Fresh Breeze In the Old Rectory, da ANDA

FRESH AIR IN THE OLD RECTORY Air...! Please someone open the window. Im suffocating in this stuffy room confined by the tough and humid walls of rules. Who did put these strict bars right in front of me? Who fenced me in to these high walls? I am begging you please someone break these walls. I need a hole, just a tiny hole to let the sunshine in, breathing the fresh air. I need just a tiny hole to start and carve these old gloomy walls patiently without a sound. These are the helpless cries of Yvette. She is the confined character of D. H. Lawrence who could not be placed within the boundaries of society. He was one of the most prominent figures in modernism. As a part of this stream his very place was on the margin. He was born in 11 September 1885 when the time was about producing art in order to annoy people and distract them. He succeeded this very well and he became the most controversial name in his time since he wrote forbidden issues like sex, homosexual relations and going beyond the boundaries. He never felt regret about his style and he reflected his own life into his works successfully. His father was a barely literate miner; however his mother was a former schoolmistress. He experienced the inferiority of men in the house very highly and this left an impact on him. Some of the critics still think that this situation of him paved the way for his unusual novels. Because of his early life he had learnt living as a figure on the margin long ago and he reflected subconscious of men in his works. In his novels, poems and stories he portrayed the hidden psyche of people in the confined society. The Virgin and the Gipsy was one of his well-known novellas in which he portrays the confined society and the suffocated characters in this entrapment. The Virgin and the Gipsy was a product of Lawrences prolific creativity between November 1925 and April 1926, the months which he had spent at the Villa Bernarda at Spotorno, on the Italian Riviera. Lawrences inspiration was a woman who is named Barbara

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and she is the exact sketch of his character Yvette since Barbara was considered the rebel of her family. She had fought against the substitute maternal figure of Weekleys unmarried sister Maude and expelled from school for drawing male nudes in a text book. Considering Lawrences inspiration source Barbra, it is not impossible to imagine our protagonist Yvettes personality. She is the rebel type in the novella and she always yearns for fresh air. The novella begins with a notorious mother figure whose name is Cynthia but our third person narrator mentions her as She-who-was Cynthia. This type of naming her gives us the idea that she must have done something bad in order to deserve to be remembered as an anonymous character. From the very moment we open the book e immediately learn why they call her like this. Her so called guilt is; running with a younger man and leaving her family behind her. Suddenly we begin to think about whether we can blame her for this or not. Sentences are infected by the set of mind of the narrator but we should understand if he is cynical or he really means it. The narrator questions her departure by asking questions such as, Why did she go? Why did she burst away with such an clat of revulsion, like a touch of madness? (The Virgin and the Gipsy, 1) He goes on defining the situation by saying that nobody gave any answer. Only the pious said she was a bad woman. While some of the good women kept silent. They knew. (Virgin, 1) We see here that actually women understand her situation and in their subconscious they think that she is right at all. After the tragedy of she who was Cynthia the narrator gives the definition of the rectory in which Yvette is imprisoned. He describes the rectory as the rectory was a rather ugly stone house down by the river Papple, before you come into the village. Further on, beyond where the road crosses the stream, were the big old stone cotton-mills, once driven by the water. The road curved uphill, into the bleak stone streets of the village. (Virgin, 2) From the description of the house we realize that man-made road crosses the river which is the child of nature. This shows us that the rectory is the place where nature and man-made modernism and rules confront. D.H
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Lawrence presents this house as a prison and accordingly he prepares guardians for the prison. These unbreakable guardians are Granny and aunt Cissie in the novel. Lawrence puts granny figure in the centre of the bleak house as it is suggested in the novel as granny, who was over seventy and whose sight was failing, became the central figure in the house. (Virgin, 2) Old as ages and tough like the stones of the rectory she is the pure representation of tradition. She is the very fence that embodies everybody in the rectory. Lawrence presents her authority in these lines very well. Granny always was there, like some awful idol of old flesh, consuming all the attention. (Virgin, 15) Aunt Cissie is also entrapped in the rectory by her own mother. The narrator tells us about that she still sleeps with her mother and she has never been married to anyone. Aunt Cissie slept with Granny. And she hated it. She said she could never sleep. And she grew greyer and greyer, and the food in the house got worse, and aunt Cissie had to have an operation. (Virgin, 15) She is represented as a bird whose freedom was taken long ago. Good heavens, youd think Aunt Cissie was a perfect bird of paradise. Even though she is represented here as a bird in paradise, the irony is very clear to see. She is jealous of Yvette and she waits for Yvettes one mistake to blame her. This hatred comes from the green-eyed monster called envy. Since Yvette is the rebel type and she is not like her, she cannot stand seeing her. Another captured figure by old granny is the vicar. For Lawrence The rectors feeling was sacred. In his heart was enshrined the pure girl he had wedded and worshipped. (Virgin, 3) She was like a snow flower for the rector. I think the image of snow flower is important in the text since a flower which blooms in winter bears a lot of hardships and it has to overcome all the burdens. So she who was Cynthia is nobody but a woman who tries to survive in a society like this. She becomes the symbol of the source of evil for the rectory. Whenever the girl does a bad thing the granny compares them to their mother and she connects their misbehaviours to their mother.

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Apart from the confined characters there are also characters that represent modern world in those days. For example, Yvettes sister Lucille is the exact representative of modern people who becomes machines and worn out by hard work. She was simply worn out, with black marks under her eyes. (Virgin, 17) She always chooses to stay as the domestic girl who goes to work and entrapped between the two things: house and work. Leo is the other character who has the set of mind of the society. He proves this in a party where he promptly proposes to her. His way of proposing shows us that he sees marriage as a prudent thing which must be occur according to the status and finance. Why dont you and me get engaged, Yvette? I am absolutely sure it is the right thing for us both. (Virgin, 59) When we come to our main character Yvette, we get closer to the theme of confinement and going beyond the boundaries as the subject of this conference. Yvette is the youngest daughter of the rector and she is the hardest one in the house and she rather enjoys being Mary-Mary quite contrary. (Virgin, 64) She is described as a girl whose life belongs to outside. Yvette really ought to have had a good time. She was always out to parties and dances. (Virgin, 11) Despite her socialness she does not like going to church on Sundays and she tries to avoid from the old rectory as it is suggested in the novel. She avoided church duties as much as possible, and got away from the rectory whenever she could. (Virgin, 11) She represents the river in the description of the house whereas the granny represents the old rectory itself. So in a way they are always in a battle and Yvette always yearns for fresh air in the old rectory. Did you open the window, Yvette? I think you might remember there are older people than yourself in the room, she said. It is stifling! It is unbearable! No wonder weve all of us always got colds []not a draught at all Yvette roared. A breath of fresh air. (Virgin, 15) The idea of getting fresh air makes my thesis stronger and she is again portrayed as a nature lover in the quotation which follows She was like the old toad which Yvette had watched, fascinated, as it sat on the ledge of the beehive, immediately in front of
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the little entrance. (Virgin, 20) By this quotation we see how she admires nature and how she cares for every single creature in nature. At this point we see that how this portrayal is similar with Lawrences poem entitled Snake. In that poem too, there is the portrayal of nature as a source of admiration and how the poet persona fails to kill the snake by listening to his civilized part. Like him, Yvette cares for nature and this tendency of her leads her to fall for the gipsy who represents the fresh air for her. They first come across to each other in the forest and by the time she sees the black eyes of the Gipsy She loses her sanity. Yvettes heart gave a jump. The man on the cart was a gipsy, one of the black, loose-bodied, handsome sort. (Virgin, 25) She met his dark eyes for a second, their level search, their insolence, their complete indifference to people like Bob and Leo, and something took fire in her breast. (Virgin, 26) The image of fire is another important thing in the novel in order to weave the theme of going beyond the boundaries. The fire that the gipsy set up in her heart burns up her soul and like the fire which brings immortality in mythology, it burns all the bad things and traditions in her and it creates a perfectly good heart for Yvette. After meeting with the eyes of the gipsy she begins to hate from the rectory more and more and this helplessness suffocates her. It is apparent that she is chocked in here in the quotation. She hated the rectory, and everything it implied. The whole stagnant, sewerage sort of life, where sewerage is never mentioned, but where it seems to smell from the centre to every twolegged inmate, from Granny to servants, was foul. If gipsies had no bathrooms, at least they had no sewerage. There was fresh air. In the rectory there was never fresh air. And in the souls of the people, the air was stale till it stank. (Virgin, 41) Gipsy fires something in her heart and after this she seems to accomplish her desire which she stated in the beginning of the book. I should like to fall violently I love. Even her description of love is on the margin. Love is gentle not violent but we should not forget that she is against all the rules. Every passing day she feels herself miserable and our narrator
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states her misery in these lines. At the first landing she stood as she nearly always did, to gaze through the window that looked to the road and the bridge. Like the Lady of shallot, she seemed always to imagine that someone would come along singing Tirra-Lirra! Or something equally intelligent, by the river. (Virgin, 50) This cry of help will be done very soon but Yvette is not aware of this prophecy, she waits for her turn. Meanwhile the gipsy continues to feed the fire in her by his suggestive looks and attitudes. He looked back into her eyes for a second, with that naked suggestion of desire which acted on her like a spell, and robbed her of her will. (Virgin, 54) He really has power over her and he knows how to use this power. The mysterious fruit of her virginity, her perfect tenderness in the body (Virgin, 65) attracts him most. One of her visits to gipsys place she meets a bohemian couple. The gipsy sets up a fire for them and the conversation among them is very important in the context of the novella. The Jewess says that Dont you love fire? Oh, I love it! (Virgin, 72) The fire in here is also metaphoric since it is symbol of passion and the attraction of doing what is forbidden. When Yvette leaves the place she thanks for the fire by saying that Thank you for the warm fire. (Virgin, 76) This sentence shows us that she thanks him since he warms up her heart and his answer is also ironic. Fire is everybodys (Virgin, 76) We see that as a person of nature gipsy thinks that being loved and love belong to everyone and everybody needs to be free. The bohemian couple in the novella is the very representative of living beyond the boundaries and they encourage Yvette to rebel against the rectory. Somehow it becomes forbidden to see the queer couple for Yvette. Her father takes this as a warning and he and the granny do not want her to step out the fence. Since she goes beyond her limits, her father accuses her to behave like her mother. So we see that Cynthia still lives in their house as a ghost which comes into foreground every time they need a scapegoat for the girls faults. But she does not belong to that rectory and she feels that she belongs to the gipsys camp. This afternoon it was the gipsys camp. And the man in the green jersey made it home to her. Just to be where

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he was. That was to be at home. The caravans, the brats, the other she had been born there. (Virgin, 103) Throughout the end of the novella we see that nature begins to invade the modernist world and the violent water of the river begins to fill the rooms of the old rectory. It is like the power of Yvettes soul. Minute by minute, it comes closer to Yvette. It is like the water of the river wants to embrace Yvette and give the power that she needs. And the saviour of her is her dark man. She heard the scream of the gips, and looked up to see him bounding upon her, his black eyes staring out of his head. (Virgin, 106) When she sees the gipsy coming to save her it is as if the blood is in her soul. She begins to lose her conscious and feel uncontrollable. As the water rise the old rectory begins to fall down. The gipsy tries to warm her with a towel this time but when it is not working they get naked and get in to the bed. Better lie in the bed, he commanded. (Virgin, 111) We do not know exactly what happened in the bed but she moaned warm me! I shall die of shivering. And the gipsy puts his arms around her and with the help of the nature they become one body, one soul. As soon as the flood is over policemen begin to search for a sign for life in the wreckage. With the flood the h-old rector is defeated and the old guardian, the granny dies with the tradition. By the time water is driven back, there is no gipsy but naked Yvette and two blood stained towels in the middle of the room. This blood stained towels are our only hint which explains they have consummated finally. After the disaster, the victory of Yvette is announced since the old rectory is destroyed and granny is dead. There is nothing remind her the confinement which she has experienced up to now. And she has experienced the love she craves for but in the end there is no gipsy. She finds her fresh air with the help of him but now she has to breathe alone. The novella ends up with the letter of the gipsy. Finally we learn his name, Joe Boswell. This shows us that with the destruction of the traditions and the confinement the gipsy also owns a role in the society and he strips of his anonymous character.
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All in all we see that Lawrence creates a well-organized novella in which we witness the theme of confinement closely and the book reflects modern lifes how to dos and what to dos. We see how people are encaged by the traditions, routines and rules which are constructed by society. Nobody is glad with that rules but somehow not everybody is brave to rebel against them. The novella shows us that people are suffocated in this confined old brick houses and forget to appreciate what nature gives us. In the rush of everyday life we only follow our daily routines and we fail to remember that we are the children of mother goddess. Lawrence reminds us that we belong to the cycle of nature and we should not listen to our civilized souls in order to maintain the system.