foils to
Geralds faith in the power of industry and advanced technology.
Later, when Ursula and Gudrun converse with Loerke about his artwork, he brings out a
photograph of an old sculpture. Titled Lady Godiva, it is the figure of a proud, erect stallion and
a young girl, cast in green bronze. The subject matter immediately recalls the novels many
images of horses, which symbolize the contradictory nature of human desire and the difficult
attempt to master the passions. In this instance, however, the sculpture serves as an occasion
for the Brangwen sisters and Loerke to discuss their different perspectives on art and life.
Ursula finds the image repulsive, because she connects art and life deeply, as does Birkin, and
believes that the work implies Loerke is the proud stallion and the young girl is someone he
once loved and discarded without second thought. But Gudrun believes, like Herr Loerke, that
art and life must be strictly separate. In a later conversation with Loerke, she claims that life
doesnt really matter it is ones art which is central. For Gudrun, art is a supreme reality, and
life is a form of unreality. This is because she believes that art elevates ones being above the
muck of life, making it the purest form of human expression in its ideal state.
Near the end of the novel, Ursula feels a coldness overtaking her and she tells Birkin that she
wants desperately to leave the wintry environment of Innsbruck. Birkin suggests that they can
leave the next day, and perhaps go to Verona which is the setting of Shakespeares Romeo
and Juliet. Birkin alludes directly to the play when he tells Ursula that they can go to Verona
and sit in the ampitheatre. Ursula is greatly relieved by this prospect, and tells Birkin that she
would love to. Her enthusiasm is odd, however, since Romeo and Juliet both die at the end of
the play. The pair is also famously described as star-crossed lovers, which connects Birkins
Shakespearean allusion to his own idea of wanting to be held in a stellar conjunction with
Ursula. The comparison to Romeo and Juliet is therefore ominous, although on the surface it
appears to be romantic.
Later, Birkin makes another Shakespearean allusion, to Hamlet, as he watches Geralds
corpse and says Imperial Caesar dead, and turned to clay / Would stop a hole to keep the wind
away. The line Birkin quotes is spoken by Prince Hamlet to Horatio at the end of the play.
Hamlet contemplates the fact that all mortal bodies must eventually be reduced to nothing more
than dust, no matter how powerful or regal they were in life. Even great rulers such as Julius
Caesar end up as inert, lifeless matter turned to the most base of uses. Like the mighty Caesar,
Birkin feels that Gerald was a magnificent entity in life, and Birkin loved him deeply. But now

Geralds lifeless corpse is cold and spiritless, nothing more than its purely physical material.
Birkins final two allusions to Shakespeare present tragic images of failed romance: one for the
star-crossed lovers, Ursula and Birkin, and another for the two men, Gerald and Birkin. Although
the novel ends with Ursula and Birkin together, Birkins insistence on his deep bond with Gerald
implies that his marriage to Ursula will never be entirely fulfilling.

Women in Love D.H. Lawrence and Freidrich Nietzsche

The philosophy of Freidrich Nietzsche was a major influence on D.H. Lawrence.
Nietzsches work is in many ways a critical response to the forms of nihilism that
Nietzsche saw infecting European culture and restricting modern life of the early
20th century. In The Genealogy of Morals Nietzsche argued that Christianity had
inevitably led to nihilism, by positing a transcendent and non-human basis for
human values, unlike previous moments in western civilization that hinged on
rational thought. Once this shift had occurred, humans began to lose their taste for
a willful and spirited cultivation of life, because their emphasis was now on an idea
of the eternal afterlife and its supposed rewards for living morally.
Nietzsche called for a necessary transvaluation of all values, or a willingness to
destroy and eradicate old vestiges of a Christian morality in order to remake the
world and reinvigorate the creative spirit of humanity. He grounded his philosophy
in an appreciation for the eternal return, which was Nietzsches concept of the
anonymous yet powerful will of the universe to remake itself anew. He found an
essential connection between decay and creative rebirth that influenced his unique
concept of truth. In Women in Love, Nietzsches ideas are articulated most fully in
the character of Rupert Birkin, who stands in for Lawrences own perspective and
dissatisfaction with modern European society.

Women in Love Essay Questions

1.

1
At the beginning of the novel, the two Brangwen sisters discuss their
views on marriage. What is the key difference between Ursula and
Gudrun, and why is it important for understanding the novel?
When they discuss marriage, Gudrun tells Ursula that having the experience
of marriage is probably a good enough reason to marry. She thinks finding the
right man is the only issue. Ursula, however, says that she thinks marriage
would be the end of experience. Gudruns perspective changes, however,
after she meets Gerald Crich and becomes less certain of marriage, even as she
falls in love with him. He is ultimately too bound to a society she does not want
to be a part of. Ursula meanwhile falls in love with Birkin, and comes to decide
that marrying him is her fate, and she is able to preserve her self in their
uncommon union. Lawrences novel develops by reversing the opinions toward
marriage that each sister expresses at the beginning of the story, while still
subverting the strictures of traditional marriage.

2.

Why is Rupert Birkin deeply dissatisfied with the society in which he

lives?
Birkin believes that modern society is in a state of apocalyptic decay. Industrial
technology and the overvaluation of work have ruined the human spirit and
destroyed man's connection with nature. Birkin desires to live outside of social
convention, but also to see social convention itself destroyed. He wants the
world to be remade into something stronger, more creative and truer to the
passionate human soul. But he remains skeptical that this transformation can
take place.
3.

3
Describe Gerald Crich and Rupert Birkins relationship. What does their
struggle represent, and why is it so central to the novel?
Gerald and Birkin are mirror opposites of and are deeply in love with each other.
Birkin is physically weak but strong and destructive in spirit, whereas Gerald is a
perfect physical specimen whose inner spirit has decayed and given way to his
desire to master the material earth through technology and work. They are
drawn to each other but they repress their mutual desires and attempt to find
satisfaction in marriage, which drives the novel to its tragic conclusion.

4.

4
Describe the novels use of horse symbolism. What does it imply about
human nature and relationships?
Gerald Crichs harsh treatment of the mare at the train crossing shows his
physical prowess and symbolizes the human attempt to bring violent,
unpredictable passions under the control of reason. Gudrun's lust and Ursula's
repulsion are piqued - Gudrun's physical attraction stuns her, as Ursula is
shocked by the brute force of the display she deems unnecessary. Their
attitudes toward marriage and sexual relationships are reflected in their
reactions. Later, when Birkin moves into the mill house, he tells Hermione and
Ursula that women are like horses, split between two wills the will to be free of
their rider, and the will to remain under the riders control. Near the end of the
novel Herr Loerkes sculpture of a young girl seated on a stallion symbolizes his
desire to master life through art, by elevating the aesthetic world over the
material. These images of horses represent human passion and its struggle with
elevated forms of rational thinking and activity that try to harness or control its
energy.

5.

Lawrences novel connects humans and animals in compelling ways.

Discusses some examples from the text and explain their significance.
When the Brangwen sisters see Gerald Crich at the train crossing, he is astride a
mare that symbolizes his attempt to control or reign in the animalistic passions.
Birkin later compares female desire to the situation of a horse that wants both
to escape its rider and to stay under its control. Winifred Crichs rabbit,
Bismarck, becomes a conduit of the violent passion that circulates between
Gerald and Gudrun. Mino, Birkins cat, serves Hermione as a symbol of her
lingering hold over Birkins character, which she uses to spark jealousy and
feelings of inferiority in Ursula. All of these examples suggest that humans
remain fundamentally bound to animalistic desires and impulses, which they
can never fully escape or successfully master.
6.

6
The two central female characters in Women in Love are both lively and
independent, yet struggle mightily in their worlds. Why? What do the
Brangwen sisters tell us about Lawrences society?
Both Ursula and Gudrun desire to be independent from social constraints. Ursula
constantly says she loathes being bullied by men, especially her father and
Birkin. Gudrun says that she values freedom above all things, and she pursues
art as an attempt to realize experiences of freedom that take her away from the
constraints of her society. At the same time, both sisters struggle with the
possibility of marriage because they are drawn passionately to different men,
who they think might, paradoxically, help to free them from the limitations of
class and social convention. Lawrence's characters reflect his own feelings of
contemporary society, and the Brangwen women illustrate the tension women
of his day would have experienced.

7.

7
The two central male characters in Women in Love are spirited
individuals who also struggle with their social world, though in very
different ways. Compare and contrast Birkin and Gerald. Why are these
differences significant?
Birkin and Gerald are in many respects mirror opposites of each other. Gerald is
physically commanding, strong and deliberate in his attempt to control the
family business, firmly grounded in his social class, and extremely reticent to
express his feeling. Birkin is sickly and unwell through most of the novel
although his spirit is fiercely independent and unconventional. He has no
interest in pursuits of business or industry, and loathes society. These

differences fuel the passion between the two men, who come to love and
depend upon each other as they repress their mutual sexual attraction.
8.

8
At various moments in the novel, Gerald Crich is extremely impressed
with Gudrun Brangwens spirited behavior. Discuss some key examples,
and explain why Gerald finds Gudrun appealing.
When Gerald and Hermione are boating, they come upon Gudrun sketching
water plants. Hermione asks Gerald to take the boat closer to Gudrun, and
Gerald feels a strong sense of his and Hermione's social superiority. This
evaporates, however, when Hermione drops the sketchbook yet Gudrun remains
proudly unfazed. Her response and refusal to back down to Hermione makes
Gerald second guess the basis of his class-driven arrogance. Likewise, when
Gudrun confidently strides up to Julius Hallidays table at the Pompadour and
takes back Birkins letter, she displays a unique individuality that Gerald desires
yet cannot entirely comprehend. He is enamored with Gudruns spirit in part
because she overturns the social standards that he so often relies upon as a
source of his own power.

9.

9
What is the significance of Rupert Birkins gift of three rings to Ursula
Brangwen?
The ring is the traditional symbol of marriage and union, but Birkins gift to
Ursula illustrates the very non-traditional expectations and attitudes of both
characters. Birkin tells Ursula Rings look wrong on my hands, suggesting that
he is not fit for marriage. And Ursula is afraid to try on the rings, because she
thinks her hands are too large. Her spirit and personality may prove too
independent and great to fit properly into the expected role of a woman in
marriage. Ultimately, though Ursula throws the rings at Birkin in refusal, she
comes to accept them - and Birkin - as the gift and the man are unconventional
enough to suit her. In different ways, the ring gift episode shows the two
characters straining against the conventions of marriage, even as they desire it.

10.

10
Women in Love contains many thoughtful literary allusions, most of
which are made by Birkin. Choose some key examples and discuss the
role they play during important scenes in the novel.
Birkin refers to a poem by Robert Browning when he travels by train to London.
His quotation calls up images of a lost, mythic past while commenting on the

ruin of the present moment. Birkin uses Brownings poem to express his
apocalyptic perspective of modernity. When they visit the junk market and
decide to buy an antique chair, Birkin says it reminds him of something from a
Jane Austen novel. This reference looks back to a moment in Englands past that
Birkin thinks was more vibrant and full of spirit, when the production of crafts
was an art. Near the end of the novel, Birkin refers to William Shakespeare twice
- first to Romeo and Juliet and then to Hamlet. He and Ursula choose to travel to
Verona to act as the star-crossed pair, even though the young lovers of literature
came to a tragic end. This allusion adds a foreshadowing of romance tinged with
despair. As Birkin watches over Gerald's corpse, he thinks of lines in Hamlet:
"Imperial Caesar dead, and turned to clay /Would stop a hole to keep the wind
away." The passage comments on the decay of all physical life, imagining the
body of Julius Caesar being reduced to nothing more than dust or clay to stop up
a hole. Gerald's beauty is gone, and only his body - and Birkin's memory of love
- remains.