Women in Love (Barnes & Noble Classics S - D. H. Lawrence [274]
Chapter V
1 (p. 50) Now Birkin started violently at seeing this genial lookflash on to Gerald’s face, at seeing Gerald approaching him hand outstretched: This scene between Gerald and Birkin, with its frank discussion about love, parallels the opening scene in the novel, where Gudrun and Ursula express similar concerns.
2 (p. 57) “you’d better come round to the flat, and see what you can make of Halliday and his crowd”: With the character Halliday, Lawrence satirizes the real-life composer Philip Heseltine (1894-1930). Better known as Peter Warlock, he was a prominent composer admired for his editions of Elizabethan music. Warlock was originally a great supporter of Lawrence but later became a sworn enemy.
Chapter VI
1 (p. 62) “He’s a soldier, and an explorer, and a Napoleon of industry,” said Birkin, giving Gerald his credentials for Bohemia: Lawrence is cleverly continuing his use of Gerald as a symbol: He has the mark of Cain, and he kills his darker brother. Gerald’s snow-abstraction destructiveness is opposed in this chapter to Birkin’s championing of primitive, more sensual cultures, as symbolized by the African statue. This is one of the central themes of the novel.
2 (p. 66) “I should adore some oysters”: Oysters are a symbol of sexuality Lawrence is establishing Pussum as sensual, linking her with the African sculpture. In other words, she is Gerald’s direct opposite, as well as Gudrun’s and Hermione’s.
3 (p. 72) there were several negro statues, wood-carvings from West Africa, strange and disturbing: A bohemian apartment such as Halliday’s is the appropriate place for these West African statues. Lawrence uses these as a symbol of sensual, instinctive primitive cultures, as opposed to the cold, industrialized, dehumanized culture of Europe.
4 (p. 74) And yet the black looks of her eyes made Gerald feel drowned in some dreadful, potent darkness that almost frightened him: Again Lawrence connects Pussum with the African statue and his assumption of the greater sensuality of darker people.
Chapter VII
1 (p. 75) Totem: As the chapter title suggests, this chapter establishes more fully the African sculpture as a theme and lays out its symbolism. The beauty of what Lawrence accomplishes here is that, in having this and the last chapter set in Halliday’s apartment, Lawrence loses none of the realism of his novel even while he works in abstract symbolism. African art became popular in the early twentieth century, when the French painter Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958) found an African sculpture on a Paris quay. The artists Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-1963) popularized African art; its influence, combined with that of the work of Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), helped lead them to invent Cubism. After them, a whole host of artists got on the African art bandwagon. Philip Heseltine, on whom Lawrence based the Halliday character (see note 2 to chapter V), had several pieces of African art.
Chapter VIII
1 (p. 80) Breadalby was a Georgian house with Corinthian pillars, standing among the softer, greener hills of Derbyshire, not far from Cromford: Breadalby is based on Lady Ottoline Morrell’s Garsington Manor. Lady Morrell (see note 5 to chapter I) was one of the great hostesses and conduits for writers, artists, and intellectuals of the early twentieth century; her Garsington Manor was the setting for many of their gatherings. Lawrence carefully placed this chapter after “Totem,” opposing sensuality against will, order, rational consciousness, coldness, and violence.
2 (p. 80) her brother, a bachelor, and a Liberal member of Parliament: Alexander Roddice is based on Lady Ottoline’s husband, Philip Morrell (1870-1943).